Just finished up a reread of E.M. Forster's A Room with a View--what a lovely novel! I loved it just as hard as I did decades ago. A Room with a View is particularly lovely in the way it describes the Honeychurch family--loving, rambunctious, quirky--it reminded me of the reason I loved Tom Lake recently.
It also brought up a lot of memories about how "a room with a view" was my personal shorthand for an office of my own with a window--because as a graduate student and then as an adjunct I always shared an office with colleagues. And my first solo office was a windowless cell. So when I got to my current office, its sliver of a window was a realization of a long-time dream/hope/yearning; the kind comments on yesterday's post reminded me how much I prize it. (Although the view is mostly of a parking lot, the window is street-facing on one of our main academic buildings, and I leverage it to put up signs about issues that matter to me.)
It also felt particularly cute that yesterday I met a student named Lucy--like the protagonist of A Room with a View--in one of my classes. And then yesterday, out of the blue, the only other student I've ever had named Lucy, wrote to say they now live in Lansing and would like to get together for coffee. I also met someone recently whose name is Adela (a very unusual name and a primary character in another Forster novel)... I'm beginning to feel a bit like I'm being given clues and signs I haven't figured out yet.
Pic: Saving this very British picture for when I need a snortle. It's a mock cover of a children's series I devoured when I was a kid. Here are some of the original covers showing the various adventurous things the "Five" would usually be up to (scroll down).
5 comments:
I love these snippets into your life, past and present. It's so interesting how any window, with any view, makes a difference. It really does!
Would you believe I have never read A Room With A View? I am going to rectify that!
The universe is giving you clues - but to what end? This is so interesting and mysterious.
EM Forster...so good. And I'm a sucker for the film because it has Daniel Day-Lewis in it. (All that talk about a loggia!)
When I was teaching in our original school--built in 1830--I was thrilled to have two walls of windows. In the early fall, the wild grapevines would grow up the walls and all the way up to my second floor classroom. I'd have the windows open, and little chipmunks and squirrels would climb up for the grapes and sit on the sills to eat them. Often, during tests when it was silent, they'd actually come inside. We'd get a bird or two as well.
So nice that your former student has looked you up! Isn't that the best? I'm curious as to what all these RWAV coincidences are adding up to.
Nicole--I hope you like RWAV. As Nance just reminded me the film adaptation is superb. It's a Merchant-Ivory show and they always make magic.
Nance--I loved hearing about your classroom windows (and the geraniums on your east-facing kitchen windows--we don't have kitchen windows at all, I wish we did).
Absolutely love hearing from old students--I think as teachers we put so much love out there, and it's nice to know now and then that it made a difference to someone.
My work office doesn't have a window and it's such a bummer. I have to wait until someone retires to get a window office and I don't want anyone to leave! So I guess I will just deal.
I have a wall of windows and a view of the rooftop of the luxury dorm across the mall, plus the mall. It is so fun to watch kids playing pickle ball or just sort of loafing all day in nice weather. Also protests mart h by; I stare at the Aveda beauty school and remember to buy products, etc.
LOL at clues you haven’t figured out yet
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