Animals in America Course

Today I went to the first of a short series of classes being given by a guest professor, Paula Lee. Since she came late in the semester, the class was scheduled for Fridays from 1-4, killer for weekend plans and bad for the highest, warmest room in the building. I have to admit, I had some major doubts. Three hours? Yeah right.

However, I was completely blown away. The woman is brilliant. I immensely enjoyed every minute and every thought. We went from the characteristics we learn to identify with different animals (lions are courageous), to the marginalization of man from animal, to display of wealth through animals that don't need to be eaten, modern-day pets, animals too big to be pets being mass-produced to support post-industrial habits, etc. It is no wonder that she's working for Harvard. And I thought Scott would like to hear that she studied in Chicago. During class, I was typing a million miles an hour and processing every thought because she led to each higher conclusion quite nicely and with good examples--a perfect combination of literary theory, application to art, and real-life stories. I realized that if I had simply typed every word she said, I would have had a well-organized essay. I wish every professor could have such good ideas and talk about them so engagingly. I wish I could do that. Some day.

Here's some info about her at the Leipzig American Studies page.