Even though I have been studying with the Open University for nearly nine years and have studied quite a number of courses (undergraduate and postgraduate) and have earned a BSc (Hons) along the way, I think that this new course has grabbed at me in a way that none of the others have quite managed. I just have to hope that this enthusiasm continues until the end of May next year when I have to submit my end of course assessment (ECA).
I am working towards a BA (Hons) in Humanities with the History of Science, Technology and Medicine. This course and one more will see me achieve this second degree, and I have already decided what my last course will be. I was involved in writing for my living when I was at work, all factual stuff, some technical and some organisational, so it made sense to take a creative writing course as my final module for this degree.
My present course is the first presentation of the OU's new Arts Foundation Course, and I am thoroughly enjoying the wide range of subject areas that it covers. The first section has been about Cleopatra, and highlighted the different ways in which she has been portrayed over the centuries. In Egyptian art she was the great Queen, to the Romans she was seen as a threat to Rome and responsible for the downfall of Mark Antony, and to Hollywood she has been portrayed as a woman whose beauty attracted both Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, although contemporary art works did not show her to be the beauty that Hollywood depicted.
The second section of the course has been about Christopher Marlowe and his play Doctor Faustus. I have to admit that I knew very little about Marlowe other than that he was a contemporary of Shakespeare, and that he died young in somewhat mysterious circumstances. Additionally, I am not a great fan of Elizabethan theatre, and no matter how good Shakespeare's plays may be I will not be rushing to see any of them. In fact, the only Shakespeare play that I have seen right the way through is the Kenneth Branagh film of Much Ado About Nothing. So it was with some trepidation that I loaded the audio CDs of Doctor Faustus onto my computer, and then transferred them on to my iPod. I read the first part of the study material about Marlowe and then armed with a copy of the A Text of Doctor Faustus, I put in the earphones and sat to listen to Doctor Faustus on my iPod while following the text in the book.
It is amazing how mush easier it made following the blank verse, and iambic pentameter when listening to the actors playing the parts. There can be no doubt about it that it was a far more satisfactory way to follow the play; neither reading it to myself, nor listening to it in isolation, would have allowed me to understand it quite so well. The production was by BBC Radio 3 for the OU, and the actors were excellent, although I couldn't help thinking that one particular voice seemed very familiar to me but I just couldn't place it. Fortunately, the final track on the CD gave details of the actors playing the parts and I was put out of my misery. The voice that I recognized, and that I knew belonged to an actor that had played a significant part in something that I have watched many times, turned out to be that of David Bamber, the actor who played the awful Mr Collins in the BBC's much acclaimed production of Pride and Prejudice.
So now I have finished the second section of my first study book. Notes have been made and I have an appreciation of the Elizabethan play that I did not have before. The next section is about Paul Cezanne, so Art History and Art Appreciation are undoubtedly the areas that this section will cover.
This is a truly wide-ranging multi-disciplinary Arts/Humanities Foundation Course and I am racing through it at an incredible pace. I am already making notes for the first tutor-marked assignment (TMA) which comprises two short essays, each of 500 words. What makes this all the more incredible after the anxious time that I had getting the TMAs and ECA written for my last course, is that this course doesn't officially start until 4 October and the cut-off date for the first assignment to be with my tutor is not until 14 November.
But I know that a really awful period of depression can make studying very difficult for me. Concentration can become impossible and I can read a page countless times and not be able to tell you what it was about. So making sure that I get a good start to this course is very important to me, and I think that the structure of it, with it covering so many different subjects, and so many aspects of those subjects, is more likely to keep me on track than a course that deals with one subject matter from beginning to end.
Studying has kept me sane sometimes during these last 10 years, and have given me something to focus on when everything seemed to be against me. This course has renewed my desire to enhance my education, and my knowledge, and I am sure will ultimately help me to get through some very dark hours.
Showing posts with label Antony and Cleopatra. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Antony and Cleopatra. Show all posts
Monday, 22 September 2008
Sunday, 21 September 2008
Knitting And My New Course Of Study
After sending off the ECA for my OU course yesterday, I couldn't make my mind up whether to start the reading for my new course, or to do a bit of knitting first. In the end, knitting won and I have started knitting a cardigan.
Knitting is one of those old arts that pretty much went out of fashion in the 70s as it became possible to buy machine-made woollens at a reasonable price. I was taught to knit as a very young child (probably at the age of 4 or 5) and for years I knitted clothes for my dolls. When I was 11 I knitted a jumper for myself; I can remember it clearly, it was bright red in colour and had a complicated 4-row pattern to it. What makes this jumper particularly memorable is that I finished knitting it on the day that England won the World Cup. Yes, that does mean that you can work out how old I am, but I don't care because most people don't think that I look my age.
At about the time that I finished knitting that first jumper, many of my cousins from my Dad's side of the family started to have babies. Dad was the youngest of six children, and was 30 by the time that I was born, so my cousins were all a fair bit older than me. So my Mum and I seemed to spend all our time knitting baby clothes for the innumerable additions to the family. I think that I knitted something for all these new additions, but the outfit that meant the most to me was the one that I knitted for the baby who I was asked to be Godmother to. I was 13 at the time, and she was eventually born on Cup Final day.
I think that it was that summer that I was taught how to crochet, and a series of crocheted blankets were made of squares produced from the remnants of wool left from all the baby clothes that we had been making and from the numerous items that the female members of my mother's family had knitted over the years. Knitters never throw away the scraps that are left because you never know when you may need a bit of wool to sew on a button or repair an unravelling seam.
I've continued to knit and crochet all these years, and the things that I have made have been many. I've crocheted two evening dresses (they were all the fashion in the 70s and 80s) and I crocheted a christening dress for my second Goddaughter. I've knitted jumpers and cardigans for myself, jumpers for my husband (I've always hated knitting things for men because they seem to take forever), jumpers with pictures on for my second Goddaughter and my Godson when they were small (they are both in their 20s now), and recently I have knitted a number of lace shawls and made a couple of afghans, one knitted and one crocheted. Last year, while I was in Canada I made a crocheted baby's afghan with lots of teddies on it; in fact it is the one that is pictured on my blog.
Knitting has made a bit of a comeback over recent years, after many years when it had become a forgotten craft. Much of the revival is due to a number of young designers who have decided to work with wool and have come up with innovative designs and the wool manufacturers have brought out many new yarns for these items. And incredible as it may seem, a number of Hollywood actresses started to knit when they were on the set of films, and where celebrities lead, others are sure to follow.
My cardigan now has a couple inches of its back completed; it's not growing very quickly, but it has a cable pattern to it so I shouldn't be surprised as it requires me to keep an eye on what I am doing, although I have made one mistake so far but I spotted that almost immediately so it wasn't too much of a problem.
I have also started work on my new course. I have almost finished reading the first chapter of the course book, I have watched the relevant video, and I may be in a position to write part of my first TMA for the course tomorrow. The first TMA has two questions, the first of which relates to this first chapter. If I write the essays as I work my way thorough the relevant material I shouldn't be left in the situation that I was with my last course, having to struggle to find the enthusiasm to get the work done. Five hundred words on Plutarch's view of the relationship between Antony and Cleopatra shouldn't be too difficult, should it?
Knitting is one of those old arts that pretty much went out of fashion in the 70s as it became possible to buy machine-made woollens at a reasonable price. I was taught to knit as a very young child (probably at the age of 4 or 5) and for years I knitted clothes for my dolls. When I was 11 I knitted a jumper for myself; I can remember it clearly, it was bright red in colour and had a complicated 4-row pattern to it. What makes this jumper particularly memorable is that I finished knitting it on the day that England won the World Cup. Yes, that does mean that you can work out how old I am, but I don't care because most people don't think that I look my age.
At about the time that I finished knitting that first jumper, many of my cousins from my Dad's side of the family started to have babies. Dad was the youngest of six children, and was 30 by the time that I was born, so my cousins were all a fair bit older than me. So my Mum and I seemed to spend all our time knitting baby clothes for the innumerable additions to the family. I think that I knitted something for all these new additions, but the outfit that meant the most to me was the one that I knitted for the baby who I was asked to be Godmother to. I was 13 at the time, and she was eventually born on Cup Final day.
I think that it was that summer that I was taught how to crochet, and a series of crocheted blankets were made of squares produced from the remnants of wool left from all the baby clothes that we had been making and from the numerous items that the female members of my mother's family had knitted over the years. Knitters never throw away the scraps that are left because you never know when you may need a bit of wool to sew on a button or repair an unravelling seam.
I've continued to knit and crochet all these years, and the things that I have made have been many. I've crocheted two evening dresses (they were all the fashion in the 70s and 80s) and I crocheted a christening dress for my second Goddaughter. I've knitted jumpers and cardigans for myself, jumpers for my husband (I've always hated knitting things for men because they seem to take forever), jumpers with pictures on for my second Goddaughter and my Godson when they were small (they are both in their 20s now), and recently I have knitted a number of lace shawls and made a couple of afghans, one knitted and one crocheted. Last year, while I was in Canada I made a crocheted baby's afghan with lots of teddies on it; in fact it is the one that is pictured on my blog.
Knitting has made a bit of a comeback over recent years, after many years when it had become a forgotten craft. Much of the revival is due to a number of young designers who have decided to work with wool and have come up with innovative designs and the wool manufacturers have brought out many new yarns for these items. And incredible as it may seem, a number of Hollywood actresses started to knit when they were on the set of films, and where celebrities lead, others are sure to follow.
My cardigan now has a couple inches of its back completed; it's not growing very quickly, but it has a cable pattern to it so I shouldn't be surprised as it requires me to keep an eye on what I am doing, although I have made one mistake so far but I spotted that almost immediately so it wasn't too much of a problem.
I have also started work on my new course. I have almost finished reading the first chapter of the course book, I have watched the relevant video, and I may be in a position to write part of my first TMA for the course tomorrow. The first TMA has two questions, the first of which relates to this first chapter. If I write the essays as I work my way thorough the relevant material I shouldn't be left in the situation that I was with my last course, having to struggle to find the enthusiasm to get the work done. Five hundred words on Plutarch's view of the relationship between Antony and Cleopatra shouldn't be too difficult, should it?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)