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Thursday, March 09, 2006

A Very Random Act of Brontë

I am half-way through my week of trails. There's still the in-class essay and the conference to prepare for. This afternoon I met with several colleagues also presenting at the Classics conference. They were drafting a letter accepting invitations to the conference's luncheon. The three of us are in some way students of English and Classics. We amused ourselves with writing the most grandeloquent prose humanly possible, describing our professors as "most sapient", and beginning with terms such as "Lord Admiral Nelson (Ph.D)," and "*professor's name here*, Duchess of Lambton Tower," and ending with something like "your most obliguing and obedient servants." I think 'conference' was consistently replaced with 'confabulation.' When it came to how I would be mentioned in this letter, the first option proposed was to make me an esquire. But then I explained how ladies can't be esquires...

"Unless you are Shirley, from the novel of the same name by Charlotte Brontë- She is the only one allowed to break this rule!"

And a hush falls, since no one knows what I'm talking about. But it's a start! I just have to keep mentioning it and eventually someone will ask me to explain. I do not remember how they resolved my title. It was troublesome:

"You're not married to a baronet, are you?"

"...Not to my knowledge."

Click here if you do not remember Random Acts of Brontë.

1 comment:

mysticgypsy said...

hehe :P A squire indeed!!! And the surprising thing I found in Shirley was that even Mr. Helstone seemed to regard her as more of a "man" than any other woman. She is sooo cool!! (the ending does puzzle me heaps though :\)

ah! Random Acts of Bronte!! What a fine idea!! I really think more people ought to know about them :) Perhaps I could be more of an influence out of an academic setting ;)