S. Worthen | Weblog

The papers in "Science and Technology in the Medieval Romance" were unified by discussions of humoral theory, as applied to romantic and non-romantic interactions in medieval romances. Both papers presented close readings of parts of romances in enlightening ways. Hot women are manly women.

I joined S.W. and A-from-London for a bit of superficial, last minute book browsing of the last morning's heavy discounts. Fifty percent off the used book price of the book on the Venetian mint was enough to get me to buy it. Peanut butter and jelly: a comfort food lunch, exotic (and thought unfortunate) in the UK.

And then everyone left. Postered came down. Desks were cleaned. Paperwork processed. Booths shut down. I loitered and talked to Karl the Grouchy Medievalist and others. The weirdest moment was when a woman sat down to join us, introducing herself as the financial manager of two Amsterdam brothels and proceeded to go into further detail on union regulations. I'm not kidding. At least I couldn't understand what she was saying once she switched to Dutch. Eventually I went out to dinner with K.DV and some long-time 'Zoo friends of his at the Olde Peninsula brew pub in town, and an academic press bought us dinner. It was a productive meal.

Trivia from various conference days: For the first time in my entire life, I met another Sha(i)na.* I went to a paper whose problematicness was further confirmed by use of that dreaded phrase "throughout history".

* Not to think less of those of you I've met who have it as a middle name or last name variant, but this is what she is generally called as a first name. It was exciting.