whew!

I feel so much better now than I did last week! HUGE load off my mind…

I’d been trying and trying all these different topics for my Renaissance/Reformation paper and none of them were working out. The paper isn’t a research paper (that would be easy), but a book review: I have to read five books on a certain topic and then compare what they say and the quality of their research etc. You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to find five books on one topic, it’s ridiculous. I didn’t want to read on anything we’d already learned about in class, nor anything I thought most people would do, so that ruled out things like politics, architecture, painting, and literature. At first I thought I would write on music, since music is a wonderful topic and there’s tons of stuff about it. Well, the ‘tons of stuff’ tends toward the technical and theoretical, which I don’t want to get into, and even a composer called ‘the greatest influence in Renaissance composition’ (Guillaume Dufay) doesn’t get very much attention–I could only find one biography! I can’t understand it. After music was ruled out I had to really scramble to figure something out. I was sitting in the library, at a computer, just searching through my brain and all the library lists to try and find a topic. I tried and failed with other composers, with portraiture, costume, dance, etc. Finally I decided on food. Honestly, I don’t know what took me so long to come up with that topic, and I’m sure you don’t either. 🙂 But I couldn’t find enough books that were just about Renaissance food. I found plenty on medieval and Renaissance together, and some that are about Renaissance food in a roundabout way–like the portrayal of feasting in Renaissance drama, for instance. I was really afraid Prof Dandelet wouldn’t approve these books and would tell me to pick another topic, and I really didn’t want that, not only because I’m soooo sick of trying to think up and find enough books on topics, but also because I really like the subject of food, no one else is doing it, and I can’t see why a professor or a reader wouldn’t want to read about food!

I just went to Prof Dandelet’s office hours, and fortunately he was very enthusiastic about my books and about the topic and said it looked like everything would be fine. He even told me about two other books I might consider. What a relief! I’m so glad! He even told me he looked forward to reading my paper (I knew no one could resist a paper about food) and said, ‘You know, you’ll gain weight reading these.’ To which I pointed out that the bulk of Renaissance cookery seems to be about things like the recipe on the frontispiece of one of my books: ‘Boiled Calf’s Head (without the Skin).’ He had to admit it’s true.

[This post was imported on 4/10/14 from my old blog at satsumabug.livejournal.com.]