(no subject)
Cut for people who don't want to read my stupid rambling.......
Today while on the train journey back to the beloved Old Town, I met an awesome person. I was expecting a fairly quiet trip armed with my Abelard: A Medieval Life to stave off boredom. After having gone over a few pages and made some notes I kept noticing that this lady who was sat next to me was reading it as well (I didn't mind, though I was wondering what manner of passenger would be interested to read about (as this particular chapter put it) the scholastic method and non-experimental science in the middle ages). I got my answer when she asked me if I was a student and we got to chatting.
Turns out this lady was a PhD student at Keele University studying American Gothic Literature more specifically Edgar Allen Poe, she was returning from the Edinburgh Festival (for which I was a little jealous). I asked her about her work and what her PhD was specifically on and she told me about it at length and then profusely apologized for probably boring me but I thought it sounded like very interesting stuff and I told her that while I haven't read much Poe I am a fan of the genre. Her response to this was...
*smirk* "I bet you are a Lovecraft fan."
I paused for a second and remembered that I actually had two of Lovecraft's collections in my bag. I couldn't deny that she had me pegged.
Apparently we are common, or at least she thought. Too many Lovecraft fans not enough Poe fans she told me.
Anyway long story short we had a tremendously long chat about her degree(s) and mine, horror, science fiction, medieval studies and she gave me a brief about what I can expect from Universities when you are attempting to study humanities at post-graduate level. I was glad for the company it made the trip far more interesting than I was expecting.
So thank you American Literature PhD Lady.
Connor