October 27, 2004

Lunch with friends; Conference with Ha Jin

Tuesday: I managed to squeeze some time between teaching and musicology to meet up with Chris and Amy who drove down from Clarkston, Michigan. My mom and I took them to Lotus Thai, a nice restaurant along Saline. We talked movies, the latest games they had the children at church indulge in, LK and work and tennis, Chris's new hobby, astronomy (he's got two huge telescopes; one has a lens eight inches wide - he saw Saturn with that one) and the possibility of my spending Christmas with them.

Wednesday: The program scheduled a few of us to meet with Elwood Reid (ex-MFA student and former Big 10 football player) to discuss manuscripts, but the conference got cancelled unfortunately. Today, I found out we'll be meeting with Ha Jin instead! Ha Jin, wow. Maybe I could speak to him in Mandarin...or not.

Posted by Monoceros at October 27, 2004 9:47 PM
Comments

oh, that is so exciting! have you read his work? i confess i only know him by reputation...

Posted by: shin at October 28, 2004 3:35 AM

wow... i've never heard of him but the Bio link looks amazing. hope you will share with us what he will share with you and your classmates! you are so fortunate to meet so many great thinkers and writers! i'd love to be alice in wonderland and eat up a wee piece of "shrink me" cake and jump into my friends' pockets and peep over the rims and share all their fun experiences! :C)

Posted by: tiggie at October 28, 2004 5:41 AM

ooh Ha Jin! I tried reading one of his novels (can't remember which one now) but for some reason, it didn't appeal to me very much. I didn't even finish the book. I remember thinking that his language was a bit too bare and skeletal for my liking. I'm not sure if all his books are like that. But a friend of mine really likes his writing.

I should attempt to read his works again.

Posted by: dsd at October 28, 2004 8:38 PM

I haven't read all that much of his work. Not really the kind I fancy, but I've been to two readings of his. Will see if he has any golden writerly nuggets to share.

Posted by: monoceros at October 30, 2004 11:00 AM