bloopers

Here I am at the conference, and it's been quite amazing. I'm not really up to detailing the happenings at this point, but later I'll write all about them, probably in three parts: the people; the classes; and the consultations. But to tide you all over for the moment, here's a funny story that, if this conference were a movie, would have been included in the gag reel.

All week, my first class of the day has been the Novel with Alexander Chee. It's the class that I feel I've gotten the most out of and the only one that I haven't skipped to do something else. Today, for a reason that never got explained, Chee wrote the word novel vertically on the black board. Then, for equally mysterious reasons, he circled the word. In mid-sentence, he stopped, looked at his handiwork, and said, "Hmm. . . yeah. . ." as he realized that his circle, which was more of an oval, was quite imperfect and. . . well. . . phallic. He turned his back on the class to conceal the fact that he was giggling. But he didn't really fool anyone, and the whole class stifled giggles in a collective attempt at not seeming too immature or low-brow. Chee then turned to face the crowd, said, "I have no idea why I did that," and began one of those laughs that looks like it's going to turn into a cry but never quite makes it. At that, everyone laughed openly.

I wish there were a tag to this story, a little punchline after the punchline to really entertain people that extra mile. But no. That's all there is. It will have to do.

I'm grateful for the thing that happened today that I'm not writing about until one of the more substantial posts on this experience. In case you're wondering, last night I was grateful to have been knocked on my ass by one of the pieces at the student readings (20).