The Cave Bird

It takes a few days of travelling through the cave to reach the bird's nest. The cave's entrance is at the bottom of the mountain, and requires plenty of swimming from the travellers. Up we go, following the path, diving in mud and sea water. Once we are stepping on dry rocks, we take a break and lie down on our sleeping bags.

The path grows narrow the further up we travel. Sunlight reaches us through windows in the cave, and through them we can see the green fields that cover the face of the mountain.

We finally reach the nest. It's a hole in the wall, right at the end of the cave's trail. We lie beneath the hole and wait with our photo cameras. When the bird flies out, this will be our chance to capture it on camera. The bird will fly down the passage, towards the entrance, then up into the sky.

It's night time and we better rest. Someone collects everyone's cameras and says they'll be safer in the car's boot; we can collect them again in the morning and patiently wait for the bird to emerge.

American Dominatrix

Camille Paglia, Sex, Art, and American Culture, 1992
I have very conflicting feelings and views on Camille Paglia. On the one hand, it's blatantly clear that she's an attention-seeking loose cannon who can fit a thousand feet in her mouth; she spends an awful lot of time slagging off people without providing backing evidence; and she places way too much importance on the 60s counter-culture as well as on her own somewhat inflexible views. This compilation of essays and magazine articles would have never seen the light of day if she hadn't become a household name.

On the other hand, I have a soft spot for people who cause trouble and speak their mind, even if their mind is heading in the complete opposite direction to everyone else's. I agree with her views on the importance of history in education (I was educated in a Liberal Arts college just like her, and one of my tutors also did her PhD under Harold Bloom); and I like how she has no problem hopping from ancient Greece to popular culture in one sentence. She's also a great defender of the arts, in particular music genres like punk, and anything really which falls outside "the mainstream". I think she's spot on when she says that academia is in trouble, with far too many people more concerned with their careers than with actually producing decent research. Raise your hand if you know someone who had their research stolen by their supervisor (I know at least two people here in London.)

No matter what she says or writes about, I'll always be interested in it, even if I may not agree. She's like an Ann Coulter it's OK to like (and I bet she'd give Coulter a good troucing if they ever found themselves on a fighting rink.)