Tender is the Muur

If I were a good graduate student I could say that I have been reading Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night all day. But I am merely a mediocre graduate student and so have only read a small portion of it. This portion, however, was enough to convince me that I really like this book. I had those expectations, having thoroughly enjoyed the other works of his that I know (Gatsby and This Side of Paradise), but now I think I can safely say that Fitzgerald is one of my favorites. Perhaps I should become a Fitzgeraldist. I'm not sure if there are any pure Fitzgeraldists out there. They are probably also Modernists, and that just wont work for me.

This semester I have come to learn that I am an anti-Modernist. Joyce, Stein, Faulkner, and those other high brows have the tendency to make me feel like I am reading something in a foreign language where I am able to understand the vocabulary but not able to discern any real meaning. I should probably love texts enough to give them more time, but I just can't bring myself to do it. I think much of this has to do with the rather large streak of practicalness that runs through me. I have inherited a different form of practicality from each of my parents, a rational/mechanical practicality from my engineer/pilot father and a more relaxed Occam's Razor practicality from my mother the nurse.

I know what some of you are thinking, 'you are a graduate student in literature. You get paid little to no money to study for years and then run the risk of not being able to get a job. There is absolutely nothing practical about that.' But I beg to differ. I also get plenty of free time to ride my bike, hang out with some pretty cool people, travel, and read some really great books (admittedly, I also read a lot of really bad books). And as for the money part, well, I'm practical, remember, I don't need a lot frivolous things in my life.

Which brings me to my main point. Tomorrow is the Ronde Van Vlaanderen. The Tour of Flanders. What I believe is the best one day race of the year. But what about Roubaix? You might be asking. Well, it is no doubt one of the best, and I love watching it every year as well. But it is lacking in the elevation department, and elevation makes races. It's as simple as that.

So tomorrow morning I suggest you get up and watch what happens on the cobbled Muur. You can get it free at cycling.tv. And they have some pretty good announcers too.