Enough with War already!

Sorry for not blogging much this year. School keeps me pretty busy but, I need to...vent is a strong word. Something like that though. I can’t remember if I blogged last semester about how well my classes complimented each other. Anyway, they really did. I found I was constantly forgetting which prof had made which statement because they were often on the same or at least related topics. This semester I’m having the same experience. My classes are French 102, History 102 – The Central and Late Middle Ages, c. 1100-1400, History 112 – Canada after Confederation and North American Studies 202 – Narrative Place and Identity.

So far the two history courses have had really interesting parallels. When we studied the advent of towns in my Medieval Studies class we were studying how Canadians moved from the farm to the city in record numbers around the end of the nineteenth-century. Both of these shifts were cause by revolutions of sorts. In the Medieval period it was the Agricultural Revolution and in the Canadian example it was the Industrial Revolution.

This past week the parallel has been regarding wars. In Medieval Studies on Monday we had a lecture on “Castles and Siege Technology”. On Tuesday in North American Studies we had a guest speaker in talking about “Cultures of Militarization”. In Canadian History this week is all about World War I so I’ve been listening online to firsthand accounts of battles at the Somme, gas attacks at Ypres and Vimy Ridge.

We’re almost midway through the term (already!) so I have papers due and two mid-terms in the next few days (yes, this counts as studying because I had to reference my notes LOL) so being immersed in the horrors of war really isn’t my idea of fun right now. Wait, that sounds bad. What I mean is when I’m already stressed out, studying very stressful situations is that much more difficult. The parallels are interesting though. I’ll give it that. I’m just really, really looking forward to our Valentines lecture in Medieval Studies on “Chivalry and the Art of Courtly Love”. I need some lovin’ in my life!!!