| 013. We're all going to die, we're all going to die |
[8:56pm, March 1st] |
( Private )
I can hardly believe it's already March. I wish February would have elected to stick around just a bit longer, but then, February has always been rather brief and flighty. Right temperamental, February.
Here's hoping March Madness doesn't settle in. There's enough of that going around as it is.
Have any of you read St. Augustine's City of God? I've been wanting to read it, since I just finished Confessions, but I also hear it's a very difficult read. I had wanted to see if people who read it, as a general rule, had wished that they'd researched anything before they read it. I mean, before I read Confessions, I read a few biographies, and that was very helpful. I especially enjoyed the books I read about his psychology, which were, I thought, fascinating. Not as much so as the book about Vergil's influences on his work, but certainly fascinating.
...which is, I'm sure, of paramount interest to all of you.
- Remus J. Lupin
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| 012. No More Curses You Can't Undo Left By Fathers You Never Knew... |
[4:38am, January 26th] |
( Private )
( Marauders )
Christmas holidays ended far too soon. Would anyone like to recommend a good English Romantic or Gothic novel? I just finished reading Carmilla and found that I would rather like to read something else from that genre.
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| 011. I See the Bad Moon Rising |
[2:04am, November 6th] |
( Private to the Gryffindor Four )
Now that Halloween is past and November is here, and with it has come the cold weather (as well as the destructive bonfires), I thought it might finally be appropriate to pull out a proper wintery poem. It's one of my favorites, "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening," by Robert Frost.
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
Remember Remember the Fifth of November,
Remus J. Lupin
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| 010. Has The World Changed, Or Have I?
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[2:03am, October 11th] |
( Private )
It's rather too quiet in the Gryffindor dorms lately, which is something I never believed that I would say. It certainly isn't that I mind the quiet, because God knows that I don't. I am perfectly capable of enjoying long moments of silence, and I have been known to seek them out, but this is an eerie sort of silence in which one cannot help but wait for the other shoe to drop, so to speak. The nature of a Gryffindor dormitory is not to be quiet, but to be loud, boisterous and irritating, and when it is otherwise, it is incredibly unsettling for all those around to experience it. Though I would hate to encourage my dormmates to amend the situation.
The general quiet environment, however, which has extended to the common room in a far less severe fashion, has been very conducive to reading. I have been rifling through a few books I had meant to read a long time ago and am just now getting to, since I decided to abandon the Satyricon until further notice. Honestly, Rabelais, whose works I settled on isn't all that much better, but it seems like it has been a long time since I've read any French literature. The Abbey described in chapter 52 of Gargantua is quite an unusual and interesting phenomenon, though. Rather comical, which was Rabelais's intent, I'm sure, but sort of an interesting concept. It's a little microcosm of the community without walls, without clocks, without the typical restrictions that an Abbey imposes, so it's very, very little like an Abbey. It begs the question, is there something inherently spiritual about a spiritual place, or do the rules and restrictions set in place by an organized religion make something more or less spiritually connected? Do these monks and nuns who live in the Abbey constructed by Gargantua feel any less connected to a higher power because they are allowed to marry and to come and go as they please, or are they, perhaps, more connected, as they come of their own volition?
Who knows?
Salvete Omnes,
Remus J. Lupin
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| 009. Medieval Latin is Bothersome |
[2:02am, September 22nd] |
Reading the letters of Abelard and Heloise in the original language seemed like such a good idea when I started, but the more I read, the more I feel like I've forgotten all the Latin I know. Medieval Latin is immensely confusing. All of the grammar rules are different from the rules of Classical Latin, and the vocabulary is often very different, too. It begs the question, if scholars in the middle ages wanted to use Latin so badly, why didn't they just use existing grammatical structures and concepts instead of making up their own? It's almost infuriating.
I suppose I'll probably give in and crack open a good English translation. If anyone is particularly keen on reading a collection of really excellent old letters, I would have to strongly recommend them. Many consider them the real life Romeo and Juliet of their generation, though their story and its outcome are more than a little bit different. That, and Romeo and Juliet never contained an excellent French philosopher or his well-educated student, with whom he falls madly in love in spite of her uncle's protestations and attempts to separate them. In any case, it has been an interesting change from my usual fare, but I have been attempting to avoid Pride and- branch out about in the sort of things I choose to read.
Either way, I may have to put that reading on hold for a bit in favor of schoolwork. I can't remember the last time I had this much unfinished Potions homework, and I am not looking forward to amending the situation. It could always be worse, though. Somehow.
Yours,
Remus J. Lupin
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| 008. A Dream Is Not By Any Means And Certainly Will Never Be A Wish Your Heart Makes |
[2:00am, August 16th] |
( Private )
There is this very interesting American author called Kurt Vonnegut whose work I have just recently picked up on. I found a copy of a book called Slaughterhouse Five when I was last at the library, and despite the fact that it was only published about 7 years ago, which is usually not really long ago enough for me to give it proper consideration, as it has not truly withstood the test of time, I picked it up based on a personal recommendation. The first part had some very interesting personal thoughts regarding the bombing of Dresden, which was an event in muggle history that has truly not been discussed to the full extent which the author seems to feel that it should be. He seems to believe that the destruction was more terrible and more extensive than the bombing of Hiroshima, and that few people really realize this. I have yet to finish the book or discover what he bases these opinions on, but I am thinking about picking up another book on the subject. I feel rather uninformed about the subject.
Oh, and apparently, some band Sirius likes reads Tolkien. Led Zeppelin, I think it was. How peculiar.
I hope all of you are doing well, and I anticipate seeing you when school is back in session.
Sincerely,
Remus Lupin
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| 007. I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends |
[1:59am, July 29th] |
[Friends]
Sirius O. Black, if you had anything to do with the spontaneous disappearance of Emma, I am afraid that you are a dead man. It was in my suitcase on top of a stack of rolled socks and a scarf this morning, and now it is gone, and one of my socks was on top of the fan for some reason. I suspect foul play.
James, if you were responsible, the situation will have to be dealt with later, as I am a guest in your home, and killing you under the circumstances would be very unseemly indeed. Also, in the event of your death, I'm quite certain your mother would stop baking those chocolate chip cookies that I love so well, and that would be truly tragic.
- Remus J. Lupin.
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| 006. Letters I've Written Never Meaning to Send |
[1:58am, July 9th] |
( Private - Or As Private as Standardized Test Scores Ever Are* )
[Private Note to Sirius]
I passed Potions. I got an E in Potions. I passed, and I did well enough that I can take it next year. Which isn't to say that I really ever want to take another Potions class ever again, but which is to say that I will anyway because I can't really think of anyone who needs to quite as much as I do. Except, perhaps, for apothecary workers and Potions masters.
In any case, thank you so much. I have no idea how you did it, but it seems that I will live to melt a new and exciting generation of cauldrons on the NEWT level.
How are you?
[/Private]
And now for something completely different that I recently came across reading Dumas biographies.
"True, I have raped history, but it has produced some beautiful offspring."
-Alexandre Dumas
Have everyone's OWL scores come in yet?
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* Meaning, of course, that rooms full of strangers will have access to them and undoubtedly use them to exact your soul, put it under a microscope, chew it up, spit it out, and determine your value as a human being based on the way you answered a number of multiple-guess questions on a page.
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| 005. Tread Softly, for You Tread Upon My Dreams |
[1:57am, June 26th] |
( Private )
Since I have gotten home, I'm afraid I have developed into something of an insomniac. It's rather unfortunate, since the very things I use to coax myself to sleep have been keeping me up: namely, books and hot chocolate. As it happens, our cocoa has caffeine in it, which is one of life's lesser tragedies, and has been making it more difficult to sleep rather than less. Regarding the former, I just have a lot of trouble putting one down when I am in the middle of something exciting or interesting, and that seems like most of the time. I have finished a few already, and the library is ordering a few of the books I requested, which is very nice of them. It seemed strange to me that their collection was missing Tess of the D’Urbervilles anyway.
Otherwise, mum has been on something of a mad baking frenzy lately which has caused nothing but general unrest in the Lupin household. Mum is a decent baker, really, she is, but the sheer mass of baked goods in our home makes me suspicious that she may be planning some sort of tea party/covert operation involving trays and trays of low-sugar lemon bars. It's a matter of some concern.
How is everyone else fairing?
Let me know.
Curiously Yours,
Remus J. Lupin
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| 004. I'm so tired, I wish I was the moon tonight |
[1:56am, May 14th] |
( Private )
( Sirius )
If anyone took good notes today, I would really appreciate it if he or she would lend them to me. I was ill today and I couldn't come to class, so I am rather behind. If anyone could let me know what the homework was, I would also be grateful.
Remus J. Lupin
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| 003. I'm Just A Poor Boy, I Need No Sympathy |
[1:54am, April 30th] |
As I am sure everyone knows by now, it is nearly the end of the year, and, accordingly, time to study for OWL's. I have been doing my best to go about the studying process, but as it turns out, there are greater forces at work that truly do not want me to study, making studying at least an imposition, and at most impossible.
As it happens, one such force is Queen. Or, more accurately, someone in the Gryffindor boy's fifth year dormitory (let us call this unnamed individual Shmirius Shmack, in the name of scientific exploration) has been playing QUEEN records at some ungodly frequency constantly for the last several days. Freddie Mercury would be appalled that his music is being used for evil instead of good. If I hear bits of You're My Best Friend mentally splice itself into a Potions text I'm reading, or else, someone singing along to Somebody to Love again, my head may implode, and that would be very unfortunate. If I were gone, who would be around to roll your socks and make pastrami sandwiches?
A point to consider,
Remus J. Lupin
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| 002. Just What The Truth Is I Can't Say Anymore |
[1:53am, April 26th] |
Austen. Jane Austen.
Jane Austen (16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist whose works include "Pride and Prejudice," "Sense and Sensibility", "Persuasion" and "Emma." She is famous principally for her refinement of the English novel. In her works, she mirrored society: manners, customs, and beliefs. She worked magic with the commonplace, seemingly subtle, realities of life. Her biting social commentary and masterful use of both free indirect discourse and irony eventually made Austen one of the most influential and honored novelists in English Literature.
And people assume muggleborns need educating.
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| 001. You Say You Want A Revolution, Well, You Know, We All Want to Change the World |
[1:52am, April 11th] |
| [ |
music |
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The Beatles - Revolution |
] |
( Hexed Private )
Those posters someone has posted about are very interesting. The content as well as the composition, which strikes a cord similar to that of the work of Ellsworth Kelly. Just a thought, you know. I sort of wonder who posted them, but I suppose that probably doesn't much matter, as the idea remains the same, regardless.
On an unrelated note, if anyone has come across a somewhat ratty green wool sweater with R. J. Lupin written on the inside collar in black laundry pen, I would greatly appreciate its safe return. I am perfectly content, by the way, to assume that there was some sort of mistake in the wash resulting in its current status as lost, even though I don't remember asking to have it washed, as even magical washing tends to shrink the wool, and I was relatively certain that it was folded up in my trunk. Stranger things have happened. In any case, I would really like to have it back, as it's right drafty around here even in fairest weather, and that happens to be my favorite sweater. Thank you.
- Remus J. Lupin
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