Backstory: Hermia

I’m going by Hermia. Ask Naomi why.

Books, and the subsequent engagement of the mind was my second great love affair (the first was the stage). I'm little and dark (like one of the fairy people), and I learned to flirt from Scarlett O'Hara. The slight Southern accent, puffed up confidence, and overall excitement about life tend to lead people to want to pick me up like a pocket pal instead of listen to me. Screw 'em. I value cleverness above any other attribute, and love laughing (especially at my own jokes). I have a tendency to be directly in the spotlight, and I'm completely happy there. 

I am a fantasy geek, and prefer sword fights and dragons to swooning maidens, love, or other such nonsense. I will read anything once, but I typically tend to stay prior to 1700, academically. There are, of course, exceptions to that: I'm currently into YA, love dystopian lit, magical realism, and I'm the type of person who can pick up Shakespeare for fun. I'm a huge feminist, and much more Madwoman than Angel. Theoretically, I love post-Freudian queer and feminist theory, as well as some Marxism when I'm feeling feisty....

I work for Very Small College, as well. After a short, terrifying, soul sucking hiatus, I'm back in the classroom as an ENGL/COMM instructor. I love the thrill, slight theatrical quality, and watching that dawning moment of realization. Even more than teaching, I love sitting in a room of people and diving deeply into one book, paragraph, sentence, word.

And then I met Naomi… which benefits you, dearest reader, because we are ridiculous together and now you get to enjoy it.

Entr'Acte: Names

When we began brainstorming this blog, and were penning our introductions, one of us outlines how she is tall and blonde and jolly, and the other mentions how she is tiny and dark and bitter as all hell.  Both of us being Shakespeare Geeks, we immediately went here, to A Midsummer Night’s Dream (III.ii.208-12):

So we grew together,

Like to a double cherry, seeming parted,

But yet an union in partition,

Two lovely berries molded on one stem;

So, with two seeming bodies but one heart.

Replace “heart” with “brain,” and you may have an idea what you’re in for.  Hermia liked being “little” and "fierce" so much, she took the name.  Naomi liked her punny name too much to become Helena, even for the sake of parallelism.  She apologizes to everyone's OCD. 

Prologue- Naomi de Plume

Greetings & Salutations, Gentle Readers!

You can call me Naomi de Plume (cue flourish of a feather boa).  I enjoy the life of the mind, and this will not be a blog where you learn how to DO things, like cook.  Or craft.  Or knit.  Because, as much as I adore all those things, I am not the Barefoot Contessa.  Or Martha Stewart.  Or Alice Starmore.  I am Me, and I love books & geekiness best of all.   

So a bit about me: Norwegian genes have made me tall and blonde and curvy, and I like to see that moment when people underestimate me because of my looks… then I open my mouth.   I love the theatre, and soccer, and bad movies, and 80’s hair bands, and wine, and dogs, and fairy tales, and punnistry.  All of these things will appear in future posts: consider yourself warned. 

I have an advanced degree in Shakespeare from Very Distinguished University, and now work as an administrator at Very Small College.  I like my job and my students, but I miss the intellectual rigor of teaching Literature-with-a-capital-L at Very Distinguished University.  So you, Gentle Readers, are my new laboratory.  In a sense, I think blogging is a bit of a narcissistic enterprise, but then again, so is lecturing a classroom.  I always preferred an intellectual free-for-all to a well-structured lecture.  So I would reach heights of intellectual ecstasy hitherto unknown if only you will promise to engage with this blog, rather than passively read it.  (Perhaps, Naomi darling, you should GET readers before you start telling them what to DO.  Just a thought.)

Hermia and I became friends through Very Small College, and it’s been non-stop shenanigans since then.  We don’t have enough time in person to talk about all the books we like, let alone the films and music and speculative fiction and Peter Pan and cocktails and French fries and the general fascination with the abomination that is Life (extra points if you can place that reference).  So now we blog about it.  Because we are too damn amusing to keep ourselves to ourselves.