2001-02 Semester 2 Week 7 Thursday I should have taken my car, Ren thinks. I took the train because I wanted to work on a paper on the way to the conference. Which didn’t happen, because even though he … Continue reading →
2001-02 Semester 2 Week 6 Wednesday ‘I’m just anxious all the time,’ says the student, a stick-thin, unattractive girl whose name is Violet Wells. She’s wringing her hands together as she speaks. Getting her just to come in to … Continue reading →
2001-02 Semester 2 Week 3 Monday Ren has brought a coffee from the cafeteria and is looking for a place to sit when he sees Miles at a table, so he goes over and plonks himself down next to … Continue reading →
2001-02 Semester 1 Week 8 Wednesday For some reason Ren can’t get onto campus in his car today. There are witches’ hats blocking off all the entrances. He finally finds a parking spot off-campus and walks from there to … Continue reading →
2001-02 Semester 1 Week 7 Thursday ‘Let’s sit over there in the far corner away from the students,’ says Miles as he and Ren get their coffees. Ren limps after Miles. The side of his left leg has been … Continue reading →
2001-02 Semester 1 Week 6 Friday ‘Come in,’ says Robot. ‘You asked to see me?’ says Ren. ‘Yes, come in Renford. Take a seat.’ Ren walks over to the chair, disguising the limp in his bruised and battered leg … Continue reading →
2001-02 Semester 1 Week 6 Monday (cont.) The class is ghastly. These are the worst, or at least the most clammed-up, students. Ren probes away at them for a while, hoping to bring some of them out, but has … Continue reading →
2001-02 Semester 1 Week 6 Monday (cont.) A room full of students who won’t talk is the academic equivalent of getting very constipated and consequently having to try desperately hard to force some pooh out. The atmosphere is rather … Continue reading →
2001-02 Semester 1 Week 6 Monday Later he realises that he should have taken a sick day and stayed at home. Doing those classes felt like he was doing open-heart surgery and he was about to collapse at any … Continue reading →
2001-02 Semester 1 Week 5 Sunday It’s Sunday evening, halfway through the first semester of Ren’s second year at Grayvington, and Ren has asked Miles to join him at the pub. ‘Where’s Lucy?’ Miles asks when he arrives. ‘We … Continue reading →
2001-02 Semester 1 Week 5 Thursday (cont.) Ren doesn’t mind spending time with students who are struggling if they’re genuinely interested in learning. Or even if they just want to get a better mark, and are prepared to listen. … Continue reading →
2001-02 Semester 1 Week 5 Thursday ‘Come in,’ says Ren. A young woman enters. Ren recognises her as the student from his Metaphysics class he calls El Whino. She’s the one with the twisted face who always looks moody, … Continue reading →
2000-01 Semester 2 Week 9 Saturday An uneasy feeling gradually comes over Ren as manic dreams flit through his head. He feels like he is unable to lie down. Try as he might, he cannot make his body stretch … Continue reading →
2000-01 Semester 2 Week 9 Friday ‘We’re enemies of the people now,’ says Compton. ‘Enemies of the proletariat,’ says Ren. ‘Didn’t you see the callouses on their hands? Sons of the toil, that lot.’ ‘Whenever they were talking I … Continue reading →
2000-01 Semester 2 Week 9 Friday A feeling of abandon begins, and spreads. Since morning began the celebratory sap has been climbing, and now it’s the afternoon the amrita is starting to bubble up into the brains of the … Continue reading →
