Lisa Tilson

Technology, my weakest link.
I recorded the podcast, edited it, felt somewhat dismayed at the imperfection of the whole thing, but decided to publish it anyway. Then it didn’t publish. I have decided to bide my time and continue to work with it until I have attained a sufficient level of knowledge to work the technical part. Yup, there is no point in rushing things, the technical learning curve was greater than expected, I am willing to live with that.
So, here I blog.
This week I found the Margaret Atwood Society online, and thought how amazing it must be for her, a writer who continues to not only live, but write, to have her own society of people actively analyzing her works. I decided that since I have become rather taken by Margaret Atwood’s wit and slightly tongue-in-cheek style of writing, that I would join the Society so that I too could contribute. It turns out that they are looking for papers on The Penelopiad, which I just happened to have in audio format. What an opportunity! I plugged in, grabbed my knitting and started listening.
I wasn’t entirely sure that I liked the book at first, which was partly due to my unfamiliarity with the reader, but also that it wasn’t written in the same contemporary style as the handmaids tale and the edible woman. Then, as I got into it, I began to see subtle inklings of her wit and modernity and I quite liked it. So, I am going to pick up the text from the library and try my hand at a scholarly paper.
I equate the word scholarly with university educated, a concept I continue to struggle with. I question whether university is the only way to educate, being that I don’t feel that my university education gave me the depth of knowledge that I assumed it would. Though I believe this is partly because of my majoring in French Literature, I don’t feel that my writing skills are even close to good enough to begin a master’s level education (or even good enough to merit the grades I earned with them). I find myself at a loss in textual analysis, grammar and spelling. I enjoy creative writing, but I know that knowledge in these aforementioned areas is essential to produce engaging work. I would really like to be a writer as prolific as Margaret Atwood, but is it possible to do so with an incomplete university education, and one in French to boot? I guess we’ll find out!
Honestly, I don’t believe that technology is my only weak link. I believe that I need more practice with the microphone, I need to spend more time on what I write, and work on the depth of my ideas. Perhaps weak chain is better than no chain at this infantile point in my career? I am excited to press on!