Chicago Trek: Day One

• My plane arrived early at O'Hare.  I'm not sure how this could have happened, as the words "early arrival" and "O'Hare" generally occur in the same sentence only in the aftermath of some great intergalactic upheaval. 
• Some books are now winging their way from Powell's to an--ahem--undisclosed location in western NY. *whistles innocently*
• The University of Chicago English department has certainly enjoyed an interior decorating upgrade since I last saw it (it's in an entirely different building, to begin with). 
• The temperature must have been at least seventy today.  Alas, it will not be at least seventy tomorrow.
• I was startled to see a Borders on 53rd Street; there had been a chain store in the same area when I first started at the U of C in 1992, but it died a slow and painful death, thanks to location and competition.  (The chain video store that replaced it looks like it's still there, but it also appears to have de-chained.) Except for the theological bookstore on 55th (is that still there?), the other  bookstores in the area are all on 57th & 58th streets.  
• Speaking of bookstores, Scott has convinced me that I should read Watchmen, although I've never been into graphic novels or even superhero comics--the alternate history angle sounds like it should be in my line, though. 
• Tomorrow, Real Work begins.  In some ways, I'm most interested in the pamphlet I want to photocopy, because it's a Victorian critique of religious fiction.  Victorians of all religious stripes were often antagonistic to such texts, even when they were on the "right" side, thanks to what they perceived as oversimplified or problematic theology...among other things.  (For many writers, "religious fiction" was a contradiction in terms--fiction by its very nature was "worldly."  Newman takes that line somewhere...)

Comments

[Anastasia]

I think I must be a victorian when it comes to religious fiction. :)

[Josh]

Have you tried Moore before, Miriam? Seems to me that a long elaborate story with a Victorian setting, such as From Hell, might pique your interest; ditto The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (of which there are now three volumes). Don't be discouraged by the fact that the titles of both have been used for bad movies.

[Meg, former UofC-er]

The theological bookstore went out of business in 2005, I think.

I've actually heard that the Borders has in no way hurt the non-chain Hyde Park bookstores. If anything, the chain has lost money. And where they are actually making gains is by addressing previously unmet needs through magazine sales and books targeting the neighborhood's African American population that Powell's and the Sem Co-op simply aren't carrying.

And isn't the English department nice now? Though I think it felt so much warmer in Gates-Blake. Now somehow it gives the sense that the English profs, rather than being cozy, are cozying up too well with the admin.

[Miriam]

Meg,

Yeah, I was expecting that the various 57th/58th street stores would kill the Borders (which is what happened to the last store), and not vice-versa.

[Jake]

Speaking of bookstores, Scott has convinced me that I should read Watchmen...

My verdict: overrated. To me, Lost Girls is a far more unusual and subversive book. If you want alternate history (or, in this case, alternate fictional history) try that.

Hope your visit goes well.