Back at LSE & first biography class of the new year

First early departure from home for a while - always something of a shock to the system. On the way to London I listened to an episode of "In our time" which I have successfully managed to transfer to the ipod. The chosen episode was on Dante's Inferno and was very interesting. Though I have downloaded a huge number of these radio shows, I have not really found a way to build them into my daily life. The ipod transfer is my latest attempt and this went very well. So now I know a little about Dante, enough to think that I would certainly like to find out more. So often the way, a quick mention of something new sends me off into detailed reading - there is always so much more to study, so little time . . .

At LSE I exchange 7 library books for some of the long list of books that I have drawn up over the past few weeks. As usual, several books aren't in the place they should be (but are supposedly available), then some turn out not to be as promising as I thought, some are just wjat I wanted, and I spot one or two other things as I am looking. Particularly interesting finds today are Lisa Jardine's book on Erasmus, Schumaker's Occult Sciences in the Renaissance, and Wilson's Epicureanism at the origins of Modernity (far too expensive to buy when I just want to read two chapters).

John was covering Galileo and the Church this week - one of the talks that I missed last year. I have handed in my Kepler and astrology piece for him to have a look at. In the end I was only partially happy with this. It covers some pre-Kepler astrology in a rather sketchy manner and doesn't always make clear how I am bringing these older sources into my consideration of Kepler's own writings on astrology. It was too much of a work-in-progress. But it does have some interesting references (many of which I am sure that John won't have come across before)

I walked back to Marble Arch from LSE through Soho and Chinatown. I was struck again by how many really gorgeous Chinese girls there are out and about. When I lived in London in the 1980s you rearely saw many (even in Chinatown). Is this a cultural change that they are far more visible, or do I just notice them more now?

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Exactly the sort of thing I have in mind

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Into Oxford this evening for the first biography class of the new term (last week's being cancelled due to the weather). I continue to find these very thought provoking. Tonight we were looking at obituary writing and some examples of short, snap-shot biographies. Homework is to write an obituary - I have selected Kate McGarrigle as my subject.