Jamesian Adventures

Little did I know that Henry James himself was going to be at the Henry James conference in Montreal. And then there was Henry's twin brother, Robert. These were not ghosts, but real James descendents--the great-grandsons of William James. One woman I met told me that Henry came up and introduced himself to her: "Hi, I'm Henry James." "Yeah, right," she replied, "and I'm Alice." Needless to say she was mortified later.

The James twins were just one of the fascinating things about the James conference. I've never been to such a stimulating conference before. Part of its success, I think lies in the fact that the papers were carefully selected. But another reason for the success lay in the format of the room in which the conference was held. All of us (between 25 and 30, I guess) were seated around a large table. It was kind of like the UN: each of us had our own little microphone. We could hear each other without microphones since the table wasn't that large. But this way we didn't have to yell. It also eliminated the hierarchical nature of conference responses by shifting the organization of the room. No one was really outside the circle (unless they chose to be) and everyone really had an equal opportunity to speak--graduate students and seasoned faculty alike. And the people were just really really smart. I guess you can have all the UN microphones in the world but it really comes down to this last thing: people gotta be smart.

Okay, now some shameless self-promotion: my paper was very well-received and I got two offers to publish it. So not only did I get to spend time in one of my favourite Canadian cities with smart fabulous people, I also got a much needed ego boost. Here's hoping the academic year ends on a high note and my chapter also gets completed before I leave New Jersey for the fine climes of Winnipeg and thereafter Sudbury at the end of next week.