Thoughts about essays, and fashion meme
I've been reading Harry Potter essays like crazy ever since Half-Blood Prince came out. In my searches, I found this collection of essays by "Elkins" of the Yahoo group "HP for Grownups." Actually they're posts to the group rather than essays. Though I disagree with a lot of what Elkins says, her essays are certainly thought-provoking. This page led me to subscribe to the group so I could read the archives (no time to participate, alas), but it also got me thinking.

I've always loved reading essays in other people's journals but have never been sure how to go about doing them in my own. It seems like all the ones I see are part of some huge ongoing conversation which I've never managed to hook into. It also seems like I never have time to sit down and write them on my own. But then I realized--that's not actually true! I write tons of essays and thoughts, interesting ones (or so I like to think), but they're generally posts to message boards or mailing lists, or else they're part of private email conversations. So I think I'm going to start going through the backlog of stuff I've written in the past, especially stuff that went to closed archives or is otherwise hard to access, and repost them here in hopes that some of you may find them of interest. I have loads of essays on Jane Austen, some Tolkien, probably some random other stuff too; I'll just have to see what I find.

Meanwhile, here's may answer to the fashion meme which I snagged from eldrene and cadiliniel.

Brainy Student 58% Tastefulness, 58% Originality, 42% Deliberateness, 9% Sexiness

[Tasteful Original Random Prissy] Your style is classic but not glamorous. You don't concentrate on clothes an awful lot, preferring to spend your time on more interesting matters. You don't want to look like everyone else and your probably take care to have a unique element or two in your outfits, just to emphasize your personality, but, on the other hand, you don't need too much attention paid to your looks. Believe it or not, fashion says some things about character. You're probably quite an intellectual and somewhat reserved. But your style is not bad. The opposite style from yours is Sex Bomb [Flamboyant Conventional Deliberate Sexy]. All the categories: Fashion Enemy Bar Cruiser Kid Next Door Sex Bomb Hippie Kid Fashion Rebel Fashion Artist Catwalk God(ess) Librarian Sporty Hottie Office Master Uptown Girl/ Boy Brainy Student Movie Star Fashionista Glamorous Soul