Love as the Practice of Freedom? : or Phyllida Goes to Princeton
January 1, 1970
Back in February I wrote in an entry called "Unitasking that I had been busy working on my second novel but was now able to blog again. Then I posted nothing for a month. What up?As it turns out, the conference I was so hoping was happening but wasn't sure, really is happening. Love as the Practice of Freedom? : Romance Fiction and American Culture is scheduled for April 23 and 24 at Princeton University. Looking at the roster of authors and scholars who will be there I am still in awe at my inclusion, and filled with gratitude. Here's the link:
http://www.princeton.edu/prcw/
The conference is free and open to the public, but you do need to register.
Of course, not everyone invited was able to come, and the panels have been reconfigured. I was originally on the panel called "The Sweetest Taboos: Romance and Sexuality," but am now on "Memory and Desire: Romance, History, and Literary Tradition." I still have the same 15 minutes to speak in this crowded schedule, and really have only one topic: how and why Phyllida follows the traditional format of the Regency romance novel while introducing perhaps the most taboo subject of all: female desire for--and attainment of--the forbidden.
Before I knew the conference was on track, I had been planning to post comments on things that had been on my mind while writing my novel, like Jane Austen's heroines' desperate need, clearly a reflection of their brilliant creator's situation, for men who are capable of carrying on an intelligent conversation. But now I have to work on my 15 minutes of fame. As most of you know, the shorter something is, the harder it is to write. So in my unitasking way, I'll be back in my cave, laboring over my little speech, forced out at intervals to catalog the odd book or e-journal.