Dear Reader,
Other than King’s College library, my second favorite place of study in Cambridge University would have to be the Pembroke library. On this particular day the stain glass window shines brightly reflecting off my laptop slightly obscuring my work in progress; my essay on Bloomsbury and English Culture. My fingers tremble across the key board at the excitement of a new idea, or at least only swaying rapidly to what I most desired in that moment, to be done! My practiced fingers and palms move from left to right, hitting, stroking, and yet caressing the keys, I type T, then H and E to spell one of the most common words in the English language. And then I begin to think of those Bloomsbury intellectuals and what they brought to English culture. They called for an alternative to what was then the convention of reality and more so the reality of their misunderstood ideas of human nature in early 20th century. Was it naïve of them to explore human sexuality beyond the confines of their sex, not never imagined, but limited by sexual and gender dualities, and furthermore tolerating the label deviant? Such a limiting idea of sexuality and gender that serves to subordinate others and thus “Othering” the capability of human nature. To reach and touch knowledge itself.
It is unfortunate that only some of us have touch the edges of those unchartered waters. This is not to say that the knowledge you are most comfortable living by is by any means regressive, if anything it is part of the same water closest to the shore where all that is left is smooth wet sand, some of us sinking our feet and yet retreating to dry sand in the anxiety of losing a foot. Why not move into the shallows of the unknown? In all honestly I am afraid of the open sea, if anything the worst would be to find myself on a ship in the open sea fearing whether the boat will keep me afloat until my arrival on land. Fear is in the mind, but the mind also has a curiosity to venture on with fear by its side while questioning the possibility of sinking to one’s death beneath the dark blue. This is perhaps the worst scenario for those frightened by the sea, but what if we do not sink and instead stay afloat on the surface and every so often reaching below to find a lost treasure; a more refined knowledge of the world.
A picture of my study place in Pembroke library
William Blake's Songs of Innocence
Another angle
One of the 26 last remaining copies of Songs of Innocence, hand written and painted by William Blake and his wife. Our professor told us she had a surprise for us, but she would tell us as soon as Dr. Peter Jones, a librarian and Medieval Historian would arrive. Dr. Jones also happens to be my professor for my Bloomsbury and English Culture course. In his hands he had a maroon box and told us that he had something very special to share with us. We all stopped reading William Blake's poems in our readers and he told us that he had an original that we could look at and see if our reading of the original would change our interpretation and understanding of Blake's work. We were all so amazed!
Dr. Jones you are amazing!
King's College Fireworks
A little after 4th of July in the U.S, King's College was celebrating the summer with their own fireworks!
Pembroke Dining Hall Entrance
Best,
Bertii
P.S: "Reader thanks for your support, I only have 3 more weeks and I am done! But no worries I will spend some more time in London and a week in France! So be on the look out"
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