{"id":675,"date":"2015-12-21T15:41:08","date_gmt":"2015-12-21T20:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/?p=675"},"modified":"2015-12-21T15:46:16","modified_gmt":"2015-12-21T20:46:16","slug":"675","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/blog\/2015\/12\/21\/675\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday Missive – December 21, 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Star_Wars_Episode_VII_The_Force_Awakens\"<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Fandom<\/strong> — My wife and son are long-time Star Wars fans, so the debut of the new Star Wars movie was a big deal in our family.\u00a0 We went to a10:45 pm<\/span><\/span> screening of the movie on the very first night it opened.\u00a0 We arrived at the movie theater more than an hour early so that we could get good seats.\u00a0 Initially, I was reluctant to stand in line for so long, but I actually enjoyed the experience.\u00a0 We spent much of the time talking with other people waiting in line.\u00a0 We ran into a former colleague from the university who ended up sitting with with us during the movie.\u00a0 We listened to a brass band stationed outside the theater.\u00a0 The band members were dressed up as Star Wars characters, and they enthusiastically played various Star Wars tunes.\u00a0 What I enjoyed the most, however, was witnessing the high level of excitement among the hundreds of fans eagerly waiting to see the movie.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

For some reason, the unbridled enthusiasm of fans appeals to me.\u00a0 I like their passion for stories, their willingness to immerse themselves in the details of plots and characters’ backstories, and their desire to create a sense of community with other fans.\u00a0 In many ways, fans have much in common with those of us who write literary or film criticism or who teach courses on literature and film.\u00a0 As academics, we tend to be a bit more restrained in our responses to stories, but I suspect that beneath the surface of many a literary critic there is a fan waiting to awaken.<\/p>\n

As every fans knows, there are pleasures that come with sharing stories and participating in communities.\u00a0 These are among the pleasures that I hope all of you are able to enjoy during our much-deserved winter break.\u00a0 May the force be with you.<\/p>\n

Kudos<\/b>\u2014 As you know, I like to use my Monday Missives to share news about recent accomplishments by members of our department.\u00a0 Here is the latest news:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Boyd Davis<\/b> recently learned that her VA Promising Practice Project (Training Community Clergy Partners to Improve Access to Care for Rural Veterans) has just been funded. Her partners include the National Guard and several denominations that are highly popular in the rural South. She’ll be analyzing recordings of initial training sessions and preliminary interactions with Veterans to suggest improvements to the training interaction.\u00a0\u00a0 She also learned that her co-author chapter titled “Sociolinguistics of Aging and Language” will appear in the forthcoming book Cognition, Language and Aging.<\/i><\/p>\n

Lance Phillips<\/b> recently learned that two short poems of his have been accepted by the print journal Fence<\/i>, and a longer poem will be included in the new edition of the online journal\u00a0Apartment<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Upcoming Events and Deadlines<\/b>\u2014\u00a0Here are some dates to keep in mind:<\/p>\n

December 23<\/span><\/span> \u2014 UNC Charlotte closes for winter break.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

January 4<\/span><\/span> \u2014 UNC Charlotte reopens on Monday, January 4<\/span><\/span>.
\nJanuary 11<\/span><\/span> \u2014 The first day of classes for the Spring 2016 semester isJanuary 11<\/span><\/span>.<\/p>\n

Quirky Quiz Question<\/b>\u00a0\u2014 When George Lucas wrote the screenplay for the original Star Wars movie, he was strongly influenced by a book titledA Hero with a Thousand Faces. <\/i>What is the name of the author of this book?<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Last week’s answer: Lady on the Hill<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
\n

Biltmore Estate has long had a nickname among the residents of Asheville.\u00a0 This nickname includes the word “Hill” but it has nothing to do with Senior Associate Dean Bill Hill (although Dr. Hill received his undergraduate degree from nearby Appalachian State University).\u00a0 What is the nickname for Biltmore Estate?<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"\"<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fandom — My wife and son are long-time Star Wars fans, so the debut of the new Star Wars movie was a big deal in our family.\u00a0 We went to a10:45 pm screening of the movie on the very first night it opened.\u00a0 We arrived at the movie theater more than an hour early so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":202,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-monday-missive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/202"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=675"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":680,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675\/revisions\/680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}