I leave early in the morning to fly to DC for the MLA, a.k.a. the annual meeting of the Modern Language Association, a.k.a. Freak Show. I and many others call it a freak show because of the way the gathering turns everybody into freaks, if only a little bit. It might also well be called Viral Vortex, because all these people—as in more than 10,000—converge in the same place after sucking up family and airplane germs over the holidays. And more than a few people will return home with what is affectionately known as the MLA Plague.
The MLA is so big and so freaky and so germy because this is where people go to interview and get interviewed for jobs in English and other Modern Languages. I think there are plenty of blog accounts of the MLA. Here’s one. But the very best, most hilarious account of MLA interviews, and the one that better captures this freak show business I’m talking about, was done by my pals Spencer Schaffner and Brandy Parris, who, incidentally John and I are meeting for beers later. Check out their Nine Interviews here. If you’ve already seen them, I highly recommend watching it again.
The beauty of this year’s trip to MLA is that I’m only going to give a paper, something one might do at any run-of-the-mill conference. No giving or receiving job interviews, no waiting for jammed elevators to take me to nosebleed suite-level floors to shake hands of germy strangers, er, I mean possible future colleagues. So I’m hoping the negative sides of MLA will be tempered somewhat this time. What’s more, since my panel—on ancient rhetorics and pedagogy—is scheduled for a latish 7:15 tomorrow evening, I am doing MLA in less than 24 hours. And I’m going to see five friends and eat Ethiopean food to boot. Oh how I love ethiopean food. And friends!
Elizabeth, whom I bestfriended in graduate school, and I are planning to run together on Thursday morning, which is tres excellente. Just like old times, except I think I’m slower. But running still boosts the old immune system. Even though I’m hoping to stay freak- and germ-free in my 24-hour MLA stint, I am, let’s face it, by no means immune to either.
