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1. 

   Stephanella

   11 Kudos

   12/23/07

   Hi Rene, I was just browsing old threads, trying to catch up with what has been commented on, and saw your question regarding my PhD. It is a study of the post-modern vampire, that is, the legacy that Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles has provided us with across different fields. It is in fact a cultural studies PhD, where the old and the new are both being analysed in order to give us a better understanding of why we have popular phenomenons such as comic book movies or horror movies. The critical theory at the basis of this is a mixture of Lacanian psychoanalysis (for aspects of a-sexual sexuality) and Foucauldian thought (for the relationship between power and knowledge that regulates the vampire family at large). The first half is both about popular culture and literary inheritances of the Romantic Age, while the second is centred on our perception of horror, as well as on the cyclical evolution of our appreciation of it. I have almost finished, I am one chapter short (representation of the female) and I am hoping that I should be able to submit it in early spring (although, mind you, with a trip to Chicago and one to New York coming up so soon and Xmas in the middle of it as well... we can only pray that I will be fired up by inspiration!!). I particularly loved to write about most recent slasher movies; it was nice to rehabilitate them as something NOT so shallow after all. Sorry it took so long to reply! How about you? Where are you and what do you do?

2. 

   cuckooTom

   127 Kudos

   11/13/07

   Yo, Ronny,
   I am just working on a translation of an article about Stauffenberg and the Fudgeweasel from the Spiegel. I had hoped they would have done translation by now but they haven't. I hope it will be interesting for you.
   Big hugs
   Cuckoo
   
   

3. 

   little cutlet

   102 Kudos

   10/09/07

   I think kumera is just the general term in the antipodes for sweet potatoes. But it differs from country to country, state to state. In sydney, we tend to call white sweet potatoes, 'sweet potatoes' and orange sweet potato 'kumera'. But its not really an everyday vegie in australia, so i think that's why its nomenclature varies so much. best
   
   Original comment »

4. 

   little cutlet

   102 Kudos

   10/07/07

   hey. r.. i'm a big sci fi fan too. Neal stephensen, greg egan,,,
   avatar is a kumera with plastic eyes in a glass . I made it as a gift for a new zealand friend who lives in amsterdam to soothe his homesickness. New zealanders eat kumera everything. kumera chips kumera soup...kumera kumera kumera. I am not a new zealander
   
   Original comment »

   10/09/07

   Reply from Rene Lafayette:

   You got me all curious as to what a "kumera" is. From my reading, it appears to be a sweet potato. Is there anything about a New Zealand kumera that would distinguish it from a North American sweet potato?

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