i got into a playground brawl with another girl the other night (she's an anthony spearing fan) of the "my teacher is better than your teacher", "well my teacher's teacher is smarter than yours" sort which was how c.s. lewis came into the picture. when i asked nohrnberg about it yesterday, he named me an earthshattering list of the literary glitterati of the past 40 years that he had studied with, including northrop frye, i.a. richards, marshall mcluhan and robert lowell. i never knew he studied with robert lowell! wonder if i'll ever be able to rattle off a list of names like that, but then, to be able to say i was nohrnberg's student is good enough for me.

while we're name dropping i found out a while ago he's met mieke bal, who, for some reason i've assumed to be a man, but isn't.