Monthly Archives: September 2010

The photo to the left shows my makeshift workspace today as I abandon the overheated loft office of my apartment for the (relatively) cooler dining-room table. I’m taking this day off in my lecture schedule to work on my short story about an alternative, alchemical Venice.

“Imagining Venice” isn’t just a task for our students, you see. Earlier this year, when I signed a contract to write a short YA romance for an upcoming anthology, I decided that I was going to take the opportunity to imagine a Venice of my own and set my story within it. My Venice is one in which the Venetians made alchemical pacts with the elements around them, especially the undine of the lagoon and Adriatic. It’s a Venice in which that pact successfully thwarted the French invasion of 1797 and allowed the republic to retain its independence. It’s a Venice in which, on May 4, 1815, my young heroine is caught in one last, brutal French assault against the city as its alchemical bond with the sea is about to expire….

It’s a Venice I wish had been: a Venice in which Doge Lodovico Manin had been able to rally the resources and military might to block the French and to prevent the fall of the once-great republic. But imagining that Venice has led me to immerse myself even more deeply in this Venice, as the books and maps (and one Italian dictionary) on my dining room table will attest….

I hope our students will find themselves drawn into similar research efforts as they pursue their own creative interpretations of La Serenissima!

In preparation for our course in the spring, Dr. Dru and I need to brush up on our Italian. She needs brushing up; I need to completely remodel my language skills. So to that end, I am going to try something different at Friday Open Studio. We will be painting and learning Italian at the same time. I think we will have about an hour of Italian beginning at 3:30. Before that, I will be available for artistic commentary and watercolor skill building. Open Studio is open to anyone and if you are interested in coming to Venice, you should drop in to learn some of the language. Open Studio is held on Friday afternoons from 2-5 pm in my classroom B1. B1 is located next to the ceramic studio in the building to the west of the Ahmanson Science Center. Open Studio begins September 10th. Ci vediamo li!

While talking to Terry about this class today, I suddenly remembered another manga/anime series besides Hetalia that refers to Venice — Aria, set in the early 24th century on the planet Aqua. In this highly praised series, 15-year-old Akari Mizunashi comes to the watery planet to learn how to become a gondolier in the tourist-ridden city of Neo-Venezia. It’s interesting, given our recent post on the struggle female gondoliers have been facing to be accepted in Venice, that all of her fellow “undines” (as they’re called in the series) are female, as well.

The city of Neo-Venezia was created in honor of the Earth city of Venice, which was destroyed, according to the series, in the 21st century.

The manga has been given high reviews for its quiet, introspective mood and beautiful artwork, and the equally lovely anime is available in English from Right Stuf (see official website). This illustration from the anime shows our heroines standing in Piazza San Marco next to the doge’s palace… but you recognized the setting already from browsing our photos, didn’t you?

Here’s the trailer, for anyone interested!