Sincerely, L. Cohen

      In the process that is my life right now-- applying for lectureships and such-- I've been teasing through designs for Lord-only-knows how many courses, and a new application has me ruminating on what to do with a senior-level half-year seminar, topic open. Now, considering that this particular application would be for a Canuckistani university, I'm debating offering to teach for said seminar a course on (you guessed it) Leonard Cohen, the twelve-to-thirteen week time frame of a half-course being pretty much ideal for covering his career in its entirety. As most of my primary readers here are university-condemned (and contemned, if you're a York inconvenience, er, student) in one form or another, I'd be curious to hear your responses to the idea (i.e., would you take the course if you had the chance, etc. etc.). Here's a rough design by which we could cover all of the major books and albums, keeping in mind of course that I'd be having my kids read beyond the base material and into relevant figures like Layton, Lawrence, Lorca and other writers whose last names don't conveniently begin with the letter L:

Week I: Field Commander Cohen
Weeks II-III:   The Golden-Boy Poet   (Let Us Compare Mythologies, The Spice Box of Earth)
Week IV:   A Portrait of the Con-Artist As A Young Man   (The Favourite Game)
Week V:   So Much For The Golden-Boy....   (Flowers For Hitler, Parasites of Heaven)
Weeks VI-VII:   F.-ing Around  (Beautiful Losers)
Week VIII:   Perfect Bodies   (Songs of Leonard Cohen, Songs From a Room)
Week IX:  A Singer Must Die   (Songs of Love and Hate, New Skin For The Old Ceremony, The Energy of Slaves)
Week X:   The Lost Canadian   (Death of a Lady's Man, Death Of A Ladies' Man, Recent Songs)
Week XI:   A Cold And A Very Broken Hallelujah   (The Book of Mercy, Various Positions, I'm Your Man)
Week XII(-XIII?):   Stranger Music: The Byronist Returns   (The Future, Ten New Songs, Dear Heather; and The Book of Longing if it ever comes out)

The students would absolutely love how light the reading load would be, and there'd be room for considering Cohen in his musical context, particularly in relation to The Bob. I'd love it for (among other reasons), they'd actually be looking at poetry in volumes rather than anthologies and so hopefully getting a genuine sense of poetic context. Thoughts, anyone? Would Departments want such a course? Cohen's not a darling of the academy anymore, so I don't know. What I do know is that I could SOOO kick ass with a course like this. Meh. We shall see.

      Footnote: On a trip to the library at an old alma mater, I stumbled upon the library's copy of my old Master's thesis, on Cohen, which to my very great surprise had not only been checked out several times over the years, but which actually had some scribbling in it. Aha! I've officially been marginalized! Yee-haw!!