Not a description of me after Christmas, but an example of the hours of fun to be had in the titles of academic papers. This year's Classical Association Conference boasts two sessions that are particularly fruitful.
Doctor Who and the Classical world: Time -travelling beyond Pompeii
Panel Convenor: Tony Keen (Open University)
Melissa Beattie (Cardiff) Stoicism in Gallifreyan society (or how I learned to stop worrying and not interfere)
Penelope Goodman (Leeds) ‘That’s not right!’: Doctor Who and historiography
Amanda Potter (OU) Turning to Stone in Greece and Rome: Petrification and the Classical Past in Doctor Who and The Sarah Jane Adventures
Graham Sleight ‘It is in the nature of poets to misuse their sources.’
And
The Transition to Empire in HBO-BBC’s ROME, Season Two
Panel Convenor: Antony Augoustakis (Illinois)
Antony Augoustakis (Illinois) Cheap Bodies, Vile Politics: Effacing the Female in HBO-BBC’s ROME, Season Two
Monica Cyrino (New Mexico) ‘The Price of Fame’: Atia’s Triumph in Rome Season Two
Rachael Kelly (Ulster) ‘A drink-sodden, sex-addled wreck’: Performances of Deficient Masculinity in Rome’s Mark Antony
Arthur Pomeroy (Wellington) Gangsterism in HBO-BBC’s ROME, Season Two
I'm not sure why they have to qualify this dire soap opera with the names of the broadcasting stations involved. Is it a bizarre intellectal property requirement? As for deficient masculinity, it sounds like the sort of thing that spam e-mails claim to cure.
