MLA, day 1

I'm on my way to Philadelphia for the 125th annual meeting of the Modern Language Association. Odd, for someone who's decided against academia as a career path? The theme this year is Translation, and it's a big enough meeting that I can find something to interest even me. There are sessions on "The Disciplinary Challenges of Translation Studies," "Uses of Literature," and "The New Latin American Canon"--and that's just today.

There are people at this meeting, in other words, interested in writing, reading, and translating literature, not just analyzing and interpreting it. There are people who approach writing through reading and vice versa. There are publishers who want their books to be read, not studied.

While I do go, in part, to better know my enemy, not everyone and everything at the MLA is my enemy. There are reasons for hope.