I know it sounds cliched, but I really find that the MA is spurring me on to write. Now before those of you who know me become worried that I am becoming a girly swot, I don't mean the things that happen in class, neccessarily. What usually starts an idea is the mad conversations that we have in the pub after the class. We are a smaller group there, and the conversation seems to be much more no-holds-barred, with everyone chipping ideas of each other. Maybe it is the informality of the stuation, maybe it's the beer, who can tell. But it's not unusual that one of us comes the next week with something written from an idea that started in the pub. Maybe the beer should just be a compulsory part of the course, and all lectures should be held in the pub to allow free access to smoking and drinking, therefore provoking intellectual and literary discussion...... Of course, there may be dissenters, who claim that all this would mean is that we would sit in the pub talking complete rubbish the whole time.....that all we are spouting is our usual maudlin drunken crap......that we'll probably start singing any minute. I say- true, but at least we talk literary crap, a better class than football crap any day of the week....... So what was I saying about Sacher-Masoch and the Violent Femmes? Mine's a pint of lager.