Minor Complaint

Obviously, this is a very minor inconvenience but I’m speaking at an in-person conference on March 25 and I’ll have to say the word “Mariupol” several times. Because that’s where the action in the novel I’m analyzing takes place. (Yes, a Spanish novel set in Mariupol, Ukraine. How was I supposed to know what was going to happen to Mariupol when I proposed the talk months ago?) I can’t say “Mariupol” without bawling. I know that it’s stupid to complain about something like this. But I’m not looking forward to making a spectacle of myself at the conference.

I also have a student doing a research paper on this novel and now I can’t grade it. I see “Mariupol” on a page, and then I don’t see anything else.