white lines on your mind, keep it steady I've been reading a book by the author who wrote The Prince of Tides, which was made into one of my favourite films. This book is called Beach Music, and I'm just in awe of how Mister Conroy puts together sentences and paragraphs. For example:

I tried to observe how the low country worked on Leah's imagination. Since she was new to the territory, I wondered if the lowlands would strike the same notes of authentic magic in her as it had in me. I doubted it had the power to refashion a girl who had grown up subject to the fabulous riot and confusion of Rome, but I had not reckoned with Waterford's quiet stamina of insinuation, the muscular allure of spartina and azalea, storax and redbud. The town took you prisoner and never once considered amnesty or early parole. I witnessed the process as Waterford began to lay its delicate fingerprints on Leah, and I hoped it would place its fingers on her heart and not her throat.

That's what I read before bedtime, and it rivets me, because he's a truly great storyteller. During the day, however, I try to engage myself in the thought-provoking works of public policy theorists for my "Canadian Public Policy" class. Here's is an excerpt from that:

The debate about the merits of various network typologies continues, as do problems with operationalizing existing categories of networks. Identifying the type of network in place is often difficult and there is arguably too much discretion left to the analyst in terms of putting a label to a network. Nevertheless, delineating the salient dimensions on which policy communities/networks differ appears necessary if these concepts are to take us beyond a description of different sectoral patterns of interaction across public and private actors to an account of how the latter shape policy developments, including policy change. If policy networks are to serve as an independent variable, they must, after all, vary on some theoretically significant dimensions.

I used to think that policy analysis was a fascinating field, but it's so DRY and abstract that I'm having trouble even getting through a small amount of the readings. Alas, I have an assignment due next week so I'm forced to struggle through it.

Wish me luck as I try to identify the policy community of Stevie's Accountability Act.  | ¶ 11:51 a.m.