First paper

Posted below this entry is my first paper for my primary tutorial, on Lucretius. For the first session, I was not assigned any reading from De Rerum Natura, but instead secondary literature about it and Lucretius's life. I tried to make this paper more than a survey of the surveys that I read, by wrestling, as best I could, with those authors and their points. My tutor seemed surprised by what I had written--past that, I couldn't really read her reaction. She spoke for 85% of the session about topics only 20% relevant to my paper--thus, it seemed like what she had planned to talk about was not what I had addressed. Hopefully she will engage me more next time.