(no subject)
Jun. 4th, 2010 11:58 amOh, scholarly journals. Such mixed messages. The submission guidelines call for endnotes, yet all the articles in the current issue have footnotes. Way to be inconsistent.
At least everyone seems to be using Chicago style, even if the guidelines call for either that or MLA. Which means I'll have to switch my citations, but I can live with that. The bigger problem is the introduction, which I've already cut down, but which needs to be even shorter, with most of the background criticism moved to a foot/endnote. I think I'm just not going to bother integrating much, if anything, from chapter three into this article, because it feels pretty self-contained as it is, but I still need to write a new conclusion, and in doing so come up with a way to tightly tie everything back into what my new introduction states.
I used to say that my favorite part of writing nonfiction was revision, but I will amend that--it's revision of the first draft, where the ideas are on the page, but need to be expanded and prettied into their final form. This business of chopping up and reworking an already-written set of ideas is no fun at all.
At least everyone seems to be using Chicago style, even if the guidelines call for either that or MLA. Which means I'll have to switch my citations, but I can live with that. The bigger problem is the introduction, which I've already cut down, but which needs to be even shorter, with most of the background criticism moved to a foot/endnote. I think I'm just not going to bother integrating much, if anything, from chapter three into this article, because it feels pretty self-contained as it is, but I still need to write a new conclusion, and in doing so come up with a way to tightly tie everything back into what my new introduction states.
I used to say that my favorite part of writing nonfiction was revision, but I will amend that--it's revision of the first draft, where the ideas are on the page, but need to be expanded and prettied into their final form. This business of chopping up and reworking an already-written set of ideas is no fun at all.
I passed my defense!!
ETA: After the initial burst of excitement... It went really well. All three of my committee members think the thesis could be turned into both an article and a book. I'm going to meet with one of them later this semester to talk about how to write a proposal for publishers.
ETA: After the initial burst of excitement... It went really well. All three of my committee members think the thesis could be turned into both an article and a book. I'm going to meet with one of them later this semester to talk about how to write a proposal for publishers.
In the zone
Apr. 3rd, 2010 11:03 pmOkay. I've officially absorbed all I can about the Western canon. I started with Beowulf at nine this morning and finished with Song of Solomon a few minutes ago. I discovered as I rehearsed my spiels about Joyce's modernist aislingí; borderer tensions in Henry V; objectification and agency of women in Donne, Herrick, Keats, Yeats, and Heaney; and the relationship between Wordsworthian Romanticism, Shelly's Defense, and Emerson's transcendentalist essays, that I could easily take up an hour or more with just them if my committee gives me enough rein to do it, so that makes me feel pretty good. (I can also do a mean analysis of Jude the Obscure and naturalism if necessary, then throw in some Ian Watt as he relates to Pamela and Emma, not to mention go on for aaaaages about time, layers of consciousness, and unreliable narration in Woolf, Conrad, and/or Ford. As long as they start me out on one of these--and I'm betting it'll be the objectification topic, as it follows directly from the thesis, which we'll spend the first half hour talking about--I'm good to go.)
Tomorrow I'm going to sit and just re-read some of Boland's poetry, because, hey, probably a good idea to have it fresh in my head, and also to remind myself that, oh, yes, I do actually like her work, even after the past year working so closely with it.
Tomorrow I'm going to sit and just re-read some of Boland's poetry, because, hey, probably a good idea to have it fresh in my head, and also to remind myself that, oh, yes, I do actually like her work, even after the past year working so closely with it.
Hurrah, huroo, hurray, I have finished with the line edits to my thesis! This means, I oh-so-desperately hope, that I won't have anything else to do with it after the defense. Well, until I start making a journal article out of one of the chapters. And possibly, if I land a job that gives me access to an academic library, writing about 150 more pages on two more contemporary Irish poets tackling the same issues as Boland and making the whole manuscript into a book.
But with that out of the way, rather than celebrate, I must...review lyric poetry until my eyes fall out. I can't quite believe there are only six more weeks until I finish my MA.
But with that out of the way, rather than celebrate, I must...review lyric poetry until my eyes fall out. I can't quite believe there are only six more weeks until I finish my MA.
To do, to do, to do...
Mar. 23rd, 2010 06:06 pmMy Modernism prof loved my formal paper proposal, so that's good. She recommended a section of another book for me to read, this one on Unanimism in Woolf's writing, which is also good, as it sounds terribly helpful, although at the moment the thought of adding anything else to my gargantuan bibliography kind of makes me hyperventilate. I just hope she doesn't expect me to have it all read by the time we meet on Thursday, 'cause that won't happen.
I got the impression that my thesis chair is okay with me not making any more changes to my thesis unless I want to/have time, so that's pretty amazing. I do want to fix the opening, the first two paragraphs of which he says could be clarified (and I agree), but at least I don't have to do it before the defense. As long as I can get it done to my satisfaction by 4/23, it's all good.
I am all but done with typing up my oral exam review! I have, um, 54 single-spaced pages full of bullet points about pretty much the entire Western canon. I lack only some stuff on Oronooko, The Scarlet Letter, My Antonia, Midnight's Children, Waiting for Godot, and a couple Stoppard plays. I do need to go back over my underlinings in Antonia and Gatsby (although the Gatsby one are from junior year of high school, so who knows how helpful they'll be...but anyway). My study group and I are going to have our own mock exams on Saturday and Monday, which should be nerves-calming. Maybe. I'm also going to track down my entire committee and make them aware of what I actually want to talk about in this thing. (To wit: BRITISH MODERNISM. And when we can't talk about that, British and American Romanticism, British Victorianism, twentieth-century American drama, American poetry from Whitman to the present, and perhaps the postmodern novel, plus some Shakespearean histories and maybe some Beowulf if we must. I could probably do a brief section of the eighteenth-century novel if I had to, but if they give me a question on the seventeenth century I'm going to cry. If they ask me about the medievals I'll probably still cry, but not as hard. Actually, if we could just clear off pretty much everything before 1800, I'd be okay with that...)
I hear through thegrapevine internets that Castle got 3.6 in the ratings last night, beating a first-run episode of CSI: Miami. WOOT! And given the ending, I'm guessing a bunch of those new people will be tuning back in next week... :D
I got the impression that my thesis chair is okay with me not making any more changes to my thesis unless I want to/have time, so that's pretty amazing. I do want to fix the opening, the first two paragraphs of which he says could be clarified (and I agree), but at least I don't have to do it before the defense. As long as I can get it done to my satisfaction by 4/23, it's all good.
I am all but done with typing up my oral exam review! I have, um, 54 single-spaced pages full of bullet points about pretty much the entire Western canon. I lack only some stuff on Oronooko, The Scarlet Letter, My Antonia, Midnight's Children, Waiting for Godot, and a couple Stoppard plays. I do need to go back over my underlinings in Antonia and Gatsby (although the Gatsby one are from junior year of high school, so who knows how helpful they'll be...but anyway). My study group and I are going to have our own mock exams on Saturday and Monday, which should be nerves-calming. Maybe. I'm also going to track down my entire committee and make them aware of what I actually want to talk about in this thing. (To wit: BRITISH MODERNISM. And when we can't talk about that, British and American Romanticism, British Victorianism, twentieth-century American drama, American poetry from Whitman to the present, and perhaps the postmodern novel, plus some Shakespearean histories and maybe some Beowulf if we must. I could probably do a brief section of the eighteenth-century novel if I had to, but if they give me a question on the seventeenth century I'm going to cry. If they ask me about the medievals I'll probably still cry, but not as hard. Actually, if we could just clear off pretty much everything before 1800, I'd be okay with that...)
I hear through the
Busy and burnt
Mar. 18th, 2010 05:38 pmApparently the way to get my students to talk is to take them outside on a nice day. They talked me into going outside (which I was all for, although I quickly realized that being in the sun for an hour and fifteen minutes was going to give me a sunburn, and yep, I can feel it on my neck), and I figured they'd all be distracted by goings-on around them. Instead, they were totally into the discussion. (Perhaps it helped that we're not quite halfway through The Forever War, which most of them seem to really like.)
I also gave them a quiz which consisted of holding up their book to show they brought it to class. A little over two thirds passed. Perhaps the others will learn from their mistake.
In other news, although I really don't have time for it, I think I need to make some time to go see one of the panels at this year's interdisciplinary conference on campus. Suzette Henke is speaking, and she's pretty big news in Joyce scholarship in particular and Modernism scholarship in general.
As for why I don't have time--that would be because I'm plowing through my orals review, and I made the disturbing discovery that I know NOTHING about American fiction, or prose in general, after 1830. (Or drama. But there's more fiction on the list.) Of the list stuff, I have dim high school memories of Scarlet Letter, Huck Finn and Gatsby, a decent knowledge of Life of Frederick Douglass, and I read Song of Solomon and My Antonia last summer. That's six out of nineteen novels (or long essays) on the list, and while realistically, for a 45-minute "conversation" on a list that covers Beowulf to Morrison that's probably enough, I still feel horribly ungrounded in the whole genre, as far as American lit goes. I mean, I know other important stuff (Winesburg, Ohio, East of Eden, Grapes of Wrath, Slaughterhouse-Five, Catcher in the Rye, etc.), and substitutions are generally okay, but I'm still sort of like O_O. So I'm going to try and get through The Awakening this weekend, because really, my defense is going to be All Gender, All The Time, and this seems helpful.
(Drama I'm a bit more sanguine about. Okay, yeah, my drama review currently stops at 1721, but nothing good was produced in the nineteenth century, and of the six plays on the list I've got four--now that I read M. Butterfly this afternoon, which, hey, anyone who knows anything critical about that play, please feel free to comment!--plus Arcadia, which isn't on the list but is nevertheless my favorite play, oh, and Our Town.)
If only I can manage to keep the topic on British Modernism for as long as possible. That would be handy.
And I have grading to do this weekend. Of course I do. AAAAHHHHH. But since it promises to remain nice through Saturday, perhaps I'll do some of it outside. With sunscreen this time, and also my new big floppy hat.
I also gave them a quiz which consisted of holding up their book to show they brought it to class. A little over two thirds passed. Perhaps the others will learn from their mistake.
In other news, although I really don't have time for it, I think I need to make some time to go see one of the panels at this year's interdisciplinary conference on campus. Suzette Henke is speaking, and she's pretty big news in Joyce scholarship in particular and Modernism scholarship in general.
As for why I don't have time--that would be because I'm plowing through my orals review, and I made the disturbing discovery that I know NOTHING about American fiction, or prose in general, after 1830. (Or drama. But there's more fiction on the list.) Of the list stuff, I have dim high school memories of Scarlet Letter, Huck Finn and Gatsby, a decent knowledge of Life of Frederick Douglass, and I read Song of Solomon and My Antonia last summer. That's six out of nineteen novels (or long essays) on the list, and while realistically, for a 45-minute "conversation" on a list that covers Beowulf to Morrison that's probably enough, I still feel horribly ungrounded in the whole genre, as far as American lit goes. I mean, I know other important stuff (Winesburg, Ohio, East of Eden, Grapes of Wrath, Slaughterhouse-Five, Catcher in the Rye, etc.), and substitutions are generally okay, but I'm still sort of like O_O. So I'm going to try and get through The Awakening this weekend, because really, my defense is going to be All Gender, All The Time, and this seems helpful.
(Drama I'm a bit more sanguine about. Okay, yeah, my drama review currently stops at 1721, but nothing good was produced in the nineteenth century, and of the six plays on the list I've got four--now that I read M. Butterfly this afternoon, which, hey, anyone who knows anything critical about that play, please feel free to comment!--plus Arcadia, which isn't on the list but is nevertheless my favorite play, oh, and Our Town.)
If only I can manage to keep the topic on British Modernism for as long as possible. That would be handy.
And I have grading to do this weekend. Of course I do. AAAAHHHHH. But since it promises to remain nice through Saturday, perhaps I'll do some of it outside. With sunscreen this time, and also my new big floppy hat.
The Good Snooze...uh, I mean, Soldier
Feb. 28th, 2010 03:34 pmI realize that in the eyes of at least three people on my flist this is sacrilege, but it has to be said: The Good Soldier is dull, dull, dull, dull. I get why it's important, and reading Ford's "On Impressionism" before tackling the novel did make it make more sense than it might have otherwise, but my GOD is it boring. 278 pages of "I don't caaaaaare!", in fact. And I spent last spring reading multitudinous Victorian novels, so it's not like I don't have a good point of comparison.
That's it, really. Just had to get that off my chest. Now I must go attempt to transform the last few pages of chapter four into a real conclusion for the thesis.
That's it, really. Just had to get that off my chest. Now I must go attempt to transform the last few pages of chapter four into a real conclusion for the thesis.
Because I'm curious
Feb. 10th, 2010 08:08 pmFrom ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
alethialia:
Today has been declared lurker amnesty day (by me!) Have you read me but never commented? Do you surf by occasionally? Here for the ficinsanity? Say hello! You are under no obligation to ever comment or delurk again, but here's a chance to do so in a post just for that.
I love talking to people via LJ comments. Welcome!
*
I...think I might be finished with my revisions to chapters 1-3? Maybe? Well, okay, not exactly. There are two or three spots in chapter three that probably do need to be revised, but I'll need to talk with my director some more before I can figure out how to do that, exactly. And I'm still giving the whole thing to my committee on Friday, so we'll see what they have to say about it. (Perhaps that they see no problems with those spots! That's probably asking too much.)
alethialia:Today has been declared lurker amnesty day (by me!) Have you read me but never commented? Do you surf by occasionally? Here for the ficinsanity? Say hello! You are under no obligation to ever comment or delurk again, but here's a chance to do so in a post just for that.
I love talking to people via LJ comments. Welcome!
*
I...think I might be finished with my revisions to chapters 1-3? Maybe? Well, okay, not exactly. There are two or three spots in chapter three that probably do need to be revised, but I'll need to talk with my director some more before I can figure out how to do that, exactly. And I'm still giving the whole thing to my committee on Friday, so we'll see what they have to say about it. (Perhaps that they see no problems with those spots! That's probably asking too much.)
(no subject)
Feb. 7th, 2010 02:09 pmHa! I just realized that the reading for Tuesday's modernism class is from a book I currently have checked out of the library for my thesis. And since its the section by Jameson from this book, I've even read it before, although I found it less than useful for my thesis.
Yeah, don't mind me; I'm just geeking out because finally things in my classes are starting to intersect with what I actually consider my field.
Yeah, don't mind me; I'm just geeking out because finally things in my classes are starting to intersect with what I actually consider my field.
Six syllables short of a haiku
Feb. 5th, 2010 11:28 pmOh, chapter three
you will be
the death of me.
:(
you will be
the death of me.
:(
Let today forever be known as the day...
Feb. 1st, 2010 03:10 pmI have a complete rough draft of my thesis.
Let me repeat that. I HAVE A COMPLETE ROUGH DRAFT OF MY THESIS.
Okay, yes, in the latest chapter there are four or five spots where the analysis isnonexistent wrong paper-thin lacking, shall we say, and I certainly have enough revisions to keep me busy in chapters two and three, but it's all basically there.
YAY!
Let me repeat that. I HAVE A COMPLETE ROUGH DRAFT OF MY THESIS.
Okay, yes, in the latest chapter there are four or five spots where the analysis is
YAY!
Three things
Jan. 28th, 2010 08:42 pm1. Apparently we're supposed to get 5-9 inches of snow Friday night through Saturday afternoon.
Then again, the high for Saturday is 33F, so it may all turn to rain. I just hope we don't get an ice storm that knocks out the power. (Then again, I have gas heat, so...survivable? With candles?)
2. I talked to my Modernism prof today, and...I think my seminar paper is going to be about 1930s movie musicals and/or screwball comedies and their relationship to modernist ideas about art (or possibly to a particular novel or something; I haven't thought that far ahead yet, seeing as it's due in May). I do love it when my personal interests and professional obligations coincide. :D
3. I've hit the fifty-page mark on the thesis. I think I'm about half a chapter, or two-thirds of a chapter, from a complete rough draft.
Then again, the high for Saturday is 33F, so it may all turn to rain. I just hope we don't get an ice storm that knocks out the power. (Then again, I have gas heat, so...survivable? With candles?)
2. I talked to my Modernism prof today, and...I think my seminar paper is going to be about 1930s movie musicals and/or screwball comedies and their relationship to modernist ideas about art (or possibly to a particular novel or something; I haven't thought that far ahead yet, seeing as it's due in May). I do love it when my personal interests and professional obligations coincide. :D
3. I've hit the fifty-page mark on the thesis. I think I'm about half a chapter, or two-thirds of a chapter, from a complete rough draft.
Aaaaaiiiieeee, I just scheduled my defense/exam. Morning of April 5th. I NEED TO START BREATHING AGAIN BUT I'M NOT QUITE SURE HOW.
(One of my committee members is a sweet and lovely woman who responds to my e-mails with things like, "Let's rock!" which at least makes me feel a little better. I'm sort of hoping that if I freak out enough now, then I will have reached my limit of freaking-out-ness by April and will thus be preternaturally calm when I'm actually in there doing the oral. We'll see if this theory works out for me.)
*
Since deadlines mean I likely won't be doing another round of music recs for a while, have two that I've been listening to lately, and some musings.
Terminal Star by Karine Polwart. I hadn't listened to this one when I made my last round of recs, but now that I have, I have to, because I have to share some love for a girl who can get her science on in a folk song. It's a song about a star. Literally. I mean, yes, there's probably some kind of veiled metaphor, blah blah blah, but it's about an honest-to-goodness star that died a long time ago but whose light is only reaching Earth now. And you have to admire that. Even more so because the music is nice as well.
Belated Promise Ring by Iron & Wine. (Bonus points for the girl sharing my name. Uh, not totally sure that's flattering, but anyway.) My plan, someday, when I don't have deadlines hanging over my head (so...May, pretty much), is to make a screwball comedy vid to this song. I was originally thinking a single-source vid (likely Bringing Up Baby), but then I thought about how many great ones that would leave out, and I think when I make this vid, it'll use footage from multiple movies. I'm leaning towards something like framing it with clips from Moonlighting, and then doing a kind of retrospective, here-are-interpretations-of-the-archetype deal. The lyrics don't support a typical screwball plot (they don't really have a plot at all), but they evoke the feeling and energy of the two character types in an impressionistic sort of way. The trick would be conveying the zany, rapid-fire movement of the dialogue via physical motion.
Anyway, at the moment I'm thinking of Bringing Up Baby, It Happened One Night, Carefree, and Ball of Fire (a Barbara Stanwyck film from 1940 I watched for my film comedy/romantic comedy class at Exeter...seems to have been overlooked by many, but I really enjoyed it). I know there are several I haven't seen, but they're in my Netflix queue. Actually, maybe it's a good thing I won't have time to do this until May; it might take me that long to figure out what sources to use!
(One of my committee members is a sweet and lovely woman who responds to my e-mails with things like, "Let's rock!" which at least makes me feel a little better. I'm sort of hoping that if I freak out enough now, then I will have reached my limit of freaking-out-ness by April and will thus be preternaturally calm when I'm actually in there doing the oral. We'll see if this theory works out for me.)
*
Since deadlines mean I likely won't be doing another round of music recs for a while, have two that I've been listening to lately, and some musings.
Terminal Star by Karine Polwart. I hadn't listened to this one when I made my last round of recs, but now that I have, I have to, because I have to share some love for a girl who can get her science on in a folk song. It's a song about a star. Literally. I mean, yes, there's probably some kind of veiled metaphor, blah blah blah, but it's about an honest-to-goodness star that died a long time ago but whose light is only reaching Earth now. And you have to admire that. Even more so because the music is nice as well.
Belated Promise Ring by Iron & Wine. (Bonus points for the girl sharing my name. Uh, not totally sure that's flattering, but anyway.) My plan, someday, when I don't have deadlines hanging over my head (so...May, pretty much), is to make a screwball comedy vid to this song. I was originally thinking a single-source vid (likely Bringing Up Baby), but then I thought about how many great ones that would leave out, and I think when I make this vid, it'll use footage from multiple movies. I'm leaning towards something like framing it with clips from Moonlighting, and then doing a kind of retrospective, here-are-interpretations-of-the-archetype deal. The lyrics don't support a typical screwball plot (they don't really have a plot at all), but they evoke the feeling and energy of the two character types in an impressionistic sort of way. The trick would be conveying the zany, rapid-fire movement of the dialogue via physical motion.
Anyway, at the moment I'm thinking of Bringing Up Baby, It Happened One Night, Carefree, and Ball of Fire (a Barbara Stanwyck film from 1940 I watched for my film comedy/romantic comedy class at Exeter...seems to have been overlooked by many, but I really enjoyed it). I know there are several I haven't seen, but they're in my Netflix queue. Actually, maybe it's a good thing I won't have time to do this until May; it might take me that long to figure out what sources to use!
In less pleasant news:
2/5: Draft of final thesis chapter due to my director(!!!!!!!!)
2/12: Complete draft of thesis due to the rest of my committee, with some revisions to chapters two and three, at least if I want to keep my pride (damn you, departmental deadlines!)
2/16: Some kind of project my Modernism prof hasn't gone into in detail about yet (???)
2/18: 30-minute presentation on women's suffrage for Modernism (Uh...at least I'm not starting from nothing on that topic like I might have been on many of the other options? Not that this helps much.)
Crap. Crap, crap, crap. At least on the 11th, my students are doing peer review, and on the 18th I'm "teaching them to do historical research," for which I had already planned on giving about half the class over to them doing their own research on the computers in the lab. This doesn't make me feel a whole lot better.
2/5: Draft of final thesis chapter due to my director(!!!!!!!!)
2/12: Complete draft of thesis due to the rest of my committee, with some revisions to chapters two and three, at least if I want to keep my pride (damn you, departmental deadlines!)
2/16: Some kind of project my Modernism prof hasn't gone into in detail about yet (???)
2/18: 30-minute presentation on women's suffrage for Modernism (Uh...at least I'm not starting from nothing on that topic like I might have been on many of the other options? Not that this helps much.)
Crap. Crap, crap, crap. At least on the 11th, my students are doing peer review, and on the 18th I'm "teaching them to do historical research," for which I had already planned on giving about half the class over to them doing their own research on the computers in the lab. This doesn't make me feel a whole lot better.
It is gray and disgusting outside. I'm halfway through a novel of which I hate all the characters,* and I have approximately 300 more pages of fiction and criticism to read in the next day so that I can write my response on Sunday. I have just gotten an inkling of the scope of the revisions I will be making to my thesis.** I am continuing to panic over orals.
Something about this situation needs to change.
(BSG's The Plan came in the mail today, but I'm not sure that'll do it. I actually haven't paid any attention to what it's about--it's a prequel? Maybe? I guess I'll find out when I watch it tonight. Not sure if anything BSG-related will make me feel better, given that the show always left me feeling a bit beaten even at the same time as it was amazing, but...we'll see. I'll try and write up some comments, but time is not really something I have in great supply at the moment. I'm still consuming stuff, like this and Castle, but not really posting about it, as I'm sure you've noticed. Maybe in May...)
* Although I will admit, reading Dorian Gray as a Modernist novel rather than a Victorian one improves it by about 10,000%. And I like the plot and the ideas in the book; it's just the people I can't stand.
** Well, my director said that almost all of his suggestions were optional, but come on. Once you know something needs to be changed, you can't unknow it.
Something about this situation needs to change.
(BSG's The Plan came in the mail today, but I'm not sure that'll do it. I actually haven't paid any attention to what it's about--it's a prequel? Maybe? I guess I'll find out when I watch it tonight. Not sure if anything BSG-related will make me feel better, given that the show always left me feeling a bit beaten even at the same time as it was amazing, but...we'll see. I'll try and write up some comments, but time is not really something I have in great supply at the moment. I'm still consuming stuff, like this and Castle, but not really posting about it, as I'm sure you've noticed. Maybe in May...)
* Although I will admit, reading Dorian Gray as a Modernist novel rather than a Victorian one improves it by about 10,000%. And I like the plot and the ideas in the book; it's just the people I can't stand.
** Well, my director said that almost all of his suggestions were optional, but come on. Once you know something needs to be changed, you can't unknow it.
Rain, rain, go away
Jan. 21st, 2010 07:49 pmThree things:
1. Class didn't go quite as well today as it did on Tuesday, but it was still better than pretty much any day in 101. Things only died down in the last ten minutes, really.
2. Formatting the extant parts of my thesis for review by the formatting guru, or whatever he is, only took about half an hour. And the crazy margins they want magically gave me six more pages. I can't complain.
3. I have to re-read Picture of Dorian Gray again by Tuesday. DO NOT WANT. (You ever read a novel where you just hate every single person in it? That would be this novel for me. Blech.)
1. Class didn't go quite as well today as it did on Tuesday, but it was still better than pretty much any day in 101. Things only died down in the last ten minutes, really.
2. Formatting the extant parts of my thesis for review by the formatting guru, or whatever he is, only took about half an hour. And the crazy margins they want magically gave me six more pages. I can't complain.
3. I have to re-read Picture of Dorian Gray again by Tuesday. DO NOT WANT. (You ever read a novel where you just hate every single person in it? That would be this novel for me. Blech.)
Me and you and progress makes a dialectic
Jan. 20th, 2010 04:35 pmCritical theorists, I need your help! I've got this half-finished introductory paragraph to my last chapter, and I can tell I need to namecheck someone, but I can't think of who it is. Someone out there has written on modernity/progress vs. tradition/stagnation and the dialectic of the break and whatnot, but I can't think of who it might be. I'm sure we'll cover it in my Modernism seminar this semester, but I kind of need to have this chapter finished by the fourth, so I turn to you.
If it helps, the paragraph is ( under the cut )
Possibly I also need to reference someone on urbanization? I was thinking of Anderson, but I had to return the copy of Imagined Communities I checked out, and my notes don't indicate that he covers quite what I feel is missing. I'm not recalling Jameson as being helpful either, but maybe...? Argh, so frustrating. I know there's stuff out there on this, but I don't even know where to start looking.
If it helps, the paragraph is ( under the cut )
Possibly I also need to reference someone on urbanization? I was thinking of Anderson, but I had to return the copy of Imagined Communities I checked out, and my notes don't indicate that he covers quite what I feel is missing. I'm not recalling Jameson as being helpful either, but maybe...? Argh, so frustrating. I know there's stuff out there on this, but I don't even know where to start looking.
Before the taking of a toast and tea
Jan. 19th, 2010 05:24 pmI was expecting 102 today to go pretty well, but it exceeded my expectations by a wide margin. Woot! I had everyone read a chapter from Henry Jenkins's Convergence Culture (one about Star Wars parody fan films that touches also on fanfic and musical fanvids, as well as his usual focus on folk vs. mass vs. pop culture), and they really got into it. We had a great discussion about why people write fic and make vids, whether it's fair use (I have several business majors who went into spiels about the added market value fan creativity can bring to a franchise, which was interesting to everyone, I think) and how it ought to be treated. I have about seven who are very interested in all things sci-fi and very willing to talk, which is fantastic, especially after my very not-talkative classes last semester. I even had more that I wanted to get to today, but we ran out of time, which never happened last semester.
For Thursday, we're reading an essay about why sci-fi is so attractive to pre-teens and teenagers, and also how it permeates fans' lives (include a section on conventions) and watching Galaxy Quest. Should be great fun.
Then I went to Modernism class and...it wasn't too bad. We all had to summarize our reading responses, which was nerve-wracking--particularly as other people were all "secondary exegesis" and "artistic autonomy" and I was like, "Modernists thought Einstein was cool"--but could've been worse. We shall see what happens on Thursday.
To top things off, it was gorgeous yesterday and even more gorgeous today (I think we hit 60+F). Lovely day. But now I must read Yet More Theory. Oh, well.
For Thursday, we're reading an essay about why sci-fi is so attractive to pre-teens and teenagers, and also how it permeates fans' lives (include a section on conventions) and watching Galaxy Quest. Should be great fun.
Then I went to Modernism class and...it wasn't too bad. We all had to summarize our reading responses, which was nerve-wracking--particularly as other people were all "secondary exegesis" and "artistic autonomy" and I was like, "Modernists thought Einstein was cool"--but could've been worse. We shall see what happens on Thursday.
To top things off, it was gorgeous yesterday and even more gorgeous today (I think we hit 60+F). Lovely day. But now I must read Yet More Theory. Oh, well.
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