Friday, March 21, 2008
First, a recap of yesterday: Woke up, cleaned up dog shit, taught a class, spoke to a student, defended my thesis, spoke to Raul, Spoke to Josh, did some paperwork, spoke to Harpold, drank at Gator City, drank at Dragonfly, ate at Dragonfly, drank at the Music Shop, drove home, passed out, got woken up by my neighbors who were barbequing at 4:00 in the fucking morning, spoke to my neighbor, spoke to the cops, waited for the cops to show up, noted that the cop showed up, noted that the cop drove off after not speaking to my neighbor, sat around being pissed till 5:30 in the morning when my neighbors finally shut up, went back to sleep, woke up at 11:30 not wanting to do the many things I have to do.
The thesis defense was much easier than I thought it would be, and I thought it was going to be pretty easy. Raul and Jim gave me some excellent pointers while tactfully keeping in sight the fact that I’m not going on to my doctorate. Both were their zany, über-intelligent selves, which I always enjoy. Major criticisms were what I expected: First, I have a tendency to overstate (their term) or to state things in terms of absolutes (my term) which is problematic (if not, as Jim put it, in some cases erroneous). Second, in keeping with the thesis-length of the project (and, to be totally honest, my lack of extra research), I didn’t expand certain sections which really should have been fleshed out (history and economic issues of the discipline, primarily). Jim would have liked a sustained polemic in addition to the history that both he and Raul wanted, but understands that including either, let alone both, would have at minimum doubled the length of my paper.
We discussed for a while my experience at UF. Jim made a point of how impressed he was with the way I managed to negotiate my (vastly limited) course selection so as to keep on track regarding my thesis - I was apparently the first of the MAs to defend this year and had ‘the easiest go of it’ in recent history because of the fact that, with one exception, I made all of my classes funnel into the thesis. We also talked about my problems with the University Writing Program, my disappointment with Ulmer, what I call my “split existence” as an English graduate student (I am half a lit/crit scholar and half a rhet/comp-cum-methodology scholar). We also talked about the increasing difficulty I am having committing to any sustained reading. I don’t know what has caused this, but it’s become nearly impossible for me to read any theoretical work (yet I eat Wiki for breakfast). I think I’m simply to old to do this anymore - I’ve been waiting too long to have my own house, my own family, a stable income, space, peace, weekends, and all the things that I’ve almost had for so long that I can’t put it off any longer emotionally.
Terry is sad that I’m leaving. It’s an odd feeling - it makes me feel both honored and guilty. No professor has ever made me feel the way he does and it bothers me that I don’t know quite how to express it. It’s not just that I don’t want to let him down, and it’s not just that he makes me aware of just how far I’d have to go to be within sight of being on par with him. He has this way of almost, kind of opening up to me that is both touching and harrowing. He likes platypuses as much as I do. He’s kind of like a masculine but in-touch with his feminine side version of an Einstein-cum-Willy Wonka. If Terry was manic, who knows what the world would be like.
In any case, neither of us has any idea what I'm going to write my seminar paper on. Fuck.
Anyway. I need to read for his class and finish editing my thesis. I’ll be glad when both are done. The house is an awful mess but I don’t feel like cleaning at all, and I need to prep the brisket for tomorrow. Off to it.
The thesis defense was much easier than I thought it would be, and I thought it was going to be pretty easy. Raul and Jim gave me some excellent pointers while tactfully keeping in sight the fact that I’m not going on to my doctorate. Both were their zany, über-intelligent selves, which I always enjoy. Major criticisms were what I expected: First, I have a tendency to overstate (their term) or to state things in terms of absolutes (my term) which is problematic (if not, as Jim put it, in some cases erroneous). Second, in keeping with the thesis-length of the project (and, to be totally honest, my lack of extra research), I didn’t expand certain sections which really should have been fleshed out (history and economic issues of the discipline, primarily). Jim would have liked a sustained polemic in addition to the history that both he and Raul wanted, but understands that including either, let alone both, would have at minimum doubled the length of my paper.
We discussed for a while my experience at UF. Jim made a point of how impressed he was with the way I managed to negotiate my (vastly limited) course selection so as to keep on track regarding my thesis - I was apparently the first of the MAs to defend this year and had ‘the easiest go of it’ in recent history because of the fact that, with one exception, I made all of my classes funnel into the thesis. We also talked about my problems with the University Writing Program, my disappointment with Ulmer, what I call my “split existence” as an English graduate student (I am half a lit/crit scholar and half a rhet/comp-cum-methodology scholar). We also talked about the increasing difficulty I am having committing to any sustained reading. I don’t know what has caused this, but it’s become nearly impossible for me to read any theoretical work (yet I eat Wiki for breakfast). I think I’m simply to old to do this anymore - I’ve been waiting too long to have my own house, my own family, a stable income, space, peace, weekends, and all the things that I’ve almost had for so long that I can’t put it off any longer emotionally.
Terry is sad that I’m leaving. It’s an odd feeling - it makes me feel both honored and guilty. No professor has ever made me feel the way he does and it bothers me that I don’t know quite how to express it. It’s not just that I don’t want to let him down, and it’s not just that he makes me aware of just how far I’d have to go to be within sight of being on par with him. He has this way of almost, kind of opening up to me that is both touching and harrowing. He likes platypuses as much as I do. He’s kind of like a masculine but in-touch with his feminine side version of an Einstein-cum-Willy Wonka. If Terry was manic, who knows what the world would be like.
In any case, neither of us has any idea what I'm going to write my seminar paper on. Fuck.
Anyway. I need to read for his class and finish editing my thesis. I’ll be glad when both are done. The house is an awful mess but I don’t feel like cleaning at all, and I need to prep the brisket for tomorrow. Off to it.