Obsessions
Once upon a time, a few short months ago, I was completely obsessed with Buffy. Back in those days, I saw everything through the lens of the Buffyverse: I made connections with my coursework, saw aspects of Buffy in other movies I watched and books I read, dreamed up plots for complicated Buffy fanfics that I'll never write. This was, notably, very useful for my thesis, because it pretty much meant that even when I wasn't actively working on my thesis, something somewhere in my mind was getting work done.
It's not that I like Buffy any less now, but somehow, through no fault of my own (even, I will say, through no fault of beautiful_rain_, despite her corrupting influence), I have had my brain completely eaten by Doctor Who-verse. Now I make Who-verse connections to my coursework, see aspects of Who-verse in other books I read and movies I watch, and dream up plots of complicated Who-verse fanfics that I'm never going to write.
Conveniently, I can pull back from my obsession a little bit in this fandom, because DW (and, notably, Torchwood) does not mesh as completely perfectly with both my fannish and intellectual aesthetics as Buffy does, and so if I try, it's pretty easy to throw myself back into the land of uncontrollable Buffy!squee, and forget about Who!verse for a while. (Up until, say, the new theatrical trailer comes up on Youtube and there is actual visual proof of The Casting Spoiler...and also, inexplicably, Martha covered in glycerin.) But my brain is now not constantly working on my thesis, churning away at vampire mythology and pop feminism and sex/power dynamics in Renaissance poetry, and I'm sort of worried that it's going to detract from my work. I don't really think it will (and if it does, it will be because there's nothing else I can do about it), but it still concerns me. Because now my mind is churning away at learning to recognize local British dialects and cultural anxieties about technology and whether or not the Doctor and Rose could have little half-Time Lord babies.
While trying to fill out financial aid forms for law schools. I'm so excited, and slightly terrified, and plagued with occasional bouts of senioritis...I mean, what does it matter whether or not I go to class if I've already been accepted to law school and will graduate no matter what? (I mean, I actually really like class, so, obviously, still going to go. But sometimes it's strangely - and uncharacteristically - tempting.)
It's not that I like Buffy any less now, but somehow, through no fault of my own (even, I will say, through no fault of beautiful_rain_, despite her corrupting influence), I have had my brain completely eaten by Doctor Who-verse. Now I make Who-verse connections to my coursework, see aspects of Who-verse in other books I read and movies I watch, and dream up plots of complicated Who-verse fanfics that I'm never going to write.
Conveniently, I can pull back from my obsession a little bit in this fandom, because DW (and, notably, Torchwood) does not mesh as completely perfectly with both my fannish and intellectual aesthetics as Buffy does, and so if I try, it's pretty easy to throw myself back into the land of uncontrollable Buffy!squee, and forget about Who!verse for a while. (Up until, say, the new theatrical trailer comes up on Youtube and there is actual visual proof of The Casting Spoiler...and also, inexplicably, Martha covered in glycerin.) But my brain is now not constantly working on my thesis, churning away at vampire mythology and pop feminism and sex/power dynamics in Renaissance poetry, and I'm sort of worried that it's going to detract from my work. I don't really think it will (and if it does, it will be because there's nothing else I can do about it), but it still concerns me. Because now my mind is churning away at learning to recognize local British dialects and cultural anxieties about technology and whether or not the Doctor and Rose could have little half-Time Lord babies.
While trying to fill out financial aid forms for law schools. I'm so excited, and slightly terrified, and plagued with occasional bouts of senioritis...I mean, what does it matter whether or not I go to class if I've already been accepted to law school and will graduate no matter what? (I mean, I actually really like class, so, obviously, still going to go. But sometimes it's strangely - and uncharacteristically - tempting.)