It's been a while
Hi there,
I've thought every now and then about getting rid of this account. I never use it; either I'm too busy and forget, or I'm writing in my own journal instead. Here's a small update on me:
I'm in grad school. I don't think I've actually updated since I started taking classes.
Let's see here. How do I even begin to explain, in a short, readable entry, the weirdness that is dual-majoring (mastering?) in Folklore and Journalism?
I guess the biggest surprise for me, so far, is that I LOVE Journalism. I never thought I'd love something that is so commercial and often biased and stupid. I was really only going for the degree so that I could have it to my name for better job options. But I love it. When done correctly, it's an artform. It's everything I've wanted in a career--getting out, finding cool stories, talking to people, researching. It's exciting and fast-paced and really difficult in an amazing way.
And, it turns out, I'm really good at it. Wow.
Folklore is....different. I expected it to be the thing that got me through the Journalism bullshit. But, on its best days, it's...ok. Honestly, I've thought about dropping out of the school. It's not that I'm making bad grades. I'm making very good grades. But, it's not what I was expecting. The big thing is that there was this movement in the '50's to try to prove that Folklore was a real academic discipline. Because of that, every Folklore text since then has been written in this ridiculously convoluted language to try to prove that they are a discipline to be taken seriously.
Here is an example of one of our texts: "Of all the devices by which the fusion of narrated event and narrative event is effected in narrative discourse, reported speech is perhaps the most sociolinguistically interesting. The appropriation of another's utterance, to be sure, is not confined to narrative texts. As Bakhtin argues, 'The transmission and assessment of speech of others, the discourse of another, is one of the most widespread and fundamental topics of human speech...'" I would go on, but it gets painful.
This is a chapter about joking. Yeah.
I went into Folklore school for a lot of reasons. I've always loved mythologies. When I took Folklore in undergrad, we did have to read a lot of this convoluted narrative, but my teacher used it to talk about things like penis jokes and lobster masturbation. There was so much cool stuff that we did with Folklore in that class. We haven't done ANYTHING interesting this year. (OK, that's not true. My new hero in the Folklore department is named Michael Foster and he studies Japanese monsters and he's awesome. We just read his book, Pandemonium and Parade and it rocked. This rarely happens, though.)
I am having the feeling that I just want to drop out of Folklore, concentrate on Journalism, and find a good job writing. I'm the best writer in all of my classes so far and I have some good references already. Then again, when we do cool things in Folklore, they're REALLY cool. And, apparently, the first semester is the Trial By Fire that no one thinks they can ever survive, and then it gets better.
I'm really not sure what I'm going to do. I'm at least giving Folklore one more year. It's ridiculously difficult, but the people I meet through it are cool enough that I feel I should stay with it.
Here's another bit of the weirdness: I love Journalism, and my best friend of the year is in it. I also have a lot of other "friends" that have glommed on, but don't feel close to them. Most Journalism people act as if they're right out of highschool. They're clique-y and selfish, will back-stab you and act completely whoreish. The Folklore people are more academic/NERDY. Not just normal nerdy. Some of them are "I'm Studying the Effects of Fanfiction" Nerdy. Two opposite ends of the spectrum, and I'm caught in the middle. Well, not entirely. Sometimes I've been the classic Journalism person: drunk and gossipy. Sometimes I'm the classic Folklore person: nerdy and quiet. Somehow, I thought that this major would help me balance the two.
It's really putting the two in a cagematch and seeing which comes out on top. Huh.
OK, I've talked your ear off already. I'm not even going to bother trying to detail the last two weeks, which have been on an entirely new level of fucked-upped-ness. I just...don't think I'm emotionally ready to deal with what's happened this week yet, especially since it's still happening. I'll probably update over the break, though. I'll need someone to talk to about it all.
For now, good night.
I've thought every now and then about getting rid of this account. I never use it; either I'm too busy and forget, or I'm writing in my own journal instead. Here's a small update on me:
I'm in grad school. I don't think I've actually updated since I started taking classes.
Let's see here. How do I even begin to explain, in a short, readable entry, the weirdness that is dual-majoring (mastering?) in Folklore and Journalism?
I guess the biggest surprise for me, so far, is that I LOVE Journalism. I never thought I'd love something that is so commercial and often biased and stupid. I was really only going for the degree so that I could have it to my name for better job options. But I love it. When done correctly, it's an artform. It's everything I've wanted in a career--getting out, finding cool stories, talking to people, researching. It's exciting and fast-paced and really difficult in an amazing way.
And, it turns out, I'm really good at it. Wow.
Folklore is....different. I expected it to be the thing that got me through the Journalism bullshit. But, on its best days, it's...ok. Honestly, I've thought about dropping out of the school. It's not that I'm making bad grades. I'm making very good grades. But, it's not what I was expecting. The big thing is that there was this movement in the '50's to try to prove that Folklore was a real academic discipline. Because of that, every Folklore text since then has been written in this ridiculously convoluted language to try to prove that they are a discipline to be taken seriously.
Here is an example of one of our texts: "Of all the devices by which the fusion of narrated event and narrative event is effected in narrative discourse, reported speech is perhaps the most sociolinguistically interesting. The appropriation of another's utterance, to be sure, is not confined to narrative texts. As Bakhtin argues, 'The transmission and assessment of speech of others, the discourse of another, is one of the most widespread and fundamental topics of human speech...'" I would go on, but it gets painful.
This is a chapter about joking. Yeah.
I went into Folklore school for a lot of reasons. I've always loved mythologies. When I took Folklore in undergrad, we did have to read a lot of this convoluted narrative, but my teacher used it to talk about things like penis jokes and lobster masturbation. There was so much cool stuff that we did with Folklore in that class. We haven't done ANYTHING interesting this year. (OK, that's not true. My new hero in the Folklore department is named Michael Foster and he studies Japanese monsters and he's awesome. We just read his book, Pandemonium and Parade and it rocked. This rarely happens, though.)
I am having the feeling that I just want to drop out of Folklore, concentrate on Journalism, and find a good job writing. I'm the best writer in all of my classes so far and I have some good references already. Then again, when we do cool things in Folklore, they're REALLY cool. And, apparently, the first semester is the Trial By Fire that no one thinks they can ever survive, and then it gets better.
I'm really not sure what I'm going to do. I'm at least giving Folklore one more year. It's ridiculously difficult, but the people I meet through it are cool enough that I feel I should stay with it.
Here's another bit of the weirdness: I love Journalism, and my best friend of the year is in it. I also have a lot of other "friends" that have glommed on, but don't feel close to them. Most Journalism people act as if they're right out of highschool. They're clique-y and selfish, will back-stab you and act completely whoreish. The Folklore people are more academic/NERDY. Not just normal nerdy. Some of them are "I'm Studying the Effects of Fanfiction" Nerdy. Two opposite ends of the spectrum, and I'm caught in the middle. Well, not entirely. Sometimes I've been the classic Journalism person: drunk and gossipy. Sometimes I'm the classic Folklore person: nerdy and quiet. Somehow, I thought that this major would help me balance the two.
It's really putting the two in a cagematch and seeing which comes out on top. Huh.
OK, I've talked your ear off already. I'm not even going to bother trying to detail the last two weeks, which have been on an entirely new level of fucked-upped-ness. I just...don't think I'm emotionally ready to deal with what's happened this week yet, especially since it's still happening. I'll probably update over the break, though. I'll need someone to talk to about it all.
For now, good night.