Wonderful World of Academia: This and that and maybe some progress?
So, I still haven't written another word for my thesis but I did do an astonishing amount of reading, at least judging from all the colorful post-its and pagemarkers I stuck in the library books on my cupboard and thanks to the wonderful recommendations from immertreu (thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!) I did find some literature specializing on Stargate (now, if I could find that same stuff for Halo... well) and there were at least two essays that were of tremendous help (although one of them prompted a lengthy Twitter rant on female Sam Carter fans and their fucking internalized misogynie and their absolute inability to read her the correct way. Apparently, even as fictional characters, women just can't win). Now, if I could just put all the thoughts I had while reading into meaningful and clever words on (virtual) paper, that would be great.
I also did some reading in fan studies (mainly Hellekson/Busse's Fan Fiction and Fan Communities and the stuff I already mentioned in my last WWOA posting) but am still shying away from reading Jenkins (apparently the guru of fan studies?) because a) I don't like the term "textual poachers" for fanfiction writers (I think Jenkins didn't mean it in a pejorative way but I also can't seem how to figure out how not to mean it in a pejorative way because honestly, there is no way that the term "poacher" can be read as not pejorative and negative) and b) after reading Gwenllian Jones, I'm not convinced by Jenkins's classification of fan culture as fundamentally "subversive" and some kind of "resistance" against the big bad media corporations (because she's right, at the end of the day, fans are neither subversive nor resistant. They are the active reason big bad media corporations are making money in the first place!). So, still debating whether to incorporate Jenkins or not. Any thoughts?
Oh, also, apparently 2006 was Peak Fan Studies? Because I have yet to find anything that was published after the first half of the Noughts. Did I miss a memo or something or are there really no substantial publications after 2006? Because, seriously, I could use some new stuff. Also, I could use some stuff that focuses more on fans as individuals and on fan culture as a part of society, less on the textual analysis of fan studies (ie. the part that analyses fans' readings of fictional source material). Anyone got some ideas (because I sure am running out of them...)?
On the administrative side, I'm still wrestling with one of my lecturers because apparently, he has some difficulties with my university's online grading system which he shouldn't be having at all, according to the registrar's office. I still owe him a reply e-mail but the only thing I can come up with is something along the lines of "Just give me your login, I'll do it myself" which I honestly can't tell him if I don't want to be the target of a temper tantrum along the lines of Jack Nicholson's hissy fit in "A Few Good Men" (you know, the one with "You want the truth? You can't handle the truth!").
However, a very friendly person at the registrar's office recently told me that I can register my thesis without that lecturer's check on the seminar I attended, so I'll hopefully get the last of my other missing grades in the course of this week, attend a meeting with my advisor next Tuesday, attend a meeting with my desired second referee for the thesis (who's also the guy who has to sign off on the missing grades before I can hand them in to the registrar's office. A friend of mine likes to say "Uni is like a Kafka novel" and I think that's all you need to know, really) on that same Tuesday and hand in my thesis registration by the end of May. I still need to get the check on the seminar to be able to graduate but for now, it's enough to know that there's a realistic chance for me to graduate this semester at all.
What's been going on at your ends, guys? I know the Germans in my timeline had a long weekend (and did so amazing things with it, seriously, guys, you're all so active!), so what about the rest of you?
I also did some reading in fan studies (mainly Hellekson/Busse's Fan Fiction and Fan Communities and the stuff I already mentioned in my last WWOA posting) but am still shying away from reading Jenkins (apparently the guru of fan studies?) because a) I don't like the term "textual poachers" for fanfiction writers (I think Jenkins didn't mean it in a pejorative way but I also can't seem how to figure out how not to mean it in a pejorative way because honestly, there is no way that the term "poacher" can be read as not pejorative and negative) and b) after reading Gwenllian Jones, I'm not convinced by Jenkins's classification of fan culture as fundamentally "subversive" and some kind of "resistance" against the big bad media corporations (because she's right, at the end of the day, fans are neither subversive nor resistant. They are the active reason big bad media corporations are making money in the first place!). So, still debating whether to incorporate Jenkins or not. Any thoughts?
Oh, also, apparently 2006 was Peak Fan Studies? Because I have yet to find anything that was published after the first half of the Noughts. Did I miss a memo or something or are there really no substantial publications after 2006? Because, seriously, I could use some new stuff. Also, I could use some stuff that focuses more on fans as individuals and on fan culture as a part of society, less on the textual analysis of fan studies (ie. the part that analyses fans' readings of fictional source material). Anyone got some ideas (because I sure am running out of them...)?
On the administrative side, I'm still wrestling with one of my lecturers because apparently, he has some difficulties with my university's online grading system which he shouldn't be having at all, according to the registrar's office. I still owe him a reply e-mail but the only thing I can come up with is something along the lines of "Just give me your login, I'll do it myself" which I honestly can't tell him if I don't want to be the target of a temper tantrum along the lines of Jack Nicholson's hissy fit in "A Few Good Men" (you know, the one with "You want the truth? You can't handle the truth!").
However, a very friendly person at the registrar's office recently told me that I can register my thesis without that lecturer's check on the seminar I attended, so I'll hopefully get the last of my other missing grades in the course of this week, attend a meeting with my advisor next Tuesday, attend a meeting with my desired second referee for the thesis (who's also the guy who has to sign off on the missing grades before I can hand them in to the registrar's office. A friend of mine likes to say "Uni is like a Kafka novel" and I think that's all you need to know, really) on that same Tuesday and hand in my thesis registration by the end of May. I still need to get the check on the seminar to be able to graduate but for now, it's enough to know that there's a realistic chance for me to graduate this semester at all.
What's been going on at your ends, guys? I know the Germans in my timeline had a long weekend (and did so amazing things with it, seriously, guys, you're all so active!), so what about the rest of you?