Dukkha, tanha. Tanha, dukkha.
So, let's have a post about my day. Again. Because my days are all so incredibly fascinating, and never filled with anything boring or trivial. Right.
Today started off being quite crappy. Tired, and angry, and sad when I woke up. Tired all the way through the day, actually. Ran into Emma on the bus and had a chat. Which was nice. Went and got breakfast. Went up to UniSFA, where we had conversations about Jesus' penis, and cat sex, and illness, and names, and course restructuring, and blessedly little about Australian politics. Still tired, but less sad and angry by this point. Then I went to the meeting about Honours for English. I stood in the corner talking to Alison (Jacquet. The nice one, not the evil one) for the first 10 or so minutes before the meeting started. She stroked my ego a bit. OK, a lot. A lot of what she said was along the lines of "you're the type of person who should definitely do honours, because you've got amazing potential." Had a speech from Dan, had some food, had some conversations with the lecturers there. Had a brief convo with one of the other potentials, who'd I've never met before, and may not again, who is thinking of doing an honours thesis about graphic novels. I ranted at him for a while about sci-fi novels, and China Mieville, and lecturers who are also fanboys. Not sure if it went down OK or not. But expect me to not talk about sci-fi when it comes up? Ha! Was talking to Dan about philosophy/english double, and the combinations you could use to get it, for a while. Learnt his current research interest is into 19th/early 20th C poetry written by scientists (see later), and that he did a dual english/philosophy PhD. Learnt from Alison that Steve is an amazing supervisor. And that the world outside of academia really sucks in comparison if you like thinking. Then, when everything was shutting down, the Rev came in to get a drink, and started talking to Dan and I. And then I kept talking to the Rev about honours, and philosophy, and university history and stuff. And then we went back to his office and continued talking about life, the universe, and everything. Learnt a lot about his family, and its ties to my family, and Geraldine, and farming families in NSW, and the premier of Queensland, and RC/CoE tie-ins. He has a low opinion of philosophy at Murdoch, ethics in general, and the literacy/numeracy of UWA student in the 70s. Which were apparently abysmal. LOL at people having sex during the day on the front oval in the 70s. Interesting at threats of closure placed against Architecture, too. Got told again about how great other people think I am/could be at academic stuff. Which left me feeling good.
But also bad. I don't know. I really, really want to do honours. Arts is the subject field that I love. That's a bit overdramatic, but also largely true. The combination of aesthetics and critical theory is just so applicable to everyday life. Even if people don't see it. Arts really teaches you so much. I know I can get in in English. I'm fairly sure I can get in in Philosophy. At UWA, anyway. But I don't really want to try and tailor a dissertation to cover both, and I don't want to miss the seminars for both. And in the past week or so, I've started to re-vision doing stuff at Melbourne. For two reasons: 1) The philosophy programme is much stronger and 2) I could do a thesis in English/Cultural studies, one english seminar, three philosophy seminars, and a research seminar. Which is a combination I like a lot more than the UWA options. But I'm not sure I can make the cut for philosophy Melbourne. Because I'm not that great a philosopher. But I might be able to scrape in on a 70% average, and some discussion about crazy overloads, and traumatic events. And then what happens with med? And what about UWA? I mean, now that I've effectively completed my arts degree, I'm starting to miss it. Because this is the semester where I really enjoyed all my lectures, and I really started to get to know lecturers, and tutors, and every unit had amazing people and lecturers and tutors, and to just get the entire "academic community" finally happening properly for me. And now it's over. Maybe. Maybe...I don't know.
The see below part: Dan's research is interesting, because I've been tossing up starting seriously writing poetry with a poetics based around cities and science. Because there's not a great amount of it around that works in the same way as nature and the Romantic ideas. Cities and technology are...marginalised a bit in poetry. They tend to either be a bit negative, or are linked to ideologies that aren't flattering. Like the Futurists and Modernist poetry. Or the sex and drugs poets in Australia in the 70s. The kind of poetry I'm thinking about is a lot like Les Murray's An Absolutely Ordinary Rainbow. Where the city is the landscape, and part of the subject, but it's not a negative element.
And now, a pleasant little poem to finish this off with. I've always loved the snark of this one.
Worry - Wendy Cope
I worry about you-
So long since we spoke.
Love, are you downhearted,
Dispirited, broke?
I worry about you.
I can't sleep at night.
Are you sad? Are you lonely?
Or are you all right?
They say that men suffer,
As badly, as long.
I worry, I worry,
In case they are wrong.
Today started off being quite crappy. Tired, and angry, and sad when I woke up. Tired all the way through the day, actually. Ran into Emma on the bus and had a chat. Which was nice. Went and got breakfast. Went up to UniSFA, where we had conversations about Jesus' penis, and cat sex, and illness, and names, and course restructuring, and blessedly little about Australian politics. Still tired, but less sad and angry by this point. Then I went to the meeting about Honours for English. I stood in the corner talking to Alison (Jacquet. The nice one, not the evil one) for the first 10 or so minutes before the meeting started. She stroked my ego a bit. OK, a lot. A lot of what she said was along the lines of "you're the type of person who should definitely do honours, because you've got amazing potential." Had a speech from Dan, had some food, had some conversations with the lecturers there. Had a brief convo with one of the other potentials, who'd I've never met before, and may not again, who is thinking of doing an honours thesis about graphic novels. I ranted at him for a while about sci-fi novels, and China Mieville, and lecturers who are also fanboys. Not sure if it went down OK or not. But expect me to not talk about sci-fi when it comes up? Ha! Was talking to Dan about philosophy/english double, and the combinations you could use to get it, for a while. Learnt his current research interest is into 19th/early 20th C poetry written by scientists (see later), and that he did a dual english/philosophy PhD. Learnt from Alison that Steve is an amazing supervisor. And that the world outside of academia really sucks in comparison if you like thinking. Then, when everything was shutting down, the Rev came in to get a drink, and started talking to Dan and I. And then I kept talking to the Rev about honours, and philosophy, and university history and stuff. And then we went back to his office and continued talking about life, the universe, and everything. Learnt a lot about his family, and its ties to my family, and Geraldine, and farming families in NSW, and the premier of Queensland, and RC/CoE tie-ins. He has a low opinion of philosophy at Murdoch, ethics in general, and the literacy/numeracy of UWA student in the 70s. Which were apparently abysmal. LOL at people having sex during the day on the front oval in the 70s. Interesting at threats of closure placed against Architecture, too. Got told again about how great other people think I am/could be at academic stuff. Which left me feeling good.
But also bad. I don't know. I really, really want to do honours. Arts is the subject field that I love. That's a bit overdramatic, but also largely true. The combination of aesthetics and critical theory is just so applicable to everyday life. Even if people don't see it. Arts really teaches you so much. I know I can get in in English. I'm fairly sure I can get in in Philosophy. At UWA, anyway. But I don't really want to try and tailor a dissertation to cover both, and I don't want to miss the seminars for both. And in the past week or so, I've started to re-vision doing stuff at Melbourne. For two reasons: 1) The philosophy programme is much stronger and 2) I could do a thesis in English/Cultural studies, one english seminar, three philosophy seminars, and a research seminar. Which is a combination I like a lot more than the UWA options. But I'm not sure I can make the cut for philosophy Melbourne. Because I'm not that great a philosopher. But I might be able to scrape in on a 70% average, and some discussion about crazy overloads, and traumatic events. And then what happens with med? And what about UWA? I mean, now that I've effectively completed my arts degree, I'm starting to miss it. Because this is the semester where I really enjoyed all my lectures, and I really started to get to know lecturers, and tutors, and every unit had amazing people and lecturers and tutors, and to just get the entire "academic community" finally happening properly for me. And now it's over. Maybe. Maybe...I don't know.
The see below part: Dan's research is interesting, because I've been tossing up starting seriously writing poetry with a poetics based around cities and science. Because there's not a great amount of it around that works in the same way as nature and the Romantic ideas. Cities and technology are...marginalised a bit in poetry. They tend to either be a bit negative, or are linked to ideologies that aren't flattering. Like the Futurists and Modernist poetry. Or the sex and drugs poets in Australia in the 70s. The kind of poetry I'm thinking about is a lot like Les Murray's An Absolutely Ordinary Rainbow. Where the city is the landscape, and part of the subject, but it's not a negative element.
And now, a pleasant little poem to finish this off with. I've always loved the snark of this one.
Worry - Wendy Cope
I worry about you-
So long since we spoke.
Love, are you downhearted,
Dispirited, broke?
I worry about you.
I can't sleep at night.
Are you sad? Are you lonely?
Or are you all right?
They say that men suffer,
As badly, as long.
I worry, I worry,
In case they are wrong.