Writing today about Kathleen Norris's theories around bipolar habits in writing. There's something about it that doesn't sit quite right, beyond what I've said in the diss. It seems to me that she (and the other writers she cites) are using bipolar as a metaphor for an alternation of zeal and lulls in the writing process that probably don't, in ( Read more... )

I keep referring to myself as being "in the final throes" of my dissertation. While of course this is a metaphorical statement, the more I think about how I much I use this phrase, the more I realize that I must have a serious commitment to it. The medical model of the pathology of physical diseases is a terrible one for mental health, but it turns ( Read more... )

Anxious. Starting a “writing retreat” today which is not starting, seemingly. What is in my way? Walking over the threshold into productivity again is hard. Guilt, about how much time I’ve wasted. Not convinced with Bataille and Lafargue and Boscagli that laziness has the potential to be some kind of grand, worthwhile state. In Bataille’s ( Read more... )

At long last reading E.P. Thompson's "Time, Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism." This may be a side note, but I find the “Saint Monday” tradition, also known as “Fuddling Day,” quite fascinating. First, this seems to have been a privilege held by the more privileged and skilled layers of the working class for as long as possible. Secondly ( Read more... )