*Warning* Geek Post
Ok, so I am also on academia.edu, which is like a face book for us studious types (you can look me up if you REALLY want to... under my actual bonafide name/department and see links to the article I've written, info on my thesis, etc.) Anyways, if someone does a search in google or something, and then clicks on the link to my page, it saves their search as a "key words" and I get, like 3-4 a week. Most of them are from people searching for either something like "advisor's name + face book" or "my name + art", that sort of thing, which may or may not have anything to do with me personally... well recently there has been a BUNCH of new keywords "the artist of my thesis subject" which, for obvious reasons, I am not typing in here.... let's just call him by Marçal.... the last thing I want if for my students to find my inner thoughts *shudder*
So, who the hell is looking for Marçal? Only someone WAY into 15th century Valencian painting would even know who this guy is! When I did my PhD interviews, and people asked about my topic I got lots of "wow, I've never even heard of this guy" type of responces, and I had to basically prove why this obscure painter is actually really interesting and worth studying. And to a certain extant, I feel like I've claimed that research topic, I've pissed on that patch of art-history dirt, and I don't really want anyone else to piss on it after me... yes, I'm terratorial. And yes, if I do a more main-stream dissertation topic (why, hello, Jan van Eyck.... have we met? Oh, and arn't you a cutie, Hieronimous Bosch....) I will have to deal with being one voice in a see of scholars, but come on, my beloved Marçal, don't betray me! Please don't give up your secrets to someone else, what we had is so special and I can't wait till I can find a way to publish you.... (maybe as a precursor to Jan? I've been thinking about it...) Marçaal, You know how hard I cried when I had to turn you in as "complete" and how many questions I still have for you, how your paintings still haunt my dreams at night!!! Ok, so I know that I am abit obsessive, but seriously, he was my LIFE for 2 years. I watched him grow up right along side Anastacia, and the two of them are some how linked in my brain because of the shared temporality.
In current research news, I have turned in my English paper on Lucas Cranach. I didn't get him all sorted out, but I have made alot of progress. Basically, I can't move forward until I 1. get better at my German "Ich bin eine studentine. Das is meine bett. Die bild ist gut." and 2. I then need to GO to germany, find the documents related to his death, see if an inventory was taken (there HAD to be, he was the richest non-noble in Wittenberg), and figure out what books he owned. Also, I need to see the full geneology and tomb of Maximilian I.
My Baptism paper turned out really interesting, but now I need to crawl back into my theory hole and figure out what the hell IS subject-to-subject relationality vs. subject-to-object relationality, and what ARE contingent relations....
My French paper is in free-fall. I need to have 7 pages by tomorrow, and right now I have 0. I met with the prof yesterday, and I am going in a new direction. I am going to argue that both Fontainebleau and Les Regrets can be interpreted as "portraits" of the King, and of France. It might not amount to anything, or it might turn out really cool. We'll just have to see.....
Ok, I am off to read some more of Percy Jackson (we are almost 1/3 of the way through The Sea of Monsters where Percy and his cyclops brother have to go capture the golden fleece from its new owner, Polyphemus. Along the way they have to survive all the classic Odyssey monsters, Scylla and Charybdis, the Sirens, Circe, Calypso.... Just thinking about it makes me giddy. Now my kiddlet uses "Dyonisus" and "Minotaur" in everyday conversation.