One down, Seven to Go
I've felt lost for so long, I don't even remember what it was like to know my place in this world...
In seven weeks, I have to put three separate research projects together and have them ready to get stamped with a grade. My skull is already beginning to crack. One is already underway, somewhat. Half-steam ahead, not full. It won't be until next Thursday that I can devote my full attention ti these projects. Though, I don't think that it will be as bad as I'm imaging it. If I plan them out in phases, break them up into tasks, and do an hour or so on each weekdays, two or three on Saturdays and Sundays, it shouldn't be a big deal. They're not even all due during the same week...so worst case scenario, I could slop the first two together while honing the first to perfection, then switch focus to the next to un-slop it and polish it, and then finally work like mad to do the same for the last.
Come Wednesday, I'll officially be on the path to becoming "jaded". Although I think a year as a 9 to 5 kind of guy will help me figure out what I want to do with myself. If nothing else, it'll help me realize whether or not this overwhelming desire I have to contribute to something "useful" in society is legitimate. It's not that I don't see a use for literature, but the kinds of studies I see going on around me don't seem to be useful for anything other than producing more and more books about literature that no one ever reads. The writing is on the wall: the last MLA newsletter had an article in it about changes in library funding such that fewer and fewer books in the humanities are being purchased in favor of science and engineering texts. Everything that goes on around me in the English department seems terribly disconnected from anything real, from anything that's actually happening in this world. But maybe that's because the study of literature is historical by its very nature. The field is certainly going to have re-invent itself.
Ultimately, I think people like Derrida killed the English department. I find it horribly ironic that he's still considered a hot topic. Maybe when someone finally finds a way to counter his objections to meaning, literary studies will recover some. Or maybe not. Just seems like we were a lot better off when we could pretend that you and I thought that this particular combination words meant the same thing.
2008 is going to be a good year, methinks. The rest of 2007 doesn't look too shabby either. If I can get away with just two courses in the fall, I'll be in a couple of really great ones. If not...well, the others I have in mind won't be too bad, it just means I won't get to ease off at all until January.
Another busy weekend. My sanity levels should be fine as long as I can fit some time in to have a few drinks and maybe catch a little basketball on Saturday.
In seven weeks, I have to put three separate research projects together and have them ready to get stamped with a grade. My skull is already beginning to crack. One is already underway, somewhat. Half-steam ahead, not full. It won't be until next Thursday that I can devote my full attention ti these projects. Though, I don't think that it will be as bad as I'm imaging it. If I plan them out in phases, break them up into tasks, and do an hour or so on each weekdays, two or three on Saturdays and Sundays, it shouldn't be a big deal. They're not even all due during the same week...so worst case scenario, I could slop the first two together while honing the first to perfection, then switch focus to the next to un-slop it and polish it, and then finally work like mad to do the same for the last.
Come Wednesday, I'll officially be on the path to becoming "jaded". Although I think a year as a 9 to 5 kind of guy will help me figure out what I want to do with myself. If nothing else, it'll help me realize whether or not this overwhelming desire I have to contribute to something "useful" in society is legitimate. It's not that I don't see a use for literature, but the kinds of studies I see going on around me don't seem to be useful for anything other than producing more and more books about literature that no one ever reads. The writing is on the wall: the last MLA newsletter had an article in it about changes in library funding such that fewer and fewer books in the humanities are being purchased in favor of science and engineering texts. Everything that goes on around me in the English department seems terribly disconnected from anything real, from anything that's actually happening in this world. But maybe that's because the study of literature is historical by its very nature. The field is certainly going to have re-invent itself.
Ultimately, I think people like Derrida killed the English department. I find it horribly ironic that he's still considered a hot topic. Maybe when someone finally finds a way to counter his objections to meaning, literary studies will recover some. Or maybe not. Just seems like we were a lot better off when we could pretend that you and I thought that this particular combination words meant the same thing.
2008 is going to be a good year, methinks. The rest of 2007 doesn't look too shabby either. If I can get away with just two courses in the fall, I'll be in a couple of really great ones. If not...well, the others I have in mind won't be too bad, it just means I won't get to ease off at all until January.
Another busy weekend. My sanity levels should be fine as long as I can fit some time in to have a few drinks and maybe catch a little basketball on Saturday.