Burnt Toast

Some time ago, Amy Shaw recommended Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day. Thanks for the book recommendation, Amy! The writer argues that you can't necessarily write a dissertation only working on it for fifteen minutes a day but she does say that the best way to get it done is to write every day, at least a little bit. I find this advice is very helpful; I believe I have often posted about momentum and how working even a small amount every day helps tremendously. I also notice that when I write for significantly more than fifteen minutes a day, as in say spending fourteen consecutive days trying to get fellowship applications out the door, I can't write at all. Not one bit. Not a word. Then, I lose momentum, hope in my productivity and a general positive state of mind. In other words, writing too little AND too much can cause harm, perhaps best exhibited by my need to watch National Treasure 2 from 12 - 2 a.m. last night.
So, I am totally burnt out, intellectually exhausted, and I haven't taken a look at my chapter in about a week. After I finally finish this last application, which has been tortuous, I am going to see Quantum of Solace, celebrate Dave's birthday and look forward to the time when my brain doesn't hurt.
And a special PUBLIC apology to Lauren Neefe, who I audibly scoffed at when she suggested I take "a week off." Yeah, I needed to and I needed you to tell me and thanks for not believing me when I said I didn't need such a thing. And one last thanks for NOT telling me I told you so when I confessed to you earlier today how right you were.

Unrelated post: Irony

There is a disease infecting masses of Americans today: the misuse of the word irony. There is nothing to make a anglophile shiver like hearing people use this word wrong, especially when so many consider it integral to our culture.
Here is the dictionary definition:
1: a pretense of ignorance and of willingness to learn from another assumed in order to make the other's false conceptions conspicuous by adroit questioning —called also Socratic irony
2 a: the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning b: a usually humorous or sardonic literary style or form characterized by irony c: an ironic expression or utterance
3 a (1): incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result (2): an event or result marked by such incongruity b: incongruity between a situation developed in a drama and the accompanying words or actions that is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play —called also dramatic irony tragic irony

Here is an example of usage I just made up:
Correct usage: (On a very cold day) "What lovely weather we are having! I'm going to strip down to my bikini briefs!" (Irony expresses the OPPOSITE of literal meaning)
Incorrect usage: (On a very hot day) "How hot it is! Ironically, I took my bikini briefs out of the clean laundry this morning!" (This is a coincidence.)

Quote of the Week

"Do you have to be an overachiever in everything you do?"
Said by my knitting teacher AND my acupuncturist within 24 hours of each other.

The Point of the Blog...

In Don DeLillo's White Noise, the main character, Jack Gladney, gets angry at his wife, Babette, for lying to him. He says to her over and over again, "The whole point of Babette is that she speaks to me, she reveals and confides." The most important part of the phrase is his reiteration of the language "the whole point" and "this is the point."
So at the risk of repeating myself, I would like to review the whole point of the blog.
1. The whole point of the blog is to make you feel informed.
2. The whole point of the blog is to make you feel confident.
3. The whole point of the blog is to make you feel like you have enough background information so that you can engage in conversations with me.
4. The whole point of the blog is NOT to make you feel guilty if you don't read the blog. There is no need to confess, "I have not read your blog" and walk away sheepishly. I swear, the point of the blog is NOT to give you something else to do.
5. The whole point of the blog is NOT for you to feel like you can't ask questions because it demonstrates that you have not read the blog.

In sum, the blog is a tool to use (or ignore) in a way that is best for you. The point of the blog is to give you background information so that you feel more comfortable speaking with me about my project. Whether you read the blog or not, however, I will happily engage in vast, bottomless monologues on my dissertation until your cry mercy. The point of the blog is, if you fee like it, some of my monologue will be familiar to you.

The point of the blog is that it is a service to you. Use it as you see fit. But by no means let it make you feel bad.

This is the point of the blog.

Delinqent post #2

Well, so, daily posting is just not going to happen. There are too many times when life gets in the way. But, I will keep up at the very least once a week, although my actual goal is Mon/Wed/Fri, I don't think it's a good idea to overpromise/underdeliver anymore. I've got a few postings up my sleeve today. Though I am still suffering from the remnants of a 24 hour bug, so I apologize if anything sounds dopey.

Another word about Ekphrasis

Although I actually cut this idea from my original proposal, I think I might return to it when I write my Stein chapter. To refresh your memory, ekphrasis is the representation of one art form by another. Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn" is probably the most well-known example:

THOU still unravish'd bride of quietness,
Thou foster-child of Silence and slow Time,
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:
What leaf-fringed legend haunts about thy shape 5
Of deities or mortals, or of both,
In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?
What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?
What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?
What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy? 10

Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;
Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd,
Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone:
Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave 15
Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;
Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss,
Though winning near the goal—yet, do not grieve;
She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,
For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair! 20

Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed
Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu;
And, happy melodist, unwearièd,
For ever piping songs for ever new;
More happy love! more happy, happy love! 25
For ever warm and still to be enjoy'd,
For ever panting, and for ever young;
All breathing human passion far above,
That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy'd,
A burning forehead, and a parching tongue. 30

Who are these coming to the sacrifice?
To what green altar, O mysterious priest,
Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,
And all her silken flanks with garlands drest?
What little town by river or sea-shore, 35
Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,
Is emptied of its folk, this pious morn?
And, little town, thy streets for evermore
Will silent be; and not a soul, to tell
Why thou art desolate, can e'er return. 40

O Attic shape! fair attitude! with brede
Of marble men and maidens overwrought,
With forest branches and the trodden weed;
Thou, silent form! dost tease us out of thought
As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral! 45
When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,
'Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.' 50

The Submission

I have submitted my first fellowship application, woo ho! It's a big relief! Especially because now I can stop wasting all that time on my dissertation chapter and focus instead on my blog! The process certainly required that I make my scattered pages into something focused and readable and that's not necessarily a bad thing. It also has enabled me to talk about my dissertation in a concise way and I successfully boiled it down to 800 characters (798 to be exact). Here's a snippet. It's a little out of context but I am still paranoid of dissertation thieves so I must defend myself:
"I argue that these writers sought to reject their own ubiquitous presence in photographic reproduction by finding new forms of self-expression, ironically the very same forms that photography experimented with, in which it would be harder for them to be seen."

The Desk

I am scrambling to get these fellowship applications out the door. I notice that the best gauge of how how hard I am working is the state of my office. Here is an accompanying photo of the floor. You be the judge.
Please note, however, that working hard is not necessarily related to productivity. If only...