It's been almost a month since my last post, and fear not, dear reader, I am still among the living. However, I've just finished what was the busiest month of my tenure here and I'm not even in classes right now. Many friends coming to stay, one show, two school events, and two interviews and I'm back to sitting at my computer typing away. I have seen three shows at the RSC since then as well, Hamlet, As You Like It and A Mad World My Masters. Still have yet to see Titus Andronicus and All's Well That Ends Well.
I'm actually glad to be back at work, having been away from it for so long it's nice to sit down and begin writing again. Or at least transcribing one 90-minute interview and another 2-hour long interview. I believe I will be at this for the next foreseeable lifetime, though I believe that is what I might have said, or thought, when writing my last bout of essays. Which seems to have turned out alright (two distinctions which I felt pretty good about.)
I believe that I am currently in academic limbo. I know what I am supposed to do: transcribe interviews. I know what I'm supposed to do next: code those interviews, and seek out more. I don't know however, what all this will lead to. This could either be the best idea I've ever had, or turn out to be the worst conglomeration of words ever set to paper. The dissertation readers could actually be deprived a few IQ points for having glanced at the title, it could be that bad. Barring that, I think the only thing I'm hoping is that it does not turn out average. I'm hoping that my dissertation this summer, and ultimately my PhD thesis, turns out to be at the very least thought-provoking. I'd even settle for people slapping their foreheads, saying "well, duuuh" and moving on with the rest of their lives. I think my greatest fear here is to be ordinary. Is to produce a piece of work that has been hashed and rehashed so many times that the original thought process may have actually been laid out by some obscure Greek philosopher (not Plato or Socrates, mind you, just some schmo who wrote something once) and written again and again so that no one could ever disagree with it.
In so fearing that, I think I might actually know that what I want to produce is something that spurs conversation, public debate, or even a thing that makes you go 'hmmm.' I don't want everyone to agree with it (though one or two might be nice), and I'd really like it if more than two people actually read it. Maybe I don't have to change the world (as my last post seems to indicate), maybe I'd just like to change my own... and be happy with that.
I'm bursting with ideas so far, and because this is a public forum, and I ain't published yet, I'm not going to risk those ideas being stolen (because even if they never are, I'd still be afraid they would be) and I won't bore you with the details. However, once I am published, there is going to be a long rant about what all my ideas are. Only then will I worry about how many readers this blog actually has.
I can keep honest counsel, ride, run, mar a curious
tale in telling it, and deliver a plain message
bluntly: that which ordinary men are fit for, I am
qualified in; and the best of me is diligence. -- King Lear, I.iv
Year 1, Day 262 -- Words Written: 0, Interviews Taken: 2, Words Transcribed: 44 minutes worth.
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