distress

Still waiting to hear back from one committee member on the scheduling thingy.

Finished with the Introduction and Chapter One. Reading through Chapter Two, trying not to think too hard.

I ended up doing a riff on spiders and managed to work in a longish quote from "Nightmares" (Buffy the Vampire Slayer 1.10), along with mentions of Shelob and Ungoliant the Unlight. I hate this dissertation with every fiber of my being, but it is kind of fun.

displacement

Got through the Seneca chapter.

This chapter is the oldest section of the dissertation; I wrote it as a term-paper before I took prelims, and, although it's been revised and edited since then, the language still has a kind of hangover from four years ago: awkward circumlocutions, redundant words, an excess of qualifiers ("I think" or "it seems"). It was very hard to learn not to hedge my bets in my academic writing, not to leave myself a rhetorical escape-hatch. And I still do things like that, but I try to save them for when I'm really just offering an opinion or a wild-ass speculation, rather than applying them to every damn point I make.

No, it's not that bad. But it's depressingly hard work to fix. In another mood, I'd probably be enjoying this--there is a great deal of satisfaction to be had from streamlining a bad sentence--but I am so damn sick of this thing, so wearily familiar with every idea and interpretation, that I can't take any pleasure in it.

200+ pages to go.

I had roseate visions of finishing up the editing by tomorrow, so that I could take the ms to the copy shop at my leisure, and stroll into Monday morning with all my ducks in a row. Not happening, Gentle Readers. Not fucking happening. I'll have it done on time, but that sense of spaciousness and contentment is not going to be mine this weekend. Drudgery is the name of the game. Drudgery and obligation and misia was saying something about brussels sprouts ...

Movie: Say Anything

Watched tonight, to escape from dis. Quite liked it. Have a thought, which is a spoiler.

Also spoilers for 10 Things I Hate About You.

( You. Must. Chill! )

It's a very very 80s movie, but it carries itself well.

Headachy. Dis looming. Going to bed.