like painting myself into a corner...
so, the more reading i do and the more notes i take for this seminar paper of mine, the less i feel that i have a thesis. actually, the less i feel like i have anything even remotely new to add to the dialogue of post-hurricane katrina analysis.
i keep hoping that if i write and write and write and write, eventually ideas are going to come forth that i can mold into something worthwhile.
that draft is due in four days... four is not a lot of days.
i am jack's crossed fingers.
posted by emily @ Wednesday, October 26, 2005
6 comments
6 Comments:
Never fear. I'm supposed to give my editor an update of my progress in refining my topic tomorrow. I've got nothing. Nothing! A general area of law, sure, but the way I approach this is that I do a lot of research until I find a certain issue that really grabs me, and then write like mad. No point in writing unless you've got something to say, right?
Well, my schedule isn't laid out like that. I can't just give the guy a general topic area. He wants me to refine it, and I'm sure if I had a thesis for him by tomorrow he'd be ecstatic. But I guarantee that won't happen.
I think it's about time that I just start printing out a bunch of cases, start reading, and pick up on something that grabs me, rather starting narrow and branching out...
You gonna have my computer on campus tomorrow? I might want to get my con law notes off the hard drive. I have them backed up at home, but have done so (brilliantly I might add) in OneNote format, which I for some reason seem to have used up the licenses for and can't install on any other computers...
Ha!!! You mock David Eggers and dare me to defend him and then you quote the most overrated contemporary American novelist by twenty car lengths. Palahniuk is a hack. I read his books with the same pleasure I used to read Stephen King books: guilty pleasure, informed by the nudity of the mechanics of the one trick that pony has to offer. Nobody's more guilty than CP of writing the same book over and over again for fun and profit. It's an entertaining book, granted, but it's hollow, brain candy, schtick; he's like a character actor trying to sustain an outsized leading role.
Sorry to hear your stressed about your thesis. I'm sure you'll come through, and I'm also sure I'm not the only one who's happy to serve as a reader / editor / shoulder to beat on when things seem hopeless.
They're not.
i'd still rather read brain candy than eggers' brainless crap.
oh, and eggers' little pal neal pollack can go take a flying leap, too!
those two are worse than the straight-to-paperback stuff that's sold in grocery store check-out lines. at least the writers of those books treat writing like a job, and not like some sort of souped-up crusade.
you should read 30 pages of you shall know . . . with an open mind. i'll lend it to you, and if you don't like it i'll leave you alone. and for the record, i've read all but maybe two of palahniuk's novels. i just don't kid myself that it's much better than People magazine.
the really funny thing (okay, it's not _that_ funny) is that i haven't read any of palahniuk's stuff. at all. zip. zilch. i'm only defending him in light of my utter and deeply felt hatred of dave eggers.
but i do love "fight club the movie".
and moon, you can't lend me any more books right now. for the following reasons:
1) i already have two books and a magazine of yours sitting on my bedside table waiting for me to devote some attention to them
2) i doubt i'll get to read anything non-school-related until winter break
3) I HATE DAVE EGGERS!!!
Post a Comment
<< Home