I've been trying to come back to this space more frequently--to get back into a blogging and writing rhythm (they say a writer writes and so it must go that a blogger blogs; here I am!). While I had always imagined that after the dissertation time would suddenly open up in magical ways, I now…
Although the facts of time and place have receded into legend, like many historical records of the birth of Modernism, it is certain that a packet of Japanese prints arrived in Paris around 1860 and instantly created a widening wave of amazement, incredulity, and exhilaration. The shock of encounter was so great, and the moment…
Granted, granted I'm a babbler, a harmless, irksome babbler, as we all are. But what's to be done if the sole and express purpose of every intelligent man is babble--that is, a deliberate pouring from empty into void. -Dostoevsky (Notes from the Underground)It's been a strange week, dear readers. Strange, strange, strange. It all started on…
There were moments of such positive intoxication, of such happiness, that there was not the faintest trace of irony within me, on my honor. I had faith, hope, love. I believed blindly at such times that by some miracle, by some external circumstance, all this would suddenly open out, expand; that suddenly a vista of…
Writing things down really seems like work. They say work makes a man good and honest. Well, here's a chance, at least. -Fyodor Dostoevsky (Notes from the Underground)Time management has never been my strong suit. While I'm a person who gets things done, I often find myself completing tasks in the margins of time--when I…
Remember that you're doing this for yourself. It was helpful for me to think of my dissertation in these terms: I'm never going to climb Everest, or run a marathon. But the dissertation is an adventure and a feat of endurance that provides a sense of accomplishment proportional to the struggle that it requires.…
"A good rotation. A rotation I define as the experiencing of the new beyond the expectation of the experiencing of the new. For example, taking one's first trip to Taxco would not be a rotation, or no more than a very ordinary rotation; but getting lost on the way and discovering a hidden valley would…
Luka went upstairs again and sat down at her desk. "I have to write." She'd been on the island since summer, now it was February and she hadn't written a word. Each morning she woke up at five, sometimes four, and jumped out of bed longing to write--the book was ready inside of her, every chapter,…
"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense." ~ Ralph Waldo EmersonA…
The aim of life is appreciation; there is no sense in not appreciating things.-Gilbert K. ChestertonToday I biked the 4 miles uphill to campus, taught an intermediate Russian class for a friend who was taking her Ph.D. exams and then went to a dissertation workshop. Afterwards, inspired by my new "let's get this thing done"…
Dining with Dostoevsky 