changeling67 | Entries tagged with criticism and culture

Wasted most of the day in the podiatrist clinic, only to find that she had forgotten me and had gone home. I then spent a couple of hours AWOL until I could get an appointment at the minor injuries unit. Toe exceptionally bloody and exceptionally sore today. However, there are two things that have cheered me up; 1) I got my 'Lolita' essay back today - 60%. Starting to feel like I am scrabbling black at long last 2) I posted my result on FB and found a message left on my wall congratulating me - my old maths teacher (now retired) - always good to hear from him.

I am almost done, just need to do the following;

Edit

Signpost/Keep relevent

Top sheet/references

Rewrite ending

CELEBRATE

18:50
Managed to shed 400 words, have 79 to dispense with.

20:44
I have lost a quote somewhere which means I have to skimm the chapters to find it again. Just as well; the quote will bring me to the magic 3,300 mark.

21:25
Done and dusted :-)

Current Music: Classic FM - Various

Hmm - lots to do today, mostly sorting out a mess, then it will be the grand rewrite and edit. Everything is ok for the minute. Time to get moving.

20:38
I have edited and rewritten to the half-way point - but I know that the second half needs a LOT of attention. It is shaping up though and not such a strain as Ulysses was. Nothing could be like the strain of Ulysses!!!!

22:00
Completely rewritten, but I have to lose 476 words and find a neat conclusion. Think I am about 80% of the way there. Have cancelled lunch out tomorrow - this WILL be finished and then I can have lunch and a haircut on Thursday (the reminants of a 'normal' life!!!).

Today will be a disturbed day as Hubby needs to work in my office for an hour or so. So I had better get going :-/

23:25
3,816 - I think I am about 70% done, then I have to do another draft (copy paste) then substantially rewrite and edit, especially when the cap is 3,300. My draft is peppered with 'notes-to-self' i.e. revise/rewrite/expand etc and various directions to 'sort out this mess 1/2/3. Still, think I am on the right track. Nighty night :-)

( Health Matters )

Back to Lolita - office is cold. Bit of a problem - Hubby and P2 are out and I have lost the plastic lid to my board marker. I heard it clang again the gas fire, never to be seen again. Have tried looking under the fire, scrabbling on the floor under the fire etc., but no show. Thing is, if it has dropped INTO the fire, I can't turn it on. Hopefully, they will be back soon.

20:33
Fire has been on for a while now (plastic retrieved), but today has been as slow as hell. Barely 200 and very distractable. Would like to get a bit more done and expeand this essay quite a bit before I end up pairing it back and making 'pithy' comments.

Bah * Humbert *

21:33
2,773 - but most of it is Kincaid, so I will have to ad-lib and pare back on that. Tomorrow is another day...

Late start today as was meeting a friend in Penzance (love his designs - see HERE). Need to start on Kincaid now and compare with Freud's theories. I have a deadline of 3pm on Tuesday, so - skates on.

21:23
Progress is laboured, on account of being unwell again - but I am aiming for the 2,000 of reasonably well-written assignment before I go to bed.

22:06
2,203. Yeeha - done for the night. Tomorrow is more Kincaid and other essays and quotes from the book and my own 3rd person point of view. 2/3rds there :-D

Current Music: Classic FM - Various

Lollipops - the signifier of childhood. Right now, I am trying to piece together my essay, where once again it feels like a herculean task. It's a notoriously touchy subject - how to prove that indeed Humbert was a predator and that he didn't show any true pity or understanding of a girl, or behaved appropriately. So many people like the licentious side of what it represents i.e. underage sex, but they throughout the discourse, they fail to see the damage. Once again, I have to suspend my point of view and actually be quite calculating with what I am about to write in this assignment.

* sigh * - wish I could've stayed in Glastonbury....

22:48
1,315 - now that doesn't seem a lot more than yesterday (less than 200 in fact), but I had to start from scratch again and suddenly, I was writing like a bard!!! Like - wow, wish every day could be like this. I have to now use Kincaid tomorrow to profile his behaviors and why he fits the prototype perv, plus I think I will have to dig around the 'fase child' syndrome, where distance and objectification contribute to Humbert's stasis and that of the memory of his original love.

Jeez, if I could have a max output of 1,325 every day, then I would be done in three days. Onward tomorrow :-)

Current Mood: cranky
Current Music: Classic FM - unbelievably dreary tunes at that...

I am back at the desk, leafing through choice comments - both from Freud and Kincaid, then the other essays. Trying NOT to be distracted, alas it doesn't take much :-/

20:48
Done. Tomorrow, I am out and about which means I will have to complete the essay on Tuesday.

Mostly, it's about reading Freud's 3 essays and compare/contrast with other profilers before applying the framework to Nabokov's Humbert. All I can say is the more I read Kincaid, the more I think that Kinsey was a berk - and a potentially dangerous one at that.

Have got a reasonable result for the pp - she quite liked it, but I have quite a bit more spade work to do. It's a relief as she was absolutely acid about The Ladies' Paradise. Right now, I have got through and that is all I care about.

Will be off to midnight mass in 4 hours. Have an infected toe, but the church is only 15 minutes walk away (and for the first time this winter, really cold!!!) Wish me luck :-)

Picture - last day of lectures for the Truro contingency, who spent a couple of hours at the Caffeine Club to recover. I can now safely say that I have been converted to Prosecco. PP on Lolita was okish, will have to see what Dr GS has to say on the matter.

Longest trip home - time and distance haven't changed, but my ipod has died so the journey has doubled in length. Plus the GWR Wifi won't let me listen to Youtube. Time for a sleep methinks, as I am over an hour away from home.

Still going, still struggling, still not wanting to do this PP. Have tons to do, print out, save to minidrive AND have a script. Basically I am not going to bed until this is done - then I have to get on the 10:10 train tomorrow.

23:25
I have about 4 slides to do, plus collate printing and write a script. And stop coughing :-(

01:00
PP done, still have script to work on.

01:37
Finally! Am knackered and now have to wind down from being up so late.

Current Mood: Crosseyed and Delirious
Current Music: Classic FM - Various

As previously stated, I have really had a problem doing this PP. I used the 1997 version of Lolita as Dominque Swain plays the precocious teen well and Jeremy Irons is good enough looking and lizard-like to pull off the defiler Humbert Humbert. Alas, have struggled with this because I only have 24 hours left before I call it a day and I have not been good in filing in the details, nor have I writing a script to go with it. Oh and my filthy cold....

Bah Humbert :-(

23:23
I am done for today, my brain fried - I have quite a bit to do tomorrow and must be up early and FOCUS on the task ahead.

Current Mood: Stuffy nose and full of Lemsip

The results are back and many people are very unhappy. The student's forum lit up and many are in tears. I too, was heartbroken and just bawled my eyes out. Yes, I have passed - but so low. How can someone who is cruising near a first tumble to the bottom of the seconds? These marks are seriously screwing my averages. At least 2 have only got 40% which is just a pass - another asked me to call her and told me to buck up and breathe a sigh of relief that I passed (which actually I appreciate - even if she was drunk).

I am so glad I took the decision to do this over 2 years. Right now, I am in bed nursing my ego and ~~a bottle of scotch~~ a hot water bottle. Hate this bloody year :'((((

Well, these two are the choices that have been made for Assignments 3. As I have to do a PP on the first novel, I thought I might as well do it as an essay too - really hope they don't expect me to compare it to another novel, because I am fresh out of ideas on that one. I went to Dr Min's fantastic lecture today and she enthused about Ulyssess - which is infectious. I also read the following article.

'I read James Joyce's Ulysses in a week'

If I accept the challenge (and from what I can tell, even one former lecturer leaffed through the first, middle and last chapters to see what the fuss was about), then I only need to read Ulysses and I don't have to compare/contrast. 3,000 x 2.

*sigh*

Welcome to the candle which will be burning at both ends. I am coming to the end of my essay writing sometime between now and midday tomorrow. I feel like my writing level has gone from the top end of Level 5 back down to level 3, but actually, all I care about right now is getting through.

All my Truro refugees have come back with stunning photos of Paris, which I am glad they enjoyed but feel crabby as I wasn't well enough to go. I have left a message for my sister to look at the Trivago deals re Norway and Sweden (Looloo

bluegerl - I have taken your advice and will be having a break out there sometime in June).

Meanwhile I am a-sprinkling my assignment with critical essays and rewriting a LOT of it more academically. Pip, pip!!

22:14
I have finished the assignment, but I am having to go through it with a fine tooth comb and pare it back. Lots of pinting to proofread - a number of people have onlystarted tonight!! Either they are absolute geniuses, or they have lived it up at the Louvre and are crammin like absolute maniacs to compensate.

Well, it's coming together a bit more, though I have a lot of tonight and a very long day tomorrow to complete it. The last part is really scratchy andI will have to annotate the lot and turn it from a different perspective for it to make any sense. And add more critically thinking via Veblem, Simmel - even ol' Marx.

I will also have to continually throw everyone out of my office. Hubby doesn't get the hint that he has got his own office and why indeed can't he use THAT rather than conduct his business down here. Will have to tread carefully, as I don't want the family sulking.

I have been tinkering with this assignment since Sunday and like the Modernism essay before it, I find myself taking it apart and reforming it into countless documents. I think this is mostly borne out of fear. We haven't just gone up a gear; we have gone up several notches, with the need to produce what we did last year at double quick time.

The Ladies' Paradise is loosely based on 'Au Bon Marche', so here is a pretty picture of a french retail giant, that has possibly (or allegedly)consumed the 'little store' in its aim to gain the most consumers of its product. My advice is not to read up on the greed of the consumer and its origins, or you will question the motives you have about buying ANYTHING (or at least deriving any joy out of it).

Christmas is going to be f*****g ace in my house this year...

o_O

21:24
It is a HUGE jigsaw puzzle now - 1,450 words with more besides on another set of notes. Alas, I haven't got the metaphoric box lid to see whatit will look like when I have finished. I am conscious that in less than 60 hours, this will be uploaded as a PDF file, regardless of the finished state. I haven't got the luxury to schmooze over it like before. Then, I will have to knock up 1,000 words over the weekend as the start of my major dissertation kicks in. This half term holiday week is NOT a reading week - it is an all-systems-go week where you tie yourself to the desk and make yourself work.

I can't wait til this course ends - by my reckoning, it will be in 182 days from now. Sounds miles away, doesn't it? In reality, I have to produce the following: this essay; another 2 assignments on 'Modernism and 'CritCult' respectively (3,000 x 2); 5,000 words on Satire; 5,000 on War Poetry, countless powerpoints (at least one if not more per subject); and a 10,000 dissertation, with a diss portfolio included. Altogether over 30,000 words. Jeez. I will have to be surgically removed from my desk.

I have hammered out 1,500 words in regards to The Ladies' Paradise but need to write an actual essay around my notes and pare back a LOT on the quotes. I also need to tie in Veblem's observations as well as the ones that are on the Further Reading List. Brain doesn't want to play ball at the moment, especially since I identify with Simmel more than I do with Veblen.

Plus...I am not a conventional female shopaholic. I do not live to follow fashion/trends or spending sprees on home luxuries. Now if you apply that theory to books, CDs and wine, then I am yer gal. I just don't 'get' that need to obtain or consume new goods to make myself feel prestigeous. I have my tastes, my quirks, but they don't come to much in the economic environment. I ca understand the psychology behind it, but that is about it.

I found myself stuck on a bridge for nearly half an hour this afternoon. Rear engine of the London to Paddington train died just after we left Saltash, leaving us on the I.K. Brunel. I carried on with my annotation of 'The Ladies' Paradise' (painfully slow - like the train - but I would rather do that than suffer James Joyce's 'Ulysses').

I put in about 8 hours all told; I also annotated 'The Waste Land' and can see how it's fragmentary style and numerous narrative voices (in French, German and Hindi, I ask you) are going to drive me up the wall. Alongside 'The Waste Land', I have considered writing about Eliot's 'Prufrock' and Ezra Pound's 'Metro'- am avoiding Pound's 'Mauberley' as like 'Ulysses, it is excruciating (Vogon poetry, anyone?).

Lecture today made me irritated - how a 'Dandy' is heralded as a true individual, but a 'Woman' is objectified as nothing more than a 'living frock'. Quote 'dazzling and stupid'. I know - product of it's time etc. Not for the first time do I find the theorists and the modernists as being a misogynistic bunch of twats. F.T. Marinetti et al. His 'scorn of women' matches my derision of pricks who drive too fast - the Futurist Manifesto can go suck itself. Or something close to that description.

The reason for my mood is that the train ran 40 minutes late coming back. Walled in with fellow commuters with their farts, crisps and bad perfume AND (critically) who won't shut the duck up. Or something like that (I don't habitually use bad language in public, but I have had a day of it).

Crabby Claws is now leaving the building - or, let's face it, sleeping. Only to do it all again tomorrow.

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Sub Rosa

"All this talk of blood and slaying has put me off my tea"

Entries tagged with criticism and culture

Lolita Marks

'Lolita' Essay' - Day VII

'Lolita' Essay' - Day VI

Lolita Essay - Day V

Lolita Essay - Day IV

'Lolita' Essay' - Day III

Lolita Essay - Day II

'Lolita' Essay - The Prologue III

'Lolita' Essay - The Prologue

Lolita PP - Email

Prosecco Dreams

PP Criticism & Culture: Lolita - Day 3

PP Criticism & Culture: Lolita - Day 2

Criticism & Culture: The Ladies' Paradise :-(

Assignments 3 - Criticism & Culture/Modernism

Cricism & Culture: The Ladies' Paradise - Day 4000000 (or so it feels)

Cricism & Culture: The Ladies' Paradise - Day 4

Cricism & Culture: The Ladies' Paradise - Day 3ish

Cricism & Culture: The Ladies' Paradise - Day 2 (Consumero Ergo Sum)

A Bridge Too Far