Musings.

I had a delightful break in Sydvegas with Sins have have arrived back, newly baptised as Trashbat. The change of atmosphere was really delightful, very very different culturally from Melbourne. And I think I really like it there. The change, the difference, it felt really invigorating. I think it's partially because I feel that for the last three or four years I've been in a rut. And that's a very long time. It's not that I haven't been doing things, I have, absolutely. But it's all very long term commitment stuff, and I'm really wanting the pleasure of some immediate responses. So I thought I might look at maybe splitting my research. There is no way I'd sacrifice the wonderful Doc in Boots, she has to supervise. But I think that some time in a different context for a little while might be healthy. Will be healthy. I'm looking into other supervisors in NSW. I'm doing it and it feels good.

Teh sparkley, sparkley angst

Just finished the newest Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead (Blood Promise), so I need to re-look at my vampire paper and add to it. There's quite a bit of writing for me to do over the next month and I can't seem to get motivated enough to do it. I know I need to suck it up and get in there. I'm hoping to finish the short story first, as a sort of warm up, before going back to the Snow White stuff. I have to incorporate the Draco Trilogy stuff into my Harry Paper too. I know it's a case of heads down, bums up, but I'm a little scared to get back into it.

Yeah, I know. Suck it up, Princess.

The Very Secret Geekout

Having an epic Geekout watching Lord of the Rings extended editions with cast commentary. No analysis. Just wine and giggles.

Cup of tea, cup of tea, almost got a shag, cup of tea.

We’ve been watching a lot of Buffy recently. It’s been comforting to go back to it after an absence of quite a few years. There’s so much in there, but I think that Buffy is going to be one of the few texts that I can’t bring myself to tear apart. There’s so much in there, but I kind of enjoy just being able to watch it for the sake of watching it. Also, it’s kind of comforting in times of need. Like now. Pet boy is being an arse. Hopefully this arseyness is the end of all the arseyness. The grand Fuckoff has been issued. Now I just need the willpower to maintain it.
Buffy helps with that.

When the emo takes over

There’s a lot of representations of Death. I know I’m a little wrapped up in it still from the Book Thief, but between him, Gaiman’s perky gothic Death and Silas, Pratchett’s Death and Death of Rats, and George/Millie and her cohorts in Dead Like Me, I seem to be surrounded by them. It makes me think about how they’re represented in modern fictions. I’m thinking a comparison between the Death of Byron and Tennyson and Poe and so on. Not sure where to take it yet, I’ll get around to fleshing it out though.

Of Cabbages and Kings

The Fabulous Ms L and I went on a grand adventure into Lygon Street to see the premier of Coraline. We were a week early, which is better than a week late, but still not overly conducive to actually viewing the movie. So we went for coffee (or hot chocolate) and profiteroles, which – for some reason - always feels so right on Lygon St. Then started the trek to locate werewolf clubs. Booyah. Not successful. However we did discover a bottle shop that stocked Some Young Punks (with such delightful drops as Passion has Red Lips, and The Squid’s Grip), so I might have stocked up the wine rack a little. Then on the way back to the car, we passed Readings. Seriously, that place is to me as Goldfingers is to a drunken buck’s night. It started off innocently enough, a casual glance through the graphic novels for specific titles, a finger down the spine of the Dictionary of Signs and Symbols, the normal back and forth. But of course as we wander further back, toward philosophy, lit crit, psychology, things got a little steamier. The whispered sweet nothings stopped and instead the pages got sassier, they did this arching, whimpering thing and I ended up writhing against the shelves trying to decide between a Jeffreys, an Irigaray, and a Braudilliard. In the end, however, there was this sweet, purple book. Logic of Alice. She was all “hey baby, you so fine” and I was like, *blushgulp* “hi...” and she’s all “So how you doin’?” and I’m like “I’m...um... fine. So... you fancy a little sumpin’sumpin’?” and she’s like “oh honeychild, I don’t open my pages for just anyone you know. If you like it, put a receipt on it.”

So I did.

Yeah, we’ve been wrapped up in each other ever since. I’m hoping she might be useful beyond the Alice paper. The explanations of logic are applicable to all arguments, so I’m going to use her as a handbook and rework old writing, thesis included, and try to tighten them. I’m just concerned there’s a privileging of certain masculinist thought types, but I haven’t figured out how to phrase that concern properly yet. Soon my pretties, soon

Comic Books and Rock'n'Roll: Coolest PhD Evah!

Ok, well, after much musing, I've come up with a basic structure for the Phd:

The Children of the Fence: Developing an Aesthetic Criteria for Critically evaluating Trans-Media Narratives
~or~
Comic Books and Rock'n'Roll: Coolest PhD Evah!

Intro: The Last Supper
1. The Rebirth of the Author: New roles for writers and readers.
2. Convergence Culture: Developing a pre-modern relationship with text.
3. The Amory Wars: A Post-Modern Epic
4. Neverender: Musical Narrative and Performance
5. Second Stage Turbine Blade: Textual Narrative (including paratext)
6. In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: Online Narratives
7: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness: The post-modern hero of autobiography and analogy.
8. No World For Tomorrow: Developing an aesthetic criteria for critical evaluation of trans-media narratives.

Dear lord, and I am spent. I'm planning to use a similar approach with the Alice project, which might be slightly more generalised as there are more books. I'll nut that one out and post later. Meanwhile, must email supervisor.