Thud: The Patron Saint of Nothing, Edumacation

[leahbobet]

January 10, 2007 Progress Notes:

The Patron Saint of Nothing

Words today: 1000.
Words total: 20,250 MS Word.
Reason for stopping: I have been informed by Management that what I thought was my Big Evil is really more a miniboss kind of evil. And there is a Bigger Evil. I feel like I'm writing a Final Fantasy game. And then I got annoyed and quit for the night.
Liquid Refreshment: Water.
Munchies: Delivery pizza and wings. About once every six months I forget that the grease content of this -- regardless of where it's ordered from -- makes me terribly sick and I eat it. I remember now. :p
Exercise: Hour and change walking.
Mail: Nomail.

Darling du Jour: The breath of the trees smelled of foul ice, the dirty skin that formed atop the canals for three days at the very heart of a Charybdean winter. It smelled of dead fish and sewage and the last leavings of a life gone to despair, saccharine with rot, heavy with flesh.
Tyop du Jour: N/A
Words MS Word Doesn't Know: treeflesh, snugged

Mean Things: Qara and Sakhile, Rogue Xenobiologists: The treeees! The treeeees! Also, having a knife pressed up near your kidney bit is extra threatening when you're trained in biology.
Research Roundup: Kidney injuries, physiognomy, eye movement and lying.
Books in progress: Catherynne M. Valente, The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden; Jay Lake, Trial of Flowers.

The glamour: Today there was water, but only hot water, because there was a leak in the pipe and they were fixing the cold water. I nearly burned my hand on the hot water, but I did not. Hopefully tomorrow all water will be as standard.

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Day Five:

4,650 / 67,500 (6.9%)

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Two classes today: Phonology, aka Refugee Camp for Survivors of Last Semester's Syntax Class (really, half the class was there) and Philosophy of Feminism.

The first looks like it'll be good if a lot of fiddly work: I've had the instructor as a TA before and he was great. Unfortunately, the mouthy princess who was in two of my classes last semester who asks questions about stuff she'd have caught if she was paying attention in this entitled little tone is there too. Perhaps she will have a fatal shark accident or something. Until then, I shall sit away from her.

*adjusts rocking chair and shotgun*

Philosophy of Feminism, or as it shall be henceforth called, Patriarchy Class, is daunting me. There is 80 pages of reading per week on the doings of the Patriarchy. I feel that the Patriarchy might want to slow the hell down, since I have four other classes. I'm a little concerned I don't have enough background to take this thing -- my only training in the sort of formalism aspects of equity studies is all to do with sociolinguistics -- but...well, that's part of why I'm taking it. I had a few realizations from last summer's big LJ brushfire about race and gender, and one of them was that I am decidedly not educated about the theoretical end of these issues. I can't even join in half the discussions, because I don't know the terms and their history, and people who use them can't seem to explain them because they're so entrenched in their dialogues.

I want to be in the discussion here.

We already have the first project, which is to make concrete observations on sexism and genderism in the world at large and apply certain theoretical ideas to them, analyze based on those theoretical ideas.

Yes, my homework is to write about everybody's sexism for marks.

I'm watching you and taking notes, internets. :p

Comments

[maradydd.livejournal.com]

So what does Philosophy of Feminism think about people like me, who, y'know, hate everyone?

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

I don't know. I will ask it once I've done my 80 pages of reading for the week. :p

[jeffpalmatier.livejournal.com]

I had a few realizations from last summer's big LJ brushfire about race and gender, and one of them was that I am decidedly not educated about the theoretical end of these issues. I can't even join in half the discussions, because I don't know the terms and their history, and people who use them can't seem to explain them because they're so entrenched in their dialogues.

You're not missing anything, trust me. I used to be a history grad student, and I swear if I had to read one more book about race and/or gender, I was going to scream. In my experience, the people who get all obsessed with these topics usually have a screw loose, so be careful about getting involved with them.

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

In my experience, the people who get all obsessed with these topics usually have a screw loose, so be careful about getting involved with them.

Heh -- might get in with a bad brainwashy element, hmm? Concern noted. *g*

Well, I figure obsession about anything is not helpful -- to the person or the discourse. On the other hand, a consistent concern about equality in society is pretty sane: race and gender issues are around because people are telling me what I can't do or be because of that small boobie issue I've got.

I figure if I can get through 80 pages of the Patriarchy readings weekly, I will probably have the tools to decide who's sane and who ain't. *g*

[pmonkeyfun.livejournal.com]

I did a philosophy of feminism course, and it was reading-heavy too. Someone told me this was not uncommon for the discipline, so there you go. There were lots of references to other works by non-feminist philosophers, but it wasn't a problem because most feminist writers have their own read on these works anyway; it was like a built in primer for whatever the topic of the week was. That course was probably my favorite philosophy course that I took, partially because the readings were so interesting, but mostly because the professor rocked hard.

Have fun stormin' da patriarchy! (Think it'll work? It would take a miracle...)

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

*nod* Okay, that makes me feel a little better. I had a little terror fit that I don't have enough philosophy background, full stop, to grasp what Feminist Liberalism and Feminist Marxism will fully say -- having not studied Liberalism and Marxism and so forth. There is extracurricular background reading in my future.

I suspect the professor is going to rock. We have two TAs, one who's technically at York, and they both introduced themselves with an awestruck "it's such a wonderful thing to work with Professor Morgan". That sounds promising.

*gets the wheelbarrow*