burnt out academic sept-may, dirtbag jun-aug

whatever your reasons just make the fuckin bibliography

25-29 April 2022

First week of the new semester! I've had several weeks off to relax, which was nice and desperately needed but also makes it quite an adjustment to go back to waking up early and getting things done again. This is also the first time we're back to almost all classes being in person, which is so different from what I've got used to over the last two years...

What all five of my examples have in common is that they are minor elements in the text; they are not main ideas. In fact, your usual practice of reading which focuses on main ideas would dismiss them all as marginal or trivial. Another thing they have in common is that, although they are minor, they are nonetheless conspicuous, eye-catching: they are either surprising or repeated, set off from the text or too long. Close reading pays attention to elements in the text which, although marginal, are nonetheless emphatic, prominent—elements in the text which ought to be quietly subordinate to the main idea, but which textually call attention to themselves.

Most of you have been educated to ignore such elements. You have been taught to seek out and identify the main ideas, dismissing the trivial as you go. This has had to be trained into you: read to a young child sometime, you will notice she has the annoying habit of interrupting the flow of the story to draw attention to some minor thing. Close reading resembles the interruptions of that child. It is a method of undoing the training that keeps us to the straight and narrow path of main ideas. It is a way of learning not to disregard those features of the text that attract our attention, but are not principal ideas.

19.01.22

Our energy comes and goes, and it takes a while and a lot of practice to find a perfect balance. Take time to recharge yourself without feeling guilty for it!