Conclusion

Defense (April 28): Passed

Thesis: Turned in and cataloged

Graduation (June 15): Graduated

More Editing

I am now on the last big round of editing.  (Whatever that means.)

It'll be turned in Monday, then we'll look at it as a whole over Spring Break.

I'm waiting to hear back from my committee members as to the best time for my Defense, but it will most likely be the final week of April.

Yea!

Death of the Father (Curse you Harold Bloom)

I am in the thick of revising.  I hate revision.  I hate it.  I love editing other people's works.  But my own -- blah.

I was about to make a salient point about Chaucer -- really thought-provoking, you know -- when I realized I was doing so through the use of Shakespeare.  Damn.

More on Editing

I'm still editing.  The third and final small edit is done.  The second big edit is due Tuesday.

In my head, I'm so excited to keep writing.  Then I stare at the computer. . .and I'm done.  I want to take a nap or check cuteoverload.com one more time.

Right now I'm watching Food Networ.  Helpful, helpful.

In Which My Students Break My Heart

16 responses.  3 said they’d read Chaucer“I spent a lot more time studying Shakespeare”

 “Instead of reading his work, we read Hamlet, Shakespeare, etc”

 “Chaucer. . .don’t even know the guy.  We studied other stuff like Shakespeare.”

 “I don’t know much about Geoffrey Chaucer.  I did study ‘The Canterbury Tales’ in high school, but at that time I didn’t know it was written by Chaucer.  I don’t remember much about ‘The Canterbury Tales.’”

 “I have never studied Geoffrey Chaucer.”

 “Thought his work was okay.  Only liked only a couple of the Canterbury Tales”

 “I do not even remember what [it] is really about because it was so difficult to read and comprehend.”

 “No idea who Chaucer is.  I did not study his work at all in school.”

 “I have never heard of Chaucer.”

a little field work

My class on Thursday: History of the English Language and Chaucer day.

I talked about the history of our delightful language.

I had them do some writing on Chaucer, then we listened to Baba Brinkman's rap version of "The Pardoner's Tale" -- finally, I read them some stories from my Chaucer picture book while they ate cookies.

I've only glanced through their writing.  It's been pretty surprising.  Overall, they really like "The Pardoner's Tale."  I think it's boring now and I thought it was boring in 11th grade, so I was quite surprised by this.  (Gah, ten years ago.)  They didn't like the rap format.

I also asked them to write down anything they knew, if they read him in high school, etc.  The majority of my students -- I mean, like, 20 out of 23 -- claimed not to know who Chaucer is/not to have him in high school.  I find this a little odd, in that I wonder if they read him and just don't remember.  I'm sure I don't remember everything I read in high school.  Still, the fact the wouldn't remember is also quite telling.

But then pointing out that there are flaws in the American school system is like -- well, like any number of cliches.

Editing

I'm now thick in the editing stage.  My advisor and I are doing this in terms of small edits and big edits.  

Small edits -- 20 pages a time, just a sort of cleaning and rearranging.

Big edits -- larger changes, adding in more research, etc.

Two small edits are done (so about 2/3 have been edited in some form).  The first big edit is due on Tuesday.  Yikes!

Not much time, really.  Now, technically, I can't remember when I'm supposed to defend by.  First week of May, I believe.  (Luckily my advisor is generally more on top of these things than I.)  But I'd really like to get this thing done by the middle of March.  Before Spring Break, anyway.

The new (and final!) quarter beings March 31.  I'd like to go into knowing the big stuff is out of the way.  Since I'm taking both Chaucer and Magic in Medieval Lit, I would like to be able to devote all of my time to my studies.

Behold: The Internet!

At the suggestion of my adviser, I am attempting to create a website for my thesis.

I've gotten a little done -- I've figured out how to upload pages to the server my university provides.

I don't really know what I'm doing, but it's fun.

Frustration

This weekend (this weekend?  It's Sunday afternoon!), I was supposed to start revising my thesis.  I need to do some structural work.  Also, my advisor suggests making a multimedia thesis -- awesome!

But while I'm proud of the work I've done, it's difficult to get up the enthusiasm to work.

Again, this week, I have heard from fellow grad students and others how they hate Chaucer or hate pre-1800s lit (where my current university makes the distinction; I believe my former uni split it at 1650 or 1700).  People tell me they hate what I do -- it's not an honest mistake, they know what I study and what I love.  Their comments are not mocking or malicious, but still.

How am I supposed to take them?  Do people go to bio majors and say, "Oh, I hate biology"?  Maybe.

But it's frustrating to have my own colleagues belittle my work.  In so many ways, I am glad I'm moving to history.