Have a break
Not too sure how the 430 paper will be, but in some sense, I think I really need a break. A break, not doing nothing, but a break to start looking at things afresh.
Maybe 430 has been too broad, covering too many things, of which so many overlaps with my dissertation; or at times, overlapping with things I have seen before, that there is as Andy said, very little novelty. Its not that there is nothing new to learn, which of course there is, but the novelty is clearly lacking.
I guess what brought me back to this idea, were 1) a sense of sianess, and 2) Richard Sennett's book entitled The Fall of Public Man. It was in Lisbos at Maria's place that I first started reading his book, and it is simply remarkable, probably one of the most remarkable books I have seen in years; and I am reading it now!
I guess when I always found my JC subject combination boring, it was because there was very little mental stimulation and self-reflection, when all one does is the face numbers and equations; but it was always very exciting when some I discover that there was some logics.
I guess, I do really enjoy my 430, but this intense period of revision is really getting to me, and at this point, I really need to read something different, maybe something new. I recalled that for 411, it was the conservation articles which provided the newness, but currently, apart from my Zukin, and maybe tmr the Mitchell Antipode paper, there is really nothing very exciting.
So, maybe I'll see more of Zukin tonite, and what will pop up tmr.
Some thing from Sennett before that:
-------------------------------------
"Modern ideas about the psychology of thie private life are confused. Few people today would claim that their psychic life arises by spontaenous generation, independent of social conditions and environmental influences. This psychic life is seen as so precious and so delicate that it will wither if exposed to the harsh realities of the social world, and will flower only to the extent that it is protected and isolated. Each person's self has become his principal burden; to know oneself has become an end, instead of a means through which one knows the world. And previsely because we are so self-absorbed, it is extremely difficult for us to arrive at a private principle, to give any clear account to ourselves or to others of what our personalities are. The clear reason is that, the more privatized the psyche, the less stimulated, and the more difficult it is for us to feel or to express feeling."
"... every self is in some measure a cabinet of horrors, civilized relations between selves can only proceed to the extent that nasty secrets of desire, greed, or envy are kept locked up."
"Masses of people are concerned with their single life-histories and particular emotions as never before; this concern has proved to be a trap rather than a liberation."
Maybe 430 has been too broad, covering too many things, of which so many overlaps with my dissertation; or at times, overlapping with things I have seen before, that there is as Andy said, very little novelty. Its not that there is nothing new to learn, which of course there is, but the novelty is clearly lacking.
I guess what brought me back to this idea, were 1) a sense of sianess, and 2) Richard Sennett's book entitled The Fall of Public Man. It was in Lisbos at Maria's place that I first started reading his book, and it is simply remarkable, probably one of the most remarkable books I have seen in years; and I am reading it now!
I guess when I always found my JC subject combination boring, it was because there was very little mental stimulation and self-reflection, when all one does is the face numbers and equations; but it was always very exciting when some I discover that there was some logics.
I guess, I do really enjoy my 430, but this intense period of revision is really getting to me, and at this point, I really need to read something different, maybe something new. I recalled that for 411, it was the conservation articles which provided the newness, but currently, apart from my Zukin, and maybe tmr the Mitchell Antipode paper, there is really nothing very exciting.
So, maybe I'll see more of Zukin tonite, and what will pop up tmr.
Some thing from Sennett before that:
-------------------------------------
"Modern ideas about the psychology of thie private life are confused. Few people today would claim that their psychic life arises by spontaenous generation, independent of social conditions and environmental influences. This psychic life is seen as so precious and so delicate that it will wither if exposed to the harsh realities of the social world, and will flower only to the extent that it is protected and isolated. Each person's self has become his principal burden; to know oneself has become an end, instead of a means through which one knows the world. And previsely because we are so self-absorbed, it is extremely difficult for us to arrive at a private principle, to give any clear account to ourselves or to others of what our personalities are. The clear reason is that, the more privatized the psyche, the less stimulated, and the more difficult it is for us to feel or to express feeling."
"... every self is in some measure a cabinet of horrors, civilized relations between selves can only proceed to the extent that nasty secrets of desire, greed, or envy are kept locked up."
"Masses of people are concerned with their single life-histories and particular emotions as never before; this concern has proved to be a trap rather than a liberation."
posted by city_walker at 6/14/2005 09:10:00 am
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