Dissertation Year endorses Obama

I think that both Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton would make good presidents. But today, this blog makes an historic announcement (rather than an historical one, for once): We here at Dissertation Year officially endorse Barak Obama for president.

Obama seems slightly more left than Hillary. She talks about "strengthening the middle class" on her website; he talks about poverty and affordable housing. For real, people. Let's keep talking about working to end poverty!

Also, the things that people like Geraldine Ferraro have been saying make me really sad and worried for the future of the democratic party. Those kinds of comments about Obama and race are awful. At the same time Ferraro is claiming that he's got it so easy, Hillary is blasting him for things his pastor said (things that actually, I largely agree with.*) Obama was in a tough position, and how he dealt with it--his speech on race in the U.S.--impressed me a lot.

Many people think that Clinton isn't so far behind, and that besides, women are always being asked to step aside so that men can take on the bigger role by virtue of gender norms, and that she shouldn't succumb to that. This is true--she's not so far behind. Women do often get screwed because of gender norms. But in this particular case, I don't think that most people who think she should drop out of the race think that because she's a women. We think that because she's behind in both popular vote and delegate count. And because the longer the primary contest goes on, the uglier it gets, the more polarized Clinton and Obama voters get, and the more likely it becomes that people who back the person who goes on to lose the Democratic nomination for pres. will stay home during the general election. Hence, I call for Clinton to drop out of the race. The point here is to beat the 'publicans. Remember Duck Plus Horse? I would seriously vote for Duck Plus Horse before I voted for another 'publican, because I sincerely believe that working together, a duck and a horse would do a better job than a 'publican.

It's a happy time because we have both a white woman and a black man running for the nomination, and against the most unpopular president in history! Let's not self-implode in a race war, for once, people. No one screws up their chances like the democrats.

*He said, among other things, that violence begets violence. He said that HIV was a government conspiracy to wipe out people of color, and though I don't agree, I do agree that that's not an entirely far-fetched statement, for the reasons he cited: other government medical experiments on black people (the Tuskeegee experiments) and other government lies (bombing of Cambodia, I'd ad the freaking Iraq war). He may have said that about HIV for a strategic reason--to get more people to get tested for HIV; if a conspiracy theory gets more people to get tested, great. (Oh, and by the way, there was a government conspiracy not to do anything about the AIDS epidemic in its first years because it was supposedly "the gay disease.") And if he called the USA the US-KKK or something, so what? There's a lot of racism in the U.S.: see Ferraro's inane comments, the persistent rumor that Obama is a Muslim, etc. With all the racism and violence against people of color, I can see how someone would call the US the KKK. (Here's just one reason among many: the U.S. government did nothing while the KKK set up a terror state in the south that lasted for, what, 60 years?)

Fascism is not an opinion, it's a crime.

Me: Look, think about this thing we read about fascism. What is wrong with this fascism? Would we like to have it, here in this classroom?

Zombie class: (Silent looking at me.)

Me: It is all about the good of the state, that fascism. Everything we do as fascists will be for the good of the state. We'll re-make ourselves into fascist women and men, so that we want The Good of the State and work for it.

Zombie class: (Silent.)

Me: Do we want that?

Me thinking: (Duh, people. Hello??)

Zombie class: (Some stirring.) Armmpuv. Mmmh.

Me: It sounds OK to me! (more silence from zombies.) What is wrong with fascism? Maybe we should have fascism.

One zombie student: It sounds OK. It looks OK on paper.

Me: What could go wrong?

Zombie student: What if the fascist leader wants to have a war?

Me: (Ignoring fact that student has not taken into account the idea that in fascism, we all want the same thing, although I've stated that already 20 times) Yes, what about that? It all depends on what The Good of the State is, right? That's the problem, we don't know what 'The Good of the State' is. What if it's something evil?

Zombies: (silence)

Me: But it could be something good.

Me thinking: (If Barak Obama wanted to have fascism, that could be a good thing. I would want that fascism.)

Me thinking: (But I can't use Barak Obama as an example of good fascism, or they'll know that I'm a BLEEDING HEART LIBERAL ACADEMIC OUT TO BRAINWASH THEM.)

Me: We could have good fascism. What if 'The Good of The State' was to bake cookies and pet puppies? We would all want that!

Zombies: (silence)

Me: Don't you guys like cookies and puppies?

Zombies: (silence.)

Study shows Weimar Republic was most significant historical phenomena, ever

Self motivation

I resolved not to wash my hair until I send this chapter to my adviser. (One time in college, my friend Purvi resolved not to shower until she finished her thesis, and it seemed to work.) I forget the last time I washed my hair, but I think it was like five days ago. The thing is, it looked really hot yesterday. But today it just looks dirty.

What is that about? Like, how hair goes through this phase of looking really hot while it is dirty. Is someone writing a dissertation about that?

Current most overused phrase in dissertation: "due in part to."

History of YOU!

My Sister: So, what are you going to teach at your new job?
Me: Well, I can teach whatever I want.
Sister: That is cool.
Me: Yeah.
Sister: I know. Why don't you teach The History of Me? You could teach all about my life!
Me: That is a great idea.
(Sister's husband yelling in background): I would take that class!

Later

My Dad: What will you do when you get to (location of job)?
Me: I will teach. I can supposedly teach whatever I want.
Dad: You can teach about us. You can teach History of (Our Last Name).
Me: That is a great idea!
Dad: I went to the first ever drive-in movie. I also grew up right next to the first-ever cloverleaf.
Me: Wow. I could blow a whole day of class, just on that!
Dad: You could have two days of class. One on the drive-in movie, and one on the cloverleaf.
Me: You know, (Name of Sister) said that I should teach the history of her. Like, History of (Sister's Name).
Dad: Pffah. That would be too boring.

Bored of the Rings

A long time ago and in the far away land of Brooklyn, Tom gave me a copy of George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones to read. It's one of those brick-sized fantasy novels with knights, dragons, and all that jazz. It was just about the best one I'd ever read, and I'm a big fan of fantasy lit. I became avid about the series, which is now in its fourth book, A Feast for Crows.

Well, it's been almost ten years now, and I'm about half way through A Feast for Crows. And I've got to say, it's awful. Abysmal. I keep reading, because I'm still fond of the world, and Martin is great at writing action that hooks you in. But the book is a bomb. The characters are flat. Nothing happens that we couldn't have predicted. It's pretty much just a recitation of sex and mindless gore--Everything major that happens in the plot happens because someone had sex with someone they weren't supposed to, and the illicit sex caused one of the people involved or a third party to get violent. This is a fine plot device sometimes, but when it's happened about 30 times, it gets boring. No character ever makes a surprising choice; they mainly react to the sex plots, or try to kill the people who cut their hands off or killed their brothers.

Martin has given in to the Robert Jordan temptation and now has such an enormous plot, with something like 20 point of view characters and 10 major settings, that I can't even remember what the pivotal event that set the story off was in the first place. (The other day, it came back to me--it was that King Robert died. Was he murdered? Aren't we supposed to be wondering if he was murdered, or did we figure that out at some point?) A lot of people have rued the fact that the plot got so huge, but let me just point out that the more central problem is that the conflict is lost, and so are the characters we were rooting for initially. I admired him for killing the protagonist in the first book. Tom and Kid Showbusiness both hated that he did that. And now I agree--it was a mistake to kill the guy. Or at least, if he was gonna kill Stark, he ought to have left more of his family alive! Now we're supposed to care about what's going on in Dorne. But we readers joined up for the Starks.

Did I mention that the characters are flat? This includes the women characters--Martin isn't so great at writing about gender, though hey, he could be a lot worse and at least he's got a few women characters. But come on--even a totally evil queen would take some care not to have too many people tortured to death. Evil people can't stay in power if they have everyone tortured to death. That's not how terror politics works. You can't just torture whoever you want; you've got to keep even your nearest allies afraid that they'll be arrested and that no one will stand by them. That means you can't torture according to your whim. You've got to disguise your whim with some kind of ideological legitimacy.

What's really bugging me now is that the book is so violent (this is related to the evil queen). Gratuitously, unrealistically violent. And Martin keeps reciting family genealogies and heraldry for every secondary character, which I think he thinks passes for "depth of world creation," but in fact is just boring, not to mention meaningless.

Beginning, middle, end. That's what Tolkein does so well. (End is the hardest, I think. But all this series really has is a great beginning.)

Hello, are you existing? To what extent are you existing?

Dissertation: (Yawn) hmmm.
YSA: Dissertation, I have to tell you something.
Dissertation: Hmmmm?
YSA: Dissertation, you have to be finished now.
Dissertation: Hmmmm?
YSA: Dissertation, you have to be finished tomorrow. (Fig. 1: Dissertation eating in bathtub)
Dissertation: You are always joking about that. It is funny when you say that sometimes. Why you are bothering me about it now, I don't know. It is a weekend right now.

YSA: OK, yes, I am kidding about tomorrow, you don't have to be finished tomorrow, but you have to be finished really, really soon. I don't even want to tell you how soon, because it'll freak you out. Do you know what I am saying here? We are having an emergency situation here, dissertation. We need to really pull it together!
Dissertation: Well, but that is not possible. I only have my one part, I need my whole other two chapters. And introduction. So I cannot be done that soon.
YSA: Yes, well, there are going to be some changes around here. From now on, we are not going to call those other chapters "other chapters." We are going to call them "half-finished first chapter" and "soon-to-be written conclusion."
Dissertation: It is the weekend!
YSA: Help me! I know that you can do it, you are such a brave (if short) dissertation. Now you have to really step up and be finished! Quick, figure out why the Weimar Republic fell! Today, if possible!
Dissertation: You are panicking.
YSA: Aaaahhh!
Dissertation: You panic all the time.
YSA: Arrrraaahrrrah!
Dissertation: It makes it hard to enjoy the weekend, when you are like this. Look at all these other grad students in the library, none of them are pulling on their hair and turning red. And it is spring break. We are supposed to go to Cancun or something, like those girls were saying in the coffee shop the other day. We never do fun things.
YSA: Are you existing? How much are you existing? Can you make your chapters exist faster? They don't have to be good, we can revise later. They just have to be existing. Can you do that?
Dissertation: I get upset when you are like this. I don't like to move around fast, you know. It gives me indigestion.
YSA: Maybe your chapters can be shorter? Like, 20 pages? How long do chapters have to be?
Dissertation: I just ate a humongous pancake with jam. You know that is my favorite, but now you are making my Sunday all stressful.
YSA: No more pancakes!
Dissertation: You are not the boss of me.

Diss gets job!

The diss that no one would fund got a job!!!

Yay, NY-NJ Democrat Governors!

Oh, please don't resign, Governor Spitzer! We're already lost another dashing young democrat governor with a pronounced chin to a sex scandal. If Larry Craig can hang on in the senate, surely Spitzer can weather this.