So it begins.. sort of...

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Dissertation. The icing on the cake, the cherry on top, the--oh wait, it's not like that at all, is it? Sure, next week is the last week of classes (quite possibly the last classes I ever sit in as a full-time student, but then again, that's what I said five years ago) and throughout the summer we're supposed to devote the equivalent of a full-time job's worth of research hours to this big paper due at the end of August. It's a third of my entire assessed work, so it's a big deal. I finally sat down with my supervisor and hashed out a few of my ideas, which at the moment are naturally disjointed, sprawling, and rather fuzzy round the edges. One does a bunch of reading to grasp the topic and try to formulate some sort of thesis, then continues to read and starts realizing all of the endless branches of thought, and then keeps reading to narrow down.

Read read read. But I'm feeling really good about this topic and the direction it's (so far) taking. It's only a shame I probably won't make it to North Carolina this summer, but one never knows. Fancy a research trip to the hot Appalachian wilds from mild old Scotland? ;)

One of my essays is due tomorrow, another one next week, and then a double-sized one is due in a month. I have nine days of my internship yet to complete (major delays, not too happy about it, but so it goes) but I look forward to being able to put all of this term's coursework behind me, get working on my dissertation, enjoy the summer weather, and oh, TRAVEL.

Cheers!
Kate xx

Fair warning

Over the past week, sick as a dog, I tried my best to get some reading in during times when I could see and think straight (which wasn't very often, but I really did try).

(An update on that whole sickness thing, by the way: after visiting the doctor on day four-and-feeling-worse I was told that I didn't in fact have pneumonia, but did have some sort of viral infection and was prescribed antibiotics in the event that it did affect the lungs. So essentially, all the symptoms of pneumonia without the actual part that makes it pneumonia. Go figure! It was very miserable and weird. I hardly ever get sick, so when I do I tend to come down with the dumbest things. But I'm about 90% out of it now and feeling much, much better!)

I ordered a book online a few weeks ago, ostensibly for my dissertation and some background reading on Black Mountain College, but more or less just for a really interesting memoir about a time and place I find more and more I wish I could have been a part of. Fair warning, I'm probably going to be writing all sorts of stuff about this great experimental arts college as the summer goes on because it's going to be my sole academic focus. Go figure, I've chosen an incredibly American subject to study while I'm in Scotland! Alas, another example of how being abroad can give you a new perspective on home, even if Black Mountain, NC is quite a ways away from my own in WI. ;)

This book was awesome. It's certainly not one for everybody, but if you're acquainted with some of the players at BMC (artists and writers like Franz Kline, Charles Olson, and so many more) then Fielding Dawson's memoir is like a mini goldmine. The Black Mountain Book is essentially a string of anecdotes written in an off-the-cuff sort of stream-of-consciousness style, but the author offers really illuminating insights into his experience and the workings of this college. I'll certainly be rereading it to parse out names and other items of interest, but for a quick, fun read, I'd definitely recommend it.