Week 4 in Bloomington
Life has settled into a routine: I go to the farmer’s market every two weeks, go buy groceries once a week every Monday, go to the libraries (public and school) every Sunday, and so on. The routine may not be the most exciting, but it’s comforting. Grad school is going well — hard to believe … Continue reading
Emotional Conservatism
My favorite Chopin interpreters are the ones that can bring a reserved elegance out of Chopin’s pieces. I think Chopin is not about “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”, to quote Wordsworth’s famous definition of poetry. It is about emotion, yes, but emotion held in check. Eliot’s ideas about emotion have always felt more solid … Continue reading
an update on my life
School started last Tuesday, and since then, I haven’t had the chance to do any hardcore blogging. So far it’s been filled with meetings, trying to figure out my class schedule, and planning for graduate school and senior thesis. Yesterday: hung out with an English major friend who graduated this past spring. She has a … Continue reading
avoiding phenomenology
Finished Cat’s Cradle. Not sure how I felt about it, other than it was well-written, and that the horror of the ice-nine and everything involved with it was fully impressed on me. Started a new book: Roland Barthes’s Image, Music, Text. So far it’s been a really good read — the 25 pages of it I’ve … Continue reading
I am of the opinion that the Graduate Record Examination is not an accurate judge as to the quality of one’s thought.
Nevertheless, checklist for grad school applications: 1. GRE literature (November) 2. Senior thesis (November-December) 3. Personal Statement (First draft by September) 4. Recommendation letters (all lined up, to be finished in December) The good thing? I did get a fair amount of reading done. 1. The Rest is Noise by Alex Ross 2. Discovering Modernism: … Continue reading
convincing-ness
At the end of the day, I do know the answer to my own question. Whether it will be convincing depends a lot on the steps I take and the work/effort involved to make my point to the people I want to convince (in this case it’s my English professors and grad schools). Depends also … Continue reading
a current under sea 