I agree wholeheartedly and wholemindedly with what you said.
I think the statistics are a powerful argument in building support for the passage of this bill.
Sounds interesting Pip. I always think of the proverbial actress in any "period" novel as the dumb blonde on a similar level as a prostitute. I'd like to know if you actually get the grant, and if you do, I won't be surprised. And Pip, I am a fan of this kind of blog. Believe me, there are some who actually enjoy reading about the mundane. I think I missed my called to be a psychologist. May in another life. Thanks for sharing, you write an intelligent blog.
Originally Posted by Jack of Hearts Good luck with your grant application. Thank you, I've already sort of changed my topic, I'm now thinking of incorporating some work on Daniel Defoe's Roxana and dropping one of the Haywood novels. I think Defoe has a bit more cache, (plus he was a better writer than Haywood) and considering the relationship between ideas of impersonation/acting in Defoe's prostitute novels will be pretty fruitful.
Sounds like it's a very different experience than previous. On the one hand I do miss that sort of college life, but on the other hand there are lots of things I don't miss about it, and you covered both ends in there. Good luck with your studies.
Good luck with your grant application. J
It sounds like your having a lot of fun, Pip. You do come up with some interesting theses. I dislike "The Faerie Queen." It seemed like a lot of effort just to satirize the Catholic church. Your paper on the theatrical origins of the actress (?) sounds intriguing. I had to laugh at this: "I've also had my first experience in the role of some kind of educator while grading papers. I found the experience a bit frustrating because students do not follow directions..." but your efforts to help them write better papers is appreciated. It's probably the first time writing a paper really seemed important to them.
Myra Beckinridge is a must. His historical novels are well liked by many, but I'm not a big historical genre reader so I'm not familiar with them. His essays are his most critically respected work.
what else would you recommend reading by Vidal?
just finished the book. was motivated to read when learned of author's death earlier this month. it has really affected me (the book); i live in NYC in 2012 and identify so well with Jim.
Originally Posted by Mutatis-Mutandis I know it's been a while since you posted this, but I say go for it, especially if it's just going to be a one-year deal. I think a master's degree in English can only help your future career opportunities. A lot of science guys aren't good with English, communicating clearly and eloquently, or writing good, in terms of grammar and readability. I wouldn't think it far-fetched at all for future employers to see this as a major benefit, if you still go into micro-biology after the program is over. Plus, with the TA, who knows, you may find you really enjoy teaching. Anything's possible. I'm gonna be doing it spread out over 2 years at McGill here in Montreal. It's a more prestigious uni, and I get subsidized tuition as a Quebec resident so it works reasonably well for me. I have the option of doing it in 1 year but I haven't decided if I want to go that route. I'd have more time for work with the 2 year route.
I know it's been a while since you posted this, but I say go for it, especially if it's just going to be a one-year deal. I think a master's degree in English can only help your future career opportunities. A lot of science guys aren't good with English, communicating clearly and eloquently, or writing good, in terms of grammar and readability. I wouldn't think it far-fetched at all for future employers to see this as a major benefit, if you still go into micro-biology after the program is over. Plus, with the TA, who knows, you may find you really enjoy teaching. Anything's possible.
I'm leaning towards doing it, it's only a year program, from September to October of the following year. No summer holiday, but I've been offered a small scholarship and enough funding to cover rent and expenses comfortably with a T.A. position, which I've also been offered.
I t sounds like you have the money to pursue this, and personally, it sounds like a lot of fun. I say go for it! Wheee! Your a thoughtful person O-P. I think whatever decision you make will be the right one for you. The move to Hamilton is temporary. You'll be back in Montreal in no time, and so much richer.
I think it sounds OK, if you are willing to relocate. I think DM makes a good point, that if you don't like it, you can quit.
If your job's not going anywhere and you're wouldn't be hurting for cash, I'd go for it. Hamilton's kinda pretty, plus it'd be cool to have a master's degree in something and you said before that you wouldn't persue graduate studies in science. Also, even if you can't find a job directly related to your MA more job options will still likely open up for you and you'll always be able to do lab work as a fall back. It'd be an adventure too.
I got my engineering degree and then went for a masters in English literature. I did it part time at night school and it took me ten, eleven years or so, I don't remember exactly, while I worked. I had semesters in there where I didn't go to school. The Literature degree had absolutely no professional benefit, at least on the surface. However it honed my skills of presenting, communicating, and framing arguments that are just superior to the other engineers I work with. I know it gave me a professional skill. I would do it exactly the same if I had to do it all over again. Also, when I came out of school and entered the engineering world, I remember saying I couldn't stand it. It took time to fully adjust. The school world is completely different from the work world, and I think a lot of young people feel a sort of shock to their system in the transition. In the end I loved my engineering work and I love literature too. I think I've found a good balance. It's not clear to me whether you intend to go to school full time and not work or if you're going to start your work career and go to school part time like I did. If you intend to stay in the science work world I would advise that you get going in that and go to school part time. Time delay puts you further back at work. But that's just my advise and I can see someone advising you to follow your passion and let the circumstances settle for themselves. I can see both as valid and prudent advise. Whatever you choose O-P, I wish you the best. Good luck.
Of course only you can ultimately decide if it is the right thing for you to do, but I would say give it a try and least, and if you decide it is not really for you, or if the pros in the end do not make up for the cons you can always call it quits. And it may prove to be a rewarding and interesting experience. If I had the money and opportunity I would do it.
The following comment is obviously not directly related to this thread but, since it concerns Baldwin, I post it here for its general relevance.-Ron Price, Tasmania ---------------------------------------------------- BALDWIN and ME: MAKING IT UP AS WE WENT ALONG In his first novel Go Tell It on the Mountain, published in 1953, American novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic, James Baldwin(1924-1987), wrote with intensity about the power of prayer and preaching. He wrote on behalf of an otherwise powerless community of which he was a part. It was a time, he wrote, filled with soaring possibilities in contrast to the bitter world outside. It was as though life’s very bitterness offered his congregation a unique insight into the suffering of Christ, a bitterness which made the congregation for that time of prayer and preaching a chosen people whose spiritual exaltation, in all its fiery rhetoric and colourful abandon, could never be experienced by white people. Baldwin matched this novel with an essay, “Down at the Cross,” published in 1962, in which he wrote about his own conversion as an adolescent filled with doubts and fears and ambitions and a sharp sense of exclusion: “One moment I was on my feet, singing and clapping and, at the same time, working out in my head the plot of a play; the next moment, with no transition, no sensation of falling, I was on my back, with the lights beating down into my face and all the vertical saints above me.” –Ron Price with thanks to Colm Toibin, “James Baldwin & Barack Obama,” The New York Review of Books, 23 October 2008. I was too young back then to get into your novels and essays being a primary and secondary school student in Ontario---reading what was necessary to qualify for my entrance to university, just growing-up and making the best of my little-town world. I got religious experience in very different ways to you & involvement, in my case, was with Australia and not France;(1) I found a new power, a freedom, a sense of a destiny to fulfil and I worked out my identity, exploring my society & myself, making it up as I went along—and I went along to many a town across 2 continents. Out of my failures and my successes, I saw hope, a new set of values, and I gradually produced an autobiography out of my efforts to make sense of this complex world and my complex playful self, as well as my own unique place in history, remaking my world in my own likeness and in the context of a vision with a question before me: “What will happen to all this radiant & pure beauty?” (1) Baldwin moved to Paris in November 1948 when he was twenty-four. “I left America,” he wrote in 1959, the year I joined the Baha’i Faith, “because I doubted my ability to survive the fury of the colour problem here…. I wanted to prevent myself from becoming merely a Negro; or, even, merely a Negro writer.” I moved to Australia in July 1971 when I was 26 because I saw myself as part of Canada’s international Baha’i diaspora or pioneering mission overseas. I had already experienced some personal furies associated with episodes of bipolar disorder and more would come Downunder. I wanted to play a role in the then Nine Year Plan, 1964-1973, and I did. Ron Price 11 November 2011
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