This wholesome meditation

[annundriel]

This Donne paper is going to kill me. At least, finalizing my critical problem statement is going to kill me. Ugh. I could cry. I know what's wanted of me, but I don't know how to provide it. I've re-read the original sequence of Holy Sonnets several times and I'm still on shaky ground with them.

On top of that, I've got a gut-feeling about what the original sequence means or is about but I don't, at least at the moment, know how or if I can back that up. And while the fact that no one really knows or has looked at what the original sequence means should make me feel more free in exploring it, it's really just scary to be floating out there alone making a claim.

I don't know what to do. Guess I'll just go out there on that limb and then try to back it up in the final paper. At least this is stuff I can use in my exploratory narrative.

Of course, if the Donne paper doesn't do it, Chaucer or Sand will finish me off. With the help of stress from moving out.

Randomly, I watched Music & Lyrics this morning. It was cute.

Last night I watched The Painted Veil and now I can't stop thinking about it.

Comments

[trademybike.livejournal.com]

What all do you need to do with Donne?

Long Comment Warning

[annundriel.livejournal.com]

Holy crap you are fast.

Well, for tomorrow (by noon via e-mail) McDowell wants our final critical problem statements. In other words, he wants the initial "old/new" part of our papers. My "old" part is good, I just need to figure out what the hell my new contribution is.

Here's how my "old" part began: Three different sequences of John Donne's Holy Sonnets complicate the matter of scholarly interpretation. The existence of these sequences provides multiple opportunities to examine Donne's relgious views and experiences. However, many scholars tend to focus their attention on the revised 1633 sequence of the sonnets.

I then go on to name five different scholars and briefly illustrate what their POVs are. I then state that "few have examined the meaning and motivation behind Donne's original sequence." I now need to figure out what my own stance is on the meaning and motivation and at the very least briefly explain it in a thesis-like statement. The problem being that I'm still not entirely sure what my stance is and the stance that I'm leaning toward I'm not sure I can back up. (I was going to say that I don't know if it's right, but that's basically complete crap.)

I'm just frustrated and worried. And I should probably be less so because I know I'm one of the students doing fairly well in that class.

Nice icon, btw. Love the color.

Re: Long Comment Warning

[trademybike.livejournal.com]

This is my new favorite icon. This and my Jesus shit one. But I haven't gotten around to using the latter yet.

When I wrote McDowell or Tung essays, I always took the stance that had the most evidence to back it up, i.e. the most info available to sort through and come up with a coherent enough stance with as much textual evidence as needed. For one of Tung's classes, we had to choose between Twelfth Night or Mrs. Dalloway as our paper topics and I chose an amazing one for 12th Night, one he had never heard of before (which I think is hard to believe, but whatever) but because it wasn't a widely held belief, it was hard finding information on it.

Well, if there's anything I can help you with, you know where to find me.

Re: Long Comment Warning

[annundriel.livejournal.com]

Always good advice. Take the road you have more support for. Except that here all of my support is kind of up in the air. I feel like I'm just saying, "This is what I think and this is why I think it" because no one else has addressed what I'm addressing.

And the thing is, I don't even need to back it up at this point. All this is is another revised verious of our critical problem statements. We're supposed to fix what we did wrong previously (nothing, in my case - yea!) and refine and/or deepen thesis for the essay. I'm just a worrier and an over-thinker.

Thanks!

[capt-tik-taco.livejournal.com]

Ha, I remember the unending joke of "Are you done with Donneyet ?" that I would not let die last year. And, you know, I could probably assert that it's very apt right abouts now...

What's with that one prof whose name I can't recall and his love of Donne? Seriously, is Donne the only guy that English majors at SU study? Is he the only dude that ever wrote *anything*? What's so special about some dead douche that thought he was dying but then wasn't but then actually did die because that's how mortality works??

(Ah, fuck me, you're probably in some Donne class or something. Foot, meet drunken mouth.)

[annundriel.livejournal.com]

Oh man, I am constantly making jokes about "being Donne with this class" and how I "can't take it any More." (His wife's last name was More.)

Yup, I'm in a strictly Donne class taught but the prof who is practically obsessed. Donne's not the only guy. You're forgetting Shakespeare and Chaucer. We study three! No one else is worth it. ;)