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the_corbin
THIRTY - Subscribe
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its been an awful couple weeks. loss has followed back to indiana where my trusted laptop said farewell for the very last time on a monday morning. i had a paper due on tuesday and burst into tears. enter new computer, lifesaver and adequate replacement. they say this one'll be better, but i miss the old one. im also beginning to direct my attentions to the huge amount of work expected of me over the next few weeks. last night/morning i watched the sun rise with foucault and a few saucers with greek coffee rinds. the good news is that i can stay up all night. the bad news is that i am hardly functional the next day. i can quote myself in seminar today when i attempt to sign this off "and i will end my sentence right now, cos its clearly not ending on its own volition." good bloody night. |
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the_corbin
THIRTY ONE Oct 15th, 2007 5:14:46 am - Subscribe
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at 100 AM my brain has turned to mush. today i tried to think about has been exciting me in my work, since lately, work seems to be all i have. same topics, same sorts of books, in many cases the same books anyhow, and same types of assignments. different people, different perspectives, and my own different approaches, true. i find myself looking at familiar objects with new eyes and mulling familiar notions with a fresh mind. this might be exciting. after all, i had an entire gap year where i found myself far, far away from all things history. most exciting might be the change in my field of vision. for the first time ive found myself interested in France's colonial world and Empire. for the first time, i am not afraid to venture out of the hexagon and onto another continent. in the past i think i might actually have been afraid at the possibility of getting lost outside the metropol. and of course, in restrospect it was inevitable that i would have to search for France in new places. yet i find myself in an area of study where i currently know (comparatively) nearly nothing. the people are different, the cities are different, the languages are different. yet after watching The Battle of Algiers, i am now under the impression that algeria is not as foreign and unintelligible as i had thought it would be. the city streets and buildings in 1950s algiers are French. the cafés, discos, cars are french. the population is diverse, the languages vary. culture is everywhere. the history of france is intimitely tied to that of empire. this fresh new interest could not have arisen in me at a better time. |