Napoleon's Feet - a graduate student's step(s) between the sublime and the ridiculous

THIRTY FIVE

Mar 19th, 2008 6:11:45 am - Subscribe

i feel like ive had two days of absolute slackage, but ive actually managed to get through significant parts of two books in the area of Canadian history. one is a study of Holocaust in canadian and canadian-Jewish memory ; the second is a monograph on post-WWII reconstruction in Montreal, mainly focusing on family and economy. im trying to build myself a real framework from which an elusive project i have been considering can be approached. i want to look at the concept of memory - the idea of urban space - the multiple mechanisms of commemoration - and the holocaust - in Montreal. these are words and ideas that look nice in front of my nose but as of yet i can not imagine how i will bring them together meaningfully and gracefully. it usually is the problem with a lot of my early "inspiration." i see words on a page, i can sometimes see waffly phrases. but it takes a while for it to all fall into place and take on meaning.

in any case, reading about Canada has become a sort of fetishy-surreal experience. this might be the crux of my interest in space - i can imagine 'it' - or "history" - occuring in familiar surroundings. i may never have experienced the event, but i feel im closer to having done so than with other histories. a good history can transport you into another time and place. but profound familiarity with the surroundings in question to begin with contributes to a strange facet of collective memory that i dont think im able to identify.

it rained for most of the day and night and i might make a soup tomorrow, as soup typically makes for good rainy day food, and i do believe it will continue to pour tomorrow.