ich glaub ich hab so vor mehreren Monaten - sagen wir mal Mitte Jänner etwa - glücklichst, erschöpft und durchaus überzeugt verkündet dass ich nicht nur mit arbeit fertig wäre sondern so bald nix mehr reparieren würd und schon gar nicht in dieser meiner wohnung?!?
nun ja ... wie immer wenn ich von plänen meinerseits absolut überzeugt bin ...
jedenfalls hab ich heute den eigentlich eher meteorischen bestimmten Begriff der Föhnwand neu zu definieren begonnen, und hab, nachdem ich zuerst (bisher nur teilweise *stöhn*stöhn*ächz*) die so schön und mühsam und vor allem in MENGEN eingefüllten Silikonabdeckungen rausgekratzt hab meine schöne rote Wand geföhnt und dies dürfte sich für die nächsten Wochen neben dem schon langweiligen Jammergegenstand 'chapter' zu einem neuen lustigen Hobby entwickeln.... bevor ich dann nach Anleitung meiner alten guten Freunde aus dem Bauhaus auf ein neues versuche nicht das Wasser mit dem Wein, aber in ähnlicher Alliteration die Wand mit der Wanne zu verbinden... und mit etwas Glück finden sich dazwischen (also zwischen Trocknung und Verklebung) Reste von weißer und roter Farbe um das ganze auch wieder gebührlich zu behübschen...
7/30/2009
afraid of having crossed the fine line....
It is a truth universally acknowledged that I am a lucky bastard, always have been and always got by with it ... still I cannot help but - from an academic point of view - be afraid that I am crossing the fine line between lucky picks in my reading choice and merely reading into books what is currently convenient for my research .... because, honestly, how lucky can one be ... twice in a row in the search for bed-time and airplane and in-case-of-boredom-in-Austria and tanning-in-the-doorway-of-my-balcony read to pick novels which EXACTLY support a) my general thesis and b) perfectly fit the still in progress chapter writing to add easy lit-analysis pages to lengthen the written text in no time to an acceptable amount?!?
The two books in questions are Siri Hustvedt's The Sorrows of an American which is just as cosmopolitan, ordinary life focused, ethnic characters without being about ethnicity predominantly and dealing with the role of America in globalization or the effects of the latter on the first. Thus, if necessary - and has been suggested by one of my supervisors - providing perfect material to argue that although I research a case study of authors from so-defined ethnic heritage, my argument that this grouping is no longer relevant has already literary proof, in case I go for that line of argument. Because, Hustvedt, despite name and ancestors, I suspect is hardly considered an ethnic author, not least due to her marriage to Auster.
The other book I picked up after having for myself decided that due to prolonged stays of the author in the US and his cosmopolitan transmigrant biography as well as - most of all actually - that the book was published in North America and mostly reviewed there and even the pre-published short story the novel evolved from originally appeared in The Paris Review was North American enough to be included, even though the author currently relocated back to his native Lahore (Pakistan). I am talking about Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist. My current focus on globalization effects on individuals as reflected in literature has several examples for the precariousness of lives and experiences of lacking agency, but all these are kind of subchapters. Now, while Hamid's novel (no surprise with that title) will also figure in the fundamentalism-subchapter - though as both fitting the category and ironically subverting it - it is the one text perfect to enter the chapter in its criticism of American Imperialism and the (by its agents) hardly critically reflected financial markets' takeover of world power.
Of course I have conveniently found reviews of both books to substantiate my arguments .... yet given my selective reading of academic texts in general not for what they really are about but mostly for what I can use them - a trap I much too repeatedly find myself in - I figure that my readings of reviews is likely just as biased as my approach to the texts might be .... thus, while I of course will exploit both texts as outlined, I continue to hear the weary voice at the back of my head muttering that it wonders what this books would be about if anyone else read them.... so in case you have read any of them, talk to the voice! (for the thesis-writing-mind might not be listening)
The two books in questions are Siri Hustvedt's The Sorrows of an American which is just as cosmopolitan, ordinary life focused, ethnic characters without being about ethnicity predominantly and dealing with the role of America in globalization or the effects of the latter on the first. Thus, if necessary - and has been suggested by one of my supervisors - providing perfect material to argue that although I research a case study of authors from so-defined ethnic heritage, my argument that this grouping is no longer relevant has already literary proof, in case I go for that line of argument. Because, Hustvedt, despite name and ancestors, I suspect is hardly considered an ethnic author, not least due to her marriage to Auster.
The other book I picked up after having for myself decided that due to prolonged stays of the author in the US and his cosmopolitan transmigrant biography as well as - most of all actually - that the book was published in North America and mostly reviewed there and even the pre-published short story the novel evolved from originally appeared in The Paris Review was North American enough to be included, even though the author currently relocated back to his native Lahore (Pakistan). I am talking about Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist. My current focus on globalization effects on individuals as reflected in literature has several examples for the precariousness of lives and experiences of lacking agency, but all these are kind of subchapters. Now, while Hamid's novel (no surprise with that title) will also figure in the fundamentalism-subchapter - though as both fitting the category and ironically subverting it - it is the one text perfect to enter the chapter in its criticism of American Imperialism and the (by its agents) hardly critically reflected financial markets' takeover of world power.
Of course I have conveniently found reviews of both books to substantiate my arguments .... yet given my selective reading of academic texts in general not for what they really are about but mostly for what I can use them - a trap I much too repeatedly find myself in - I figure that my readings of reviews is likely just as biased as my approach to the texts might be .... thus, while I of course will exploit both texts as outlined, I continue to hear the weary voice at the back of my head muttering that it wonders what this books would be about if anyone else read them.... so in case you have read any of them, talk to the voice! (for the thesis-writing-mind might not be listening)
7/15/2009
seriously now! ...
Even co-organizing a small (but great) graduate conference with 14 colleagues can only serve as an excuse for imaginary much deserved / needed / (fill in the blanks) rest and procrastinating recreation ... even if each one of these lost days saw me pretending to be just about to start working on 5 fronts at once ...
though, I did spend some time indulging in 'beauty-stuff' and did make a quite eatable bananenschnitte yesterday for a barbecue party at a professor's house ... but there being already considerably less than 4 weeks to D-Chapter-Day today is the day - seriously now!! today I am heading off to the library and will only leave there when kicked out AND at least 3 pages of said chapter are written!
So got to get going, but will keep complaining and contemplating the possible lack of success and progress here, too...
For today I plan a rereading of some Appadurai and Butler and the analysis of a short story by Saleema Nawaz. (Oh, come on, to get into projects you have to start with picking raisins from the cake (- as a metaphor intended for raisin-likers!!))
though, I did spend some time indulging in 'beauty-stuff' and did make a quite eatable bananenschnitte yesterday for a barbecue party at a professor's house ... but there being already considerably less than 4 weeks to D-Chapter-Day today is the day - seriously now!! today I am heading off to the library and will only leave there when kicked out AND at least 3 pages of said chapter are written!
So got to get going, but will keep complaining and contemplating the possible lack of success and progress here, too...
For today I plan a rereading of some Appadurai and Butler and the analysis of a short story by Saleema Nawaz. (Oh, come on, to get into projects you have to start with picking raisins from the cake (- as a metaphor intended for raisin-likers!!))
7/05/2009
Pulp Fiction and Chick Lit - signifiers for the end of a struggle?
Don't judge a book by it's cover ... at least not always and especially not if the literature you are dealing with is prone to the orientalizing gaze of the Western literary market - as a nice talk by Mary Anne Mohanraj at last year's SALA in San Francisco comprehensively summarized. She was kind enough to put her results up on her page upon request.
And yes, I know that book titles - just like covers - are not primarily determined by authors - especially not new emerging voices. However, sometimes the combination of title and cover (very much in the line Mary Anne determined: only parts of female body clad in sari, redish-yellowish coloring) do tell all that is to say about a book. On the return flight from Boston I finished A Good Indian Wife - perfect airplane novel (though I picked it up at Barnes & Nobles). Because, really it is only pulp chick-lit, nothing there to help me in my thesis, but at least less awful than I found Marrying Anita which I have yet to finish, or maybe just not...
And then again - I am currently, though working on a different aspect and chapter of the thesis, trying to get my theoretical argument together (which has been challenged at the Dartmouth College "Futures of American Studies Institute") as to why diaspora is just no longer an adequate frame for cosmopolitan transnational transcultural writing by South Asian North Americans, and keep pondering whether the fact that the diasporic imaginary by now also serves as the backdrop of pulp fiction is not possibly along my lines.
These two novels (usualy within a few pages already) serve up all - I mean ALL - the exoticizing stereotypes the West has about Indians and the Indian diaspora in particular (along the "only those from your own culture can truly understand you"-kind of stuff): arranged marriages, spices and food, women finding a place for themselves, omnipresence of family ties and obligations and the displaced community sticking together, ....
So, I started thinking, whether not the very fact that the arguments, methods, themes and modes which gave voice and visibility to the South Asian diaspora in literature up to the early 1990s have now entered the realm of pulp fiction and chick-lit actually supports my argument. These are no longer critical points of view, but have entered the most uncritical of mainstream markets - which means they have lost all their potential of resistance and political voice. This is no longer about collective identity constructions, but simple a re-inscription of stagnant cultural assumptions.
The diasporic collective cultural identity as the backdrop of literature is actually signifying the pastness of the idea. I will have to find a more eloquent way to voice this, yet, but in addition to my array of theories from Althusser via Levinas to Lipsitz, Benn Michaels and Appadurai I think it will at least come in as a handy footnote in the discussion of consumerism and the global literary market. Except, if you think I am totally off track here! Then please let me know.
And yes, I know that book titles - just like covers - are not primarily determined by authors - especially not new emerging voices. However, sometimes the combination of title and cover (very much in the line Mary Anne determined: only parts of female body clad in sari, redish-yellowish coloring) do tell all that is to say about a book. On the return flight from Boston I finished A Good Indian Wife - perfect airplane novel (though I picked it up at Barnes & Nobles). Because, really it is only pulp chick-lit, nothing there to help me in my thesis, but at least less awful than I found Marrying Anita which I have yet to finish, or maybe just not...
And then again - I am currently, though working on a different aspect and chapter of the thesis, trying to get my theoretical argument together (which has been challenged at the Dartmouth College "Futures of American Studies Institute") as to why diaspora is just no longer an adequate frame for cosmopolitan transnational transcultural writing by South Asian North Americans, and keep pondering whether the fact that the diasporic imaginary by now also serves as the backdrop of pulp fiction is not possibly along my lines.
These two novels (usualy within a few pages already) serve up all - I mean ALL - the exoticizing stereotypes the West has about Indians and the Indian diaspora in particular (along the "only those from your own culture can truly understand you"-kind of stuff): arranged marriages, spices and food, women finding a place for themselves, omnipresence of family ties and obligations and the displaced community sticking together, ....
So, I started thinking, whether not the very fact that the arguments, methods, themes and modes which gave voice and visibility to the South Asian diaspora in literature up to the early 1990s have now entered the realm of pulp fiction and chick-lit actually supports my argument. These are no longer critical points of view, but have entered the most uncritical of mainstream markets - which means they have lost all their potential of resistance and political voice. This is no longer about collective identity constructions, but simple a re-inscription of stagnant cultural assumptions.
The diasporic collective cultural identity as the backdrop of literature is actually signifying the pastness of the idea. I will have to find a more eloquent way to voice this, yet, but in addition to my array of theories from Althusser via Levinas to Lipsitz, Benn Michaels and Appadurai I think it will at least come in as a handy footnote in the discussion of consumerism and the global literary market. Except, if you think I am totally off track here! Then please let me know.
7/02/2009
in the avoidance of real work
No, have no fear this is not yet another blog-entry listing my current procrastination activities - not much changed there.
I only loaded this page in order not to open a document to work on ... because the absurdity of my present condition is that I am very thrilled and excited because tomorrow - I decided - I really finally get to it and start my first chapter (to be handed in in 5 weeks?!?) .... But in order to do so I made a list of things to be completed before and that - strangely enough - is less exciting ...
Furthermore received a new tax statement and only owe 241 euro for 2008 - that was a pleasant surprise and is actually affordable - especially compared to the year before. And they also reduced my 2009 prepayment request from 4.190 to 0,-- not working and not being in Austria for 3 years helped here, I admit.
Oh and supported my 14-year old niece to practice civil disobedience in school and gave her instructions on how to do it. Not sure if that is morally sound, but my gut said go for it!
And a final note: I spent 12 USD on another set of really great buttons to sport! so look out for my pant legs - that's where they usually end up on at the moment. Favorites: "Fashionably Strange" "Not the brightest crayon in the box, are we" and "Now pull up your Big Girl Panties and deal with it." and have to make one (was sold out) with "When in doubt, mumble"
And now I will pull up my big girl panties and start dealing with my list....
I only loaded this page in order not to open a document to work on ... because the absurdity of my present condition is that I am very thrilled and excited because tomorrow - I decided - I really finally get to it and start my first chapter (to be handed in in 5 weeks?!?) .... But in order to do so I made a list of things to be completed before and that - strangely enough - is less exciting ...
Furthermore received a new tax statement and only owe 241 euro for 2008 - that was a pleasant surprise and is actually affordable - especially compared to the year before. And they also reduced my 2009 prepayment request from 4.190 to 0,-- not working and not being in Austria for 3 years helped here, I admit.
Oh and supported my 14-year old niece to practice civil disobedience in school and gave her instructions on how to do it. Not sure if that is morally sound, but my gut said go for it!
And a final note: I spent 12 USD on another set of really great buttons to sport! so look out for my pant legs - that's where they usually end up on at the moment. Favorites: "Fashionably Strange" "Not the brightest crayon in the box, are we" and "Now pull up your Big Girl Panties and deal with it." and have to make one (was sold out) with "When in doubt, mumble"
And now I will pull up my big girl panties and start dealing with my list....
6/21/2009
Immigration by Austen
apparently being away from people to actually converse with - stranded in lands of strangers- at least has the side effect of reanimating my blogging activities - as there is one more story to relate concerning my journey:
chatting with the immigration officer or "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single woman traveling to the US alone, must be in want of a green card."
Because, as always, I claimed to be here on tourist business only, so not to excite any suspicions connected to possible business activities if I mention the word conference or university summer school. Traveling all alone, without knowing anyone at the point of destination and being less then serious (see fully rested from the flight) raised a number of questions by the immigration officer.
Why Boston? - Well, that one I had covered: I study American studies and had not yet been to this cradle of the idea of America, an unpardonable neglect on my part, I thus intend to remedy (though answered in slightly less words). As I claimed I do not know anyone here - So you plan to find someone? - *laugh* Äh no, and anyway I am already married. - Then why is your husband not with you? - He did not get off work, and anyway, we are separated. - *puzzled look, unsure of whether that would possibly make me even more suspicious* - that's a loooong story you don't want to hear - *more suspicious puzzlement in those watery blue eyes* How much money do you carry? - About 9 US-dollars and slightly less than 20 Euros. - *shocked surprise added to puzzlement* Do you carry a *mumblemumblemubmle* - Sorry? - *even more suspicion* a credit card?! - Of course, and about 3 ATM cards. - Well .... ähm ... have a great stay. - Will do!
chatting with the immigration officer or "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single woman traveling to the US alone, must be in want of a green card."
Because, as always, I claimed to be here on tourist business only, so not to excite any suspicions connected to possible business activities if I mention the word conference or university summer school. Traveling all alone, without knowing anyone at the point of destination and being less then serious (see fully rested from the flight) raised a number of questions by the immigration officer.
Why Boston? - Well, that one I had covered: I study American studies and had not yet been to this cradle of the idea of America, an unpardonable neglect on my part, I thus intend to remedy (though answered in slightly less words). As I claimed I do not know anyone here - So you plan to find someone? - *laugh* Äh no, and anyway I am already married. - Then why is your husband not with you? - He did not get off work, and anyway, we are separated. - *puzzled look, unsure of whether that would possibly make me even more suspicious* - that's a loooong story you don't want to hear - *more suspicious puzzlement in those watery blue eyes* How much money do you carry? - About 9 US-dollars and slightly less than 20 Euros. - *shocked surprise added to puzzlement* Do you carry a *mumblemumblemubmle* - Sorry? - *even more suspicion* a credit card?! - Of course, and about 3 ATM cards. - Well .... ähm ... have a great stay. - Will do!
the way to travel
I am in strong favor of travel in sleep-deprived states ... tested recently on my return from Austria to Berlin I only was conscious for about 117 minutes of the almost 9 hour train ride - barely enough to change trains, fill my stomach with the extensive breakfast bought at Linz train station and in Leipzig, as always, switch to the opposite bench as it is a dead-end train station and would result in my facing backwards on the last leg of the ride ... not an option as everyone who ever moved even over a short distance in my company would know.
As I am also in strong favor of cheap traveling, I ended up booking a flight to Boston that left Berlin at 7.35 - not a bad time I thought at the time... once again (see my Vienna trip in November) not taking the be-at-the-airport-2-hours-before-departure-idea into account. However, as I also rather successfully wasted away the day(s) before departure in a really excessively nice way (including wonderful 3-dish-Indian-dinner at my place for my Iranian friends, as well as a last evening spent on the balcony immersed in a blanket and almost romantically inclined thoughts) I started cleaning the dishes (my mother suggested that a sink full of unwashed dishes could result in a significantly less pleasant return experience after a 10 day absence) and packing my bags at about 1 am .... thinking that I would just not sleep at all ... however, efficiency, you fickle mistress, I was absolutely finished by 2.48 and thus 52 minutes too early to shower and leave. Hooray, however, to my night-shift-working experiences, thanks to which I knew that I was capable of power-napping, so off to bed, 49 minutes of rest (with the lights kept on in the hall to make the transition easier).
And thus, I had the perfect Iberia flight to Boston one could imagine - in a state otherwise only approved for infants. Both times asleep before take-off I missed all of the Berlin-Madrid flight (no free food on that one anyway). And on the way to Boston could not even have been disappointed by the fact that it was one of these really old airbus models with only small and far-away shared screens for half the plane and those to be filled with two recent movies of which I would still be hard pressed to decide which was awful and which one was worse: "17 again" and "Pink Panther 2" - a fate, I was spared by my state. I woke up in time to claim my (quite edible) pasta lunch and coffee, to sleep (with the brief interruption of accepting my immigration forms) until dinner with coffee (apparently the Spanish airline coffee is no more effective than what I am fed since) to wake up to witness the amazing landing in Boston - as the airport is right at the sea, the plane seemingly grazing the ocean just before landing.
And not only are long distance flights less annoying (although I actually always like travel as much as arriving), it also prevents jetlag to start off with a totally disoriented body already!
Then again - living in a cheap (though acceptably clean and nice as well as well located) hostel possibly does little to enhance sleeping-in anyways.
As I am also in strong favor of cheap traveling, I ended up booking a flight to Boston that left Berlin at 7.35 - not a bad time I thought at the time... once again (see my Vienna trip in November) not taking the be-at-the-airport-2-hours-before-departure-idea into account. However, as I also rather successfully wasted away the day(s) before departure in a really excessively nice way (including wonderful 3-dish-Indian-dinner at my place for my Iranian friends, as well as a last evening spent on the balcony immersed in a blanket and almost romantically inclined thoughts) I started cleaning the dishes (my mother suggested that a sink full of unwashed dishes could result in a significantly less pleasant return experience after a 10 day absence) and packing my bags at about 1 am .... thinking that I would just not sleep at all ... however, efficiency, you fickle mistress, I was absolutely finished by 2.48 and thus 52 minutes too early to shower and leave. Hooray, however, to my night-shift-working experiences, thanks to which I knew that I was capable of power-napping, so off to bed, 49 minutes of rest (with the lights kept on in the hall to make the transition easier).
And thus, I had the perfect Iberia flight to Boston one could imagine - in a state otherwise only approved for infants. Both times asleep before take-off I missed all of the Berlin-Madrid flight (no free food on that one anyway). And on the way to Boston could not even have been disappointed by the fact that it was one of these really old airbus models with only small and far-away shared screens for half the plane and those to be filled with two recent movies of which I would still be hard pressed to decide which was awful and which one was worse: "17 again" and "Pink Panther 2" - a fate, I was spared by my state. I woke up in time to claim my (quite edible) pasta lunch and coffee, to sleep (with the brief interruption of accepting my immigration forms) until dinner with coffee (apparently the Spanish airline coffee is no more effective than what I am fed since) to wake up to witness the amazing landing in Boston - as the airport is right at the sea, the plane seemingly grazing the ocean just before landing.
And not only are long distance flights less annoying (although I actually always like travel as much as arriving), it also prevents jetlag to start off with a totally disoriented body already!
Then again - living in a cheap (though acceptably clean and nice as well as well located) hostel possibly does little to enhance sleeping-in anyways.
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