The Geeking

About a week ago Theories of Literary Criticism: Selfhood had me read a bit of Adorno and Horkheimer's (aka The Frankfurt School) Dialectics of Enlightenment, and I was in love with them and resolved to buy the book in total this summer, read through it, and consider whether I was academically meant for critical theory.

No wonder I loved Frankfurt School (aka Institute for Social Research) so much. I was just wikipedia-ing Fromm, my all time favorite --what WOULD I call Fromm? Going to go with-- humanistic philosopher/psychoanalytical thinker, and apparently he and The Frankfurt School was homies back in the dizzle, and Fromm was a founding member. So I like the Adorno/Horkheimer critical theory of society because it comes from the same welding of Freudian/Marxist/existentialist crap as does my man Fromm. And squee on all of this.

On a sad note, I can't find Fromm's Escape from Freedom. I was looking for it to quote in a paper today. This is troubling, as the book is quite possibly my favorite, along with All the King's Men, and for poetry Sappho or Millay. I got it for Christmas, along with his Art of Loving, and I brought it up here. Now where the fuck is it?

The Geeking

About a week ago Theories of Literary Criticism: Selfhood had me read a bit of Adorno and Horkheimer's (aka The Frankfurt School) Dialectics of Enlightenment, and I was in love with them and resolved to buy the book in total this summer, read through it, and consider whether I was academically meant for critical theory.

No wonder I loved Frankfurt School (aka Institute for Social Research) so much. I was just wikipedia-ing Fromm, my all time favorite --what WOULD I call Fromm? Going to go with-- humanistic philosopher/psychoanalytical thinker, and apparently he and The Frankfurt School was homies back in the dizzle, and Fromm was a founding member. So I like the Adorno/Horkheimer critical theory of society because it comes from the same welding of Freudian/Marxist/existentialist crap as does my man Fromm. And squee on all of this.

On a sad note, I can't find Fromm's Escape from Freedom. I was looking for it to quote in a paper today. This is troubling, as the book is quite possibly my favorite, along with All the King's Men, and for poetry Sappho or Millay. I got it for Christmas, along with his Art of Loving, and I brought it up here. Now where the fuck is it?

(no subject)

So I sort of came to a revelation today about my undergrad career. While gradschool is obviously the most important thing, I shouldn't spend all of undergrad becomming the english and history seniors who don't know their heads from their asses. Not to belittle anyone-- but lately I've talked to a lot of people who have been here four years, and while I'll be presented with fresh material here it won't necessarily be well taught. I feel like I'm stagnating in my major classes.

When I came here it was bitterly, with full intent to transferby the beginning of next year. But I liked the people and the creative writing resources, and yes, let's face it, was five and got a boyfriend, and stopped feeling a need to claw my way out. But creative writing resources do not a solid fnglish/history/critical theory background make, and while it is possible to become a writer in a less organized structure (most people DO-- and there's always grad school, possibly writer's workshop), it is less possible to concoct a solid English/History background from thin air in time to be competitive in a good grad school.

So I'll take classes summer, fall and winter, and see if anyone will have me next Spring semester. This is all only tentative, but it was always my dream to go to a private college in a big city like Chicago, New York or New Orleans, and I'm not sure it wouldn't be good for me to live somewhere really fun like that. It'll be hard for me to leave my friends here and hard to make new ones at my new college, especially in what is going to be my junior year (I'm well into my sophmore right now, credit-wise). But it's not impossible, and my first impressions are my best (I tend to tarnish). It's especially not impossible in big cities at big schools like U of C, possible Northwestern, Tulane, Barnard, NYU, something.

I sort of said something to Danny on the phone over Christmas break. I don't know if he remembers, but it involved this subject. Danny-- it's not really about what we talked about then, but that is a factor.

So none of this is definite. I may just be having a mid-year crisis and may turn out to really like the history department, or may decide I can't be buggered/don't have the GPA to sucessfully apply anywhere. But I shouldn't have made the decisions I did-- to slack because I didn't reall need transfer-worthy grades-- for the reasons I did.

(no subject)

So I sort of came to a revelation today about my undergrad career. While gradschool is obviously the most important thing, I shouldn't spend all of undergrad becomming the english and history seniors who don't know their heads from their asses. Not to belittle anyone-- but lately I've talked to a lot of people who have been here four years, and while I'll be presented with fresh material here it won't necessarily be well taught. I feel like I'm stagnating in my major classes.

When I came here it was bitterly, with full intent to transferby the beginning of next year. But I liked the people and the creative writing resources, and yes, let's face it, was five and got a boyfriend, and stopped feeling a need to claw my way out. But creative writing resources do not a solid fnglish/history/critical theory background make, and while it is possible to become a writer in a less organized structure (most people DO-- and there's always grad school, possibly writer's workshop), it is less possible to concoct a solid English/History background from thin air in time to be competitive in a good grad school.

So I'll take classes summer, fall and winter, and see if anyone will have me next Spring semester. This is all only tentative, but it was always my dream to go to a private college in a big city like Chicago, New York or New Orleans, and I'm not sure it wouldn't be good for me to live somewhere really fun like that. It'll be hard for me to leave my friends here and hard to make new ones at my new college, especially in what is going to be my junior year (I'm well into my sophmore right now, credit-wise). But it's not impossible, and my first impressions are my best (I tend to tarnish). It's especially not impossible in big cities at big schools like U of C, possible Northwestern, Tulane, Barnard, NYU, something.

I sort of said something to Danny on the phone over Christmas break. I don't know if he remembers, but it involved this subject. Danny-- it's not really about what we talked about then, but that is a factor.

So none of this is definite. I may just be having a mid-year crisis and may turn out to really like the history department, or may decide I can't be buggered/don't have the GPA to sucessfully apply anywhere. But I shouldn't have made the decisions I did-- to slack because I didn't reall need transfer-worthy grades-- for the reasons I did.