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May. 5th, 2011 10:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kingtycoonmeh, last day of the semester and I unwisely neglected to set up some kind of action for the evening that followed. Not that, mind you, I don't still have a ton of writing to do for the finals, but it's the last day of proper classes and that's, I dunno bittersweet or something. Less a relief than a farewell, which is, well it's what it is- the University.
20th Century China, I'll miss you most of all. My friend Prof. Kang was just great. Last few weeks all the grad students have been doing lectures, mine was on narrative interpretations of Tienanmen '89 - and that got us into a big discussion of Performance Studies, which I am coming to regard as a minor calling. High points of the last couple of weeks - during the Awesome Chinese girl's discussion of the One Child Policy she was showing some of the propaganda - which is all based around not just having only one baby, but also being in a couple. Normative family relationships as defined by the state - I kept asking her about it and she couldn't really articulate any response - I was all: "I live in Cleveland where most children don't have two parents - what's up?" And Prof. stepped in and we had a big talk about the intensity of the marriage expectation among Chinese, interesting. Today we spoke a lot about Suzhi and no-one could really decipher what it means. The Prof. was hopping mad that this lady kept going on about how people would try to improve theirs and say that they had good Suzhi - but he was adamant that no-one would ever talk that way - "You can't tell her that you have good Suzhi, it mean that you are probably crazy." And I immediately realized that I would insist loudly to crowds that I had '#1 top Suzhi Everytime' and I had that feeling of being kind of ashamed and also proud and in love with myself simultaneously - which I often have. Dear old me. We left that class on a high note when he got sidetracked and wanted to talk about the Hegelian dialectic for, maybe too long - and that was amazing, I was yelling out German words and he was all: "I don't know it." Anyhow, fun. I'll miss his willingness to sidetrack us into the high minded fields of philosophy, which is a friend to me. Also the congenial morning atmosphere and the fairly easy writing assignments - none more than 10 pages, perfect. I won't miss his choice of books which were sometimes lacking - which was strange because he had that facility with the source material that I am always envious of - my notes are littered with references to follow up on that he dropped- title and author- effortlessly every day.
Republican Rome. I dunno, we had an Exam! I was kind of stoked to take an exam actually. We never get exams, just more writing. Today going home on the bus I couldn't write- first time in a long time, and I thought - it's cause I'm spent, it's cause I've written it all out. Of course, now I'm home and a little bored and feeling reflective, so I'll write this, but this isn't writing-writing, this is memoir. Easy-peasy. Anyhow, I'll miss the Professor there too, she's great, going to have her baby soon, we had a conversation at one point and she was talking, maybe a little too intently, maybe a little too nerdy, and I was charmed that she's writing her book through her pregnancy - super generative! I was proud of her all the time, plus she always wore heels, which I thought was tough. But Rome? I don't know, the Republic is like an old, old friend - you're always comforted having him around, the conversation is good, the good times are good, but it's... always the same. It was fun looking at it again, and I put a lot into my work for her, so there's that - but nothing especially wonderful came out of it, I didn't write anything that I'm super proud of. Just knowing - that's what that class was about - knowing. Plus an Exam! I'm so good at those. You know in better countries they assign you your whole life based on your facility with exams - they even just give you a job because of how you did on an exam. True Story - I get perfect scores on standardized tests oftener than not. True story 99th percentile. Anyhow, I won't miss her lecture style which was... not strong. And I won't miss the creeps that were all in that class. History as a discipline attracts a few creeps man.
20's and 30's in the US? I won't miss it one bit. Terrible class, made so by the Prof. I did not like him, I dislike him. It was a weird scene - like a book club. We read a lot, and most of the books were useful, and we wrote substantially, but then we'd meet to talk about what we'd read and he'd ask us all questions, treat us like children and be generally dismissive of everything anyone said - until the dope objectivist guy would basically restate what someone else had said, then we could move on to examine some other, even less interesting portion of the book. Once, one day, he talked for a good long time and I caught him recapitulating all my points that I had made in a paper I wrote for him. Jerkass. Anyhow, a lot of people were grumbly and especially all the ladies - so a lot of people probably won't take classes with him anymore, which is whatever. American History will remain a blind spot in my expertise I guess.
20th Century China, I'll miss you most of all. My friend Prof. Kang was just great. Last few weeks all the grad students have been doing lectures, mine was on narrative interpretations of Tienanmen '89 - and that got us into a big discussion of Performance Studies, which I am coming to regard as a minor calling. High points of the last couple of weeks - during the Awesome Chinese girl's discussion of the One Child Policy she was showing some of the propaganda - which is all based around not just having only one baby, but also being in a couple. Normative family relationships as defined by the state - I kept asking her about it and she couldn't really articulate any response - I was all: "I live in Cleveland where most children don't have two parents - what's up?" And Prof. stepped in and we had a big talk about the intensity of the marriage expectation among Chinese, interesting. Today we spoke a lot about Suzhi and no-one could really decipher what it means. The Prof. was hopping mad that this lady kept going on about how people would try to improve theirs and say that they had good Suzhi - but he was adamant that no-one would ever talk that way - "You can't tell her that you have good Suzhi, it mean that you are probably crazy." And I immediately realized that I would insist loudly to crowds that I had '#1 top Suzhi Everytime' and I had that feeling of being kind of ashamed and also proud and in love with myself simultaneously - which I often have. Dear old me. We left that class on a high note when he got sidetracked and wanted to talk about the Hegelian dialectic for, maybe too long - and that was amazing, I was yelling out German words and he was all: "I don't know it." Anyhow, fun. I'll miss his willingness to sidetrack us into the high minded fields of philosophy, which is a friend to me. Also the congenial morning atmosphere and the fairly easy writing assignments - none more than 10 pages, perfect. I won't miss his choice of books which were sometimes lacking - which was strange because he had that facility with the source material that I am always envious of - my notes are littered with references to follow up on that he dropped- title and author- effortlessly every day.
Republican Rome. I dunno, we had an Exam! I was kind of stoked to take an exam actually. We never get exams, just more writing. Today going home on the bus I couldn't write- first time in a long time, and I thought - it's cause I'm spent, it's cause I've written it all out. Of course, now I'm home and a little bored and feeling reflective, so I'll write this, but this isn't writing-writing, this is memoir. Easy-peasy. Anyhow, I'll miss the Professor there too, she's great, going to have her baby soon, we had a conversation at one point and she was talking, maybe a little too intently, maybe a little too nerdy, and I was charmed that she's writing her book through her pregnancy - super generative! I was proud of her all the time, plus she always wore heels, which I thought was tough. But Rome? I don't know, the Republic is like an old, old friend - you're always comforted having him around, the conversation is good, the good times are good, but it's... always the same. It was fun looking at it again, and I put a lot into my work for her, so there's that - but nothing especially wonderful came out of it, I didn't write anything that I'm super proud of. Just knowing - that's what that class was about - knowing. Plus an Exam! I'm so good at those. You know in better countries they assign you your whole life based on your facility with exams - they even just give you a job because of how you did on an exam. True Story - I get perfect scores on standardized tests oftener than not. True story 99th percentile. Anyhow, I won't miss her lecture style which was... not strong. And I won't miss the creeps that were all in that class. History as a discipline attracts a few creeps man.
20's and 30's in the US? I won't miss it one bit. Terrible class, made so by the Prof. I did not like him, I dislike him. It was a weird scene - like a book club. We read a lot, and most of the books were useful, and we wrote substantially, but then we'd meet to talk about what we'd read and he'd ask us all questions, treat us like children and be generally dismissive of everything anyone said - until the dope objectivist guy would basically restate what someone else had said, then we could move on to examine some other, even less interesting portion of the book. Once, one day, he talked for a good long time and I caught him recapitulating all my points that I had made in a paper I wrote for him. Jerkass. Anyhow, a lot of people were grumbly and especially all the ladies - so a lot of people probably won't take classes with him anymore, which is whatever. American History will remain a blind spot in my expertise I guess.
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Date: 2011-05-06 05:31 am (UTC)I resemble that remark.
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Date: 2011-05-06 10:47 pm (UTC)Really - I think of our stuff as being kind of explainable in the terms of the Gaming Manual. You've got people like me - who are interested mainly in the meta-plot, the storyline and how the abilities that are presented mesh with that. you've got guys like you (?art history?) who must be in it for the pictures (?not trying to be a dick.) And you have math/science nerds who are always about the combos, the math and the mechanics. Then you've got the military historians who, as far as I can tell, jack off all over the different kinds and types of axes? I think these guys must really love Palladium with its endless splash pages of line drawn guns.