Comments | leafofgrass: Subtlety of Beauty

leafofgrass

Subtlety of Beauty

Dec 05, 2009 14:49

For some time now and completely unbeknowst to myself, I have been considering the terms of my surrender. I have been attempting to put a pleasant face upon it, couching my decisions in existentialist trappings and framing my escape from the world's assault upon my aspirations as another movement in the process of self-becoming. Today, as I ( Read more... )

Comments 7

christies_world December 5 2009, 21:04:49 UTC

You are perhaps a modern day Jude (the Obscure), but seemingly with a much happier ending.

You should update this more often!

leafofgrass December 8 2009, 16:19:01 UTC

I'm too wordy: it takes too long! :)
Seriously, since I entered professional life, I have faced a sort of bind. I am not anonymous enough here to let me post publicly, but most of my LJ friends no longer post to their journals. LJ is so vastly superior to facebook and all that, I don't know why the other is so favored.

And yes, let's not hope that I turn out like Jude! The situation is rather less desperate, so I suppose I have one up already.

29usc151 December 8 2009, 03:12:04 UTC

Amen!

leafofgrass December 8 2009, 16:21:23 UTC

Glad you do!

I didn't know you still haunted these parts. Most everyone I knew here migrated elsewhere.

madamebovary December 17 2009, 06:16:55 UTC

I'm almost coming back to LJ. We'll see how long it lasts ( ... )

leafofgrass December 19 2009, 17:34:28 UTC

Why are you being so self-deprecating? I don't think I have ever deleted a comment, least of all from you.

Academia is professional life, just as subject to that same BS with the added layer of BS about which I am complaining. That's why leaving the academy is/was starting to seem so appealing: fewer people in the outside world evaluate and place you immediately on the basis of where you went to school. Trust me, I'm not idealizing life outside the academy, but I'm sick of others trying to make me feel small because I couldn't afford a degree like their own.

On a more pleasant note, I think that you in particular will really enjoy the Barbery book. You've got the philosophical background to make it into a really great read.

madamebovary December 22 2009, 05:30:23 UTC

I think i was self-deprecating because it took me like 20 minutes to read your post. It was the most exercise my brain's gotten in like YEARS.

I didn't think you were idealizing the academy. I was just pointing out a difference I had seen between the way academia works and my experience in publishing. I think both are rather frustrating to crack, however, I actually think that when the game is about who you know vs. where you're from, you can have a more actively current roll in cultivating all that.

And your review did make me want to read that book. I kinda wish I could read it in french, but I know that'll just end up with me passing out on the subway instead. It's on my shortlist. :)