All entries for April 2005

27 words

Inside the word limit by 27 words and given in almost 120 seconds before the deadline!

As essays go, I'm not very proud of it. I suppose it does fairly represent my grasp of the subject. I should have focused on the conclusion much earlier. Then I could have had, err, a better grasp of what it was.

: 27 Apr 2005 19:45 |  Tags: PDP |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

I wish I'd looked where I was going

Essay 1. 3000 words done 2000 to go and 4 days to go. 10 marks off for being under-weight 5% penalty for every day of delay. But a "get out clause" – I can give up and take the exam instead.

Essay 2. 3000 words done, 2000 to go and 4 days to go. Same penalties. No get out clause. But at least the words are flowing on this one. Unfortunately they aren't really the right words.

It's important to get the context clear before going into the specifics, but there has to be a lot more specifics than I have in my head. Now if only I'd written a synopsis a few weeks ago I would have had more time to get down to some specifics relating to the particular twist of the question.

: 23 Apr 2005 09:16 |  Tags: PDP |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Alienation eh?

Blank faces at my Political Theory seminar on Marx's alienation.

Of course the problem is the average undergraduate has never really had a real, proper truely alienating job. It's out of their experience.

Still 30/40 years of working for managers like David Brent with teach em!
link
Gareth is an achytypal working class tory.

I wonder whether working in a university is any better? I once met a retired laboratory technician from a well known uni. He said he hated every single day of the years he worked there.

A particular occasion was burnt into his memory. The day when he was trying to explain to a couple of top academics that the departmental budget couldn't give them what they wanted. All one could say to the other was "How do you let him (the lab. tech.) dare talk to you like that

: 21 Apr 2005 11:24 |  Tags: Political Theory Since Hobbes |  Comments (10) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Lad Lit

Writing about web page http://www.warwickartscentre.co.uk/?page=wac_event_details.html&even

I went to The Lad Lit Project last night.

I'm always worried about looking at Culture too closely in the search for sociological insight. "Lad lit" is just another genre – how might you be misled if you thought Western novels & films were an accurate and balanced view of life in the western US 1865-1885?

Got the invite from Warwick Anti Sexism Society, still by serendipity I got a female friend to come with me in case I needed some defence. Always a bit paranoid that mixing with people with a tendency to gender and/or sexuality reductionism might lead down the road to SCUM (link). That's what's identity politics is all about if you ask me. I don't see why a heterosexual masculinity has to be misogynist.

On the other hand isn't there something biological about us males feeling much more at home with "rough and tumble play" rather than complex informal "social" interactions?

: 19 Apr 2005 12:03 |  Tags: Sociology |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem