R-Rated

Today was sort-of liberating. Full disclosure here and not for the easily offended. (Plug your reading ears if blue language offends you). Foucault, was once indelicately referred to as FUCK-O by certain members of my class who shall remain nameless and who (at the time of the assignment of the moniker) had no grasp on what the HELL he was saying. In fact, I would go so far as to say that Fuck-O has been the thorny cause of much wailing and gnashing of teeth among certain members of our clan…members of which I will not disclude myself. But today, TODAY, dear readers, the Archaeology of Knowledge opened up and fell into order in my flu-ridden, sleep-deprived mind. (Am I ready to return to The Order of Things?) Anyhow…before today, though it has occurred to me that I should, as a scholar-in-training, consider standing on the giant’s shoulders in my approach to a TW archive or an analysis of the Pulitzer as Canon of American Greatness (for instance)…I never would have considered doing so without doing so begrudgingly and/or without being haunted by the niggling suspicion that I was doing so foolishly.

I now suspect that the final entries of Archaeology of Knowledge will serve as an excellent and clear frame for my dissertation research. We shall see if Archive Fever is as kind to me. I’m hoping to read ahead for Monday so that I might be able to actually enjoy a full weekend OFF.

That said, I am disappointed about a response I got yesterday from my playwrighting prof. I had signed up for an English course called Savage America last year for the sole purpose of boning up for a play I’ve had rumbling around in my head. I started writing scenes based on research I had done on western frontier vice towns, with the intention of prepping for the playwrighting course I enrolled in this semester. Anyhow, our assignment is to either submit a one-act per half semester or to submit half of a full-length per half-semester. I sent half of the full-length I had been working on to my pwrt professor a week early to assure I was ok sending non-linear scenes. I was met with a distressing response. He seems to see it as an idea-play where I envision it as pseudo-southern-gothic. It also seemed distasteful to him that I had the beginning and ending scenes as it felt I was pushing to get to a forced ending. I wrote as I envisioned it…and plugged in notes where I felt there were missing scenes. Now instead of being too forced, he feels I am too loose. I feel neither forced nor loose. AND, where I thought the pre-semester work would be a bonus, I think he is put-off because I submitted the pages in the other course.. Anyhow, I am torn…I can send what I already have to the class, knowing he sees many flaws OR I can scrap the 15 pages, shelve them for work once I’m free from the ivory tower, and start from scratch on something I think he will find favor in. OR, I can just start at the first scene and fill in the missing scenes, write to 15 pages and hope his aversion to the sexual violence doesn’t taint his view of the piece. Having been miserably under the weather, I REALLY would like a few days of rest but I keep waffling.

I think I will post this blog, take a eucalyptus bath while I decide what to do, write my 1020 midterm, download my reading for Monday and then write for the playwrighting course until I can’t stay awake. Tomorrow I will try to blog early, I will do my reading for Monday, will respond to the local playwright who emailed me today (once I read her revisions) and will track down what I want to post in place of the readings I had posted for America class next Wednesday, then teach, pack and drive to Ragley or Lake Charles. Hopefully Friday I can hit a court or two to do some Judge Judy field research.