Note: ‘Level of Thesis Completion’ is constant.
Category: Daily updates
Generally musings of the day, usually accompanied by a photograph
Poco a poco
As I expect a few readers of this blog did as well, I attended Philip Pullman’s lecture tonight, on the fundamental particles of storytelling. He chose just one: the action of pouring something, and discussed it with a range of examples from cartoons in The New Yorker to Kubla Khan. I appreciated the Epicureanism of his outlook – the general rejection of the mind-body duality that has proved so popular in philosophy, and the assertion that our essential modes of understanding are predicated upon the experience of the physical reality of the world. It was also interesting to not that he did not become aware of what he considers a fundamental element of the His Dark Materials trilogy (the phenomenon of cleaving or separation), until after the first two books had been published.
In the end, I think it is far less impressive to make some towering and essential contribution to scholarship than it is to write a truly excellent novel for children.
After the lecture, I had my copy of The Golden Compass signed with what I was told was the very Mont Blanc pen with which it was first written. I was a bit pleased to see that everyone else in the queue behind me had crisp new copies, whereas mine could not be mistaken for one that has not been read a dozen times. Counting his edition of Paradise Lost, which I had signed at the Alternative Careers Fair, I now have two inscribed books of his.
Final precipitous post
Walking around Oxford at night, in the snow, is the first time I have ever felt at all sensible wearing robes. I think it is a combination of the practical concerns of temperature and the suspension of normal rules of operation that always accompanies a Vancouverite after a snowfall.
I have always loved ‘extreme’ weather events, precisely because of the way they allow the subversion of normal modes of operating. Because of what I mean by weather, things like blackouts also count. Anything of a sufficiently super-human magnitude to let us legitimately question the rhythms of normal life tells us a lot about people; personally, the people who respond primarily with annoyance are the same sort who do not like Studio Ghibli films. That is to say, people with no imagination.
Oxford dinner hat trick
In a few minutes, I am off to my third Oxford formal dinner in a row, in the third different college. This is almost certainly the only time in my life such a run will occur. That the third is at St. Hugh’s seems quite appropriate: both because I taught there during the summer and because I found my way back through there earlier today, after going on a long walk in the snow. I went through the University Parks, then northwards along the River Cherwell until the bridge into Wolfson College. This dinner is in celebration of my friend and classmate Iason Gabriel’s birthday.
Snow day
You know those days when you wake up to find the world unexpectedly blanketed with snow? As a Vancouverite, I really don’t, so this morning is especially surprising. I am glad I peeked out early enough to realize that cycling today is a non-starter. Also, early enough to be able to grab a few ‘pristine snow’ pictures of Oxford.
[Update: 1:30pm] College taken over by young ballistics experts from nearby secondary school. Staff, student body in headlong retreat, scattering in all directions. All thoughts of pristine snow banished by ceaseless barrage.
Timeline, for personal and public reference
As far as I know, these dates are correct:
28 February: Draft of second thesis chapter due
9 – 12 March: Hiking in Snowdonia with Oxford Walking Club
15 March: Draft of third thesis chapter due
30 March: Draft of fourth thesis chapter due
31 March – 7 April: Retreat to Devon for monastic reading / thesis completion in the former home of Dorothy and Nicholas Wadham10 April: Draft of thesis conclusion due
23 April: Thesis due, Trinity Term begins
26 – 30 April: Paris with Hilary and Mike4 May: First international law paper due
18 May: Second international law paper due11 – 16 June: Final examinations: History 1900-present, International Relations Theory, Developing World, International Law
16 June: Trinity Term ends
29 June: Last possible day for a viva exam (oral exam for those on the cusp of passing or failing)
Specific dates for exams don’t seem to be released yet, though I admit to finding the web page for the examination schools quite bewildering. I seem to have been clicking through a great circle for the last ten minutes.
Richard Casement internship
As one more project for the next couple of weeks, I am going to prepare a submission for the Richard Casement internship at The Economist. Since about ten people a day are finding my site by searching for that term, I am not going to give any hints about what I might write my 600 word article about. That said, I am told that such applications generally succeed through the combination of a good submission with a fortuitous personal connection with someone already inside the organization. Furthermore, their stated “aim is more to discover writing talent in a science student or scientist than scientific aptitude in a budding journalist” and I am neither of those things.
That said, I can hardly imagine a better way to spend the first three months after finishing here than writing about science in New York or London. Hopefully, my application this year will go better than the ones I submitted in past recruiting cycles.
Halfway through Hilary term
The idea that I will be climbing Welsh mountains in just over a month is quite an appealing one. Between the weather and the need to do academic work, I have barely been cycling in any capacity beyond getting from my flat to the centre of town. As such, I have been feeling somewhat lumpish.
I am hoping to have virtually all of the critical reading for the thesis done by the time I am heading west with the Walking Club, giving the information the chance to consolidate with each bootstep upwards. I just hope it doesn’t treat my knees quite as cruelly as the Scotland trip did. I was walking strangely for the better part of a week, afterwards.
PS. This interactive page on orbital debris is really interesting. It includes information on the consequences of the Chinese anti-satellite test.
Some have praised brevity
Not much to say tonight. The world progresses towards the thesis. What lies beyond is profoundly uncertain.
“No, Donny, these men are nihilists, there’s nothing to be afraid of.”
During post-submission decompression, I have been reminded of what a brilliant film The Big Lebowski is. I have certainly seen it a dozen times, and will quite probably see it a dozen more times. Some of the lines in the film are priceless. Altogether, it is simply great storytelling, and a film I recommend to anyone with a sense of humour.
Looking at the Oxford experience of stress over time, it looks a great deal like an f(x)=tan(x) graph, if you disregard the portions in which the Y-axis is negative.
