Juniorprof Goes on Vacation

I have lost the art of vacationing. It happened somewhere after my comps in grad school. I'm not sure where it went, but suddenly all of my travels became work-oriented (research, conferences, more research, more conferences). So when it suddenly came to taking an actual vacation, I was stumped. I slept through my alarm clock, woke up fifteen minutes before departure because (thankfully) my juniorprof friend decided to find out if I needed something from McDonalds, put my deodorant into my bag instead of my blackberry, and thus arrived at my vacation spot with no ability to communicate with the world. And thus (being deprived of email and phone), I accidentally took a vacation.

A Socratic Dialogue: Ben Franklin and The Duck

The scene: a pleasant pastoral setting. Ben Franklin sits on the shore beside a pond. The Duck passes by him.
"Hello, Ben Franklin. What are you pondering today?"
"I am pondering the nature of industry."
"What is industry?"
"That, my duck friend, is the question."
"Can I help?" quacks the duck.
"I don't know. I think not. You always look so serene."
"Does serene mean 'paddling like hell to stay afloat?'"
Franklin pauses. "Yet, you are so unruffled," he muses. "Thus your industry is concealed. So serenity is concealed industry. Whereas I, though I wish to be industrious, do not even seem serene."
"You need to paddle?"
"Perhaps. Or need to seem to paddle."
"That's weird."
"Yes, I live on land. But in human terms, my efforts must be visible to others."
"That's weird too."
"Industry is not work itself. But the appearance of labor. Your pond conceals your labor; my effort shall conceal my sloth."

In actuality, Ben Franklin wrote, " I took care not only to be in reality industrious and frugal, but to avoid all appearances to the contrary. I drest plainly; I was seen at no places of idle diversion. And, to show that I was not above my business, I sometimes brought home the paper I purchased at the stores thru the streets on a wheelbarrow."

What do you think constitutes industry?

[post written in conjunction w/risatrix]

Posting on juniorprof

So I'm bemused by the level of silent traffic through this blog (visible through google analytics, which tracks numbers not people). Speak up! We all fear that if we express our perspectives then our universities might not want us after 6 or 7 years. Could happen. Probably won't. And why live in a state of fear? If any university cared that their junior folk were improving each other's skills, then I can also post Stallybrass and White's interpretation of the carnivalesque...

A reminder that "anonymous" is "anonymous."

Writing through Metaphor

A good metaphor can do wonders for whatever project. With my book, I like to imagine that I am tending to a garden: weed a bit here; plant seeds there; add some tasteful flowers; layer some mulch; contemplate sticking in a half-grown tree. Metaphors provide a sense of process, a rhythm that can sustain long months of revisions and re-revisions. But I'm in dire need of a new one to help me get started with a review essay that was due, like, yesterday. I think I hate review essays. Any advice?

Juniorprof under Pile of Papers...

Nuff said..

Juniorprof trying to transition

I forgot that when classes end, service and grading don't. Another mile suddenly appeared at the end of the marathon, right when the mental buzz of all the summations of brilliance in class could have led directly into creative energy for my own writing. I am now suffering from lactic acid buildup in the brain. Any suggestions about how best to transition, when that last party, last graduation ceremony, last committee meeting for the year finally occurs?

Minority Issues

I was reminded recently how easily one can forget the peculiarities of minority life in the academy, even when one is a minority of sorts. Whether that minority status stems from sexual orientation or ethnic or racial identity, the academy is still built for white men. That is not to say that I don't have some lovely white male colleagues, but rather that the institution of post-graduate learning was structured for a particular exclusivity, one founded generations ago in the western expansion of Europe. Those walls are crumbling, but we fight different parts of them. I have my own battles, but I am more interested in yours. What is minority life in the academy like for you? What issues matter (when one gets through the idiocies of daily life)? What would truly improve your experience?