time travel is easy

On hiatus

2005-01-24T13:02:00.000Z

On hiatus until I finish my PhD.

Site meters

2005-01-24T10:35:00.000Z

I've removed my site meters because I keep looking at them, inventing a fictional audience for myself and then distracting myself from the PhD. They were useful because technorati doesn't pick up everyone who links you and it's always nice to know who's doing that. If I close down the comments just while I'm doing the PhD then that will remove another distraction. I'm not sure I want to do that though because it's nice to get comments. Mmmmm. I know. I'll close down the comments and set up an email address. That way if anyone really wants to say hello they can and I won't keep staring at my blogs looking to see if anything has changed.

Themes

2005-01-24T01:25:00.000Z

For the rest of the week I'm only going to write about English royalty and sex. I have a couple of early modern scandals in mind and will be searching around for others. I'm trying theme related blogging because it makes it harder for me to waste time online when I should be writing my PhD!

Over on Piccola Inglese I'm exploring historical memory. This week I'll be talking about the experience of remembering the second world war. For privacy's sake I have changed all the names and some details. The attitudes and memories are as I saw them. I might do the Soviet Union next week.

Freedom

2005-01-23T20:22:00.000Z

I used to be very unclear about certain things because I hadn't given them proper thought. It was all about how I saw my position in the world. I think I felt obliged and driven to do certain things because I hadn't got past the adolescent feeling of self-importance. I knew I was just one little soul among billions but I didn't feel it in my bones. I think when you truly believe that there are billions of other people looking out of their eyes just like you look out of yours, then you can begin to take joy in the world. I feel far more free now because the sense that I'm obliged to leave a mark and stand out from the crowd has lifted. I still want to be good at what I do but I've given myself permission to be a private citizen who just does things for the joy of it. I think the strong drive I felt before had something to do with fears about my mortality. I saw how someone could be wiped from existence and I felt pushed to do something to leave a more solid anchor in the world. Accepting that I am one of billions and that nothing I do will make me immortal has given me permission to be quiet. I am more inclined now to do things for the pleasure of the moment rather than to push out a product like a greeting card design or an article. I have been criticised by people my own age for being so product centred and I wonder how they knew about this before I did. They made me feel rather small when they spoke to me about it.

Teaching

2005-01-23T19:16:00.000Z

I've just been drinking green tea with friends. We were talking about academia and school teaching again. Whenever I tell British friends that I'm thinking about school teaching they do everything they can to put me off. The reasons are usually:

Teenage behaviour.
They've heard there's a lot of paper work.
They've heard it's very stressful.
If you're a bad teacher it could be a disaster.
No guarantee that you can get a job in a reasonable school.

Only one of these people has actually taught in a secondary school. The rest of it comes from the same media coverage that I've been reading. One of the friends I drank tea with taught in her native country and she's well aware of all the stress factors. However she emphasises that there are ways round it and that it can be very rewarding.

The nice thing is that you can train to be a teacher at almost any age so I think I'm going to put the idea on the back burner for a couple of years. I need to recover from the PhD first. I do have a really good feeling about it. I'm going to have to spend more time with teenagers and perhaps observing schools to make sure I know what I'm getting into. When I look back at my own school days what I remember of the school makes me think that it's a very stimulating environment. All jobs have their bad points so I'm definitely not going to pay attention to people who complain about paperwork. Almost everyone has too much paperwork. It's not a reason not to do a job.

I'm still not against academia. I like research. As I'm thinking about teaching history at secondary school I obviously like teaching history. My only fear is the employment conditions. Can I get through the competition? Could I get a job where I want to live? Will my career path be steady enough to give me a reasonable level of financial security? I want to have children eventually but I keep hearing about women who can't get lectureships until they're 32 or 33.

Blogiverse round up

2005-01-23T18:57:00.000Z

George Washington's diaries. From Exploratoria.
Southern American literature in context from Ex Libris.
Greg remembers Will Eisner.
It's difficult to sum up this article by LiL but I like it.
My friend Jon's Dad visits the bees.
An elderly couple wait for the bus. (I can picture them exactly because my family are from that part of the world)

Korean horsemen

2005-01-23T12:17:00.000Z

My boyfriend sent a big package from Korea full of Christmas presents for my family. Among other things it contained two little clay horsemen. My boyfriend bought them from a shop where he was told that they were made as a sideline by an artist trying to earn money for his main line of work. They're such happy looking little horsemen. My boyfriend told me that they were modelled on paintings like this. I don't anything about it but it's rather nice.

History in the blogosphere

2005-01-23T10:19:00.000Z

Sepoy on coronations. Jonathan Dresner on Kikiyu revisionism. (Is it me or do the British Empire's claims of a civilizing mission remind you of these stupid liberal wars we keep having?) Natalie goes through her inboxes.

In the sunday papers

2005-01-23T09:51:00.000Z

The last major gathering of Holocaust survivors is to be held in a bleak corner of southern Poland this week as the world marks the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz extermination camp. The Independent

Italy finally ready to recognise the suffering of gays in Holocaust camp. The Independent

Historians hit back at David Hockney's claim that Renaissance artists used optical instruments to create their masterpieces. The Independent (I don't see why the use of optical aids is viewed as cheating)

Search for the lost library of Rome. The Times

The Royal Academy’s Turks revels in the eastern promise of the Ottomans, but there’s far more to this show’s gorgeous array of objects, says Waldemar Januszczak. The Times

TREASURES of Tutankhamun are to be displayed in the Millennium Dome, 35 years after the first British exhibition of artefacts from the tomb of the Egyptian boy king, writes Nicholas Hellen. The Times

BRITISH Muslims are to boycott this week’s commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz because they claim it is not racially inclusive and does not commemorate the victims of the Palestinian conflict. The Times (What a pity this article fails to distinguish between the people who say they represent British Muslims and the thousands of British Muslims themselves)

Islam, race and British identity. The Guardian.

Why Churchill saw himself as a failure. The Guardian

What's it like in a British primary school? The Independent

Gay Pride heads for black townships, to take on African taboo. The Independent

Gammelost

2005-01-23T09:48:00.000Z

Via Sharon I've found a blog written by a British philologist living in Norway. You must go and have a look.

Enjoyable and interesting

2005-01-23T09:36:00.000Z

After deciding that the purpose of life is to do things that are enjoyable and interesting and don't hurt anybody, I started listing the things that I like. (In no particular order)

Meeting people from other countries.
Speaking foreign languages although I only know one at the moment and that took me a long time to learn.
Blogging.
I used to think that I wanted to be a fiction writer but I also enjoy reading travel literature and I think I might prefer writing in that style.
Learning general history, arts and culture.
Waffling on endlessly about the things I enjoy.
Researching history that interests me.
Drawing when I'm on a flow.
Being quite independent with the work I do.
Being attractive and healthy (not doing too well there at present)
Lots of thinking time and a relaxed approach to life.
Walking around old cities and visiting old buildings like churches.
Reading

The purpose of life

2005-01-23T01:10:00.000Z

I think I've discovered the purpose of life. You know. That thing you have to worry about once food and shelter have been sorted out. Do things that you enjoy and that interest you. Do whatever it is that makes you feel like a round peg in a round hole. Don't do anything that will cause harm. Accept that all human beings want recognition in one way or another and that if you focus on what you enjoy then you will meet people with similar interests who like what you do and will give you approval. You could be a collector, an athlete, a painter, anything.

I think accepting that it's ok to want recognition is very important. We're all human and we all want to be attractive and successful. When being attractive and successful is enmeshed in something we dislike (like a patriarchal value system) we can be very self-critical. We say 'I shouldn't want to be beautiful. It's shallow.' Or 'I shouldn't want people to praise my work. It's superficial.' It's good to question the system but accept that you are human. It's not wrong for a child to want praise so why should it be wrong for you? The important thing is balance and moderation.

p.s. The naked Arnold Schwarzenegger snow fight scene at the start of Red Heat is now officially my number 1 kitsch movie moment.

Goals

2005-01-22T22:17:00.000Z

My friends and I agree that when you hit 26 or 27 you tend to go through a bit of a funny patch. It's an age when a lot of people look at their lives, wonder whether they're doing the right thing and start reinventing themselves. I did a lot of thinking in 2004 because I had to work out where I was going, who I was and whether I was thinking about life in the right way at all. I don't think we're ever entirely certain of who we are but it helps to have a rough idea. Daniel Lemire points out this essay by Paul Graham. I like the section Daniel picks out but I also particularly like these lines:

Now I have enough experience to realize that those famous writers actually sucked. Plenty of famous people do; in the short term, the quality of one's work is only a small component of fame. In retrospect, I should have been less worried about doing something that seemed cool, and just done something I liked. That's the actual road to coolness anyway.

BBC sites

2005-01-22T20:53:00.000Z

Take an interactive journey through Leonardo da Vinci's life and works.
How Einstein hoped to unlock the mind of God.

Grangerizing

2005-01-22T17:31:00.000Z

In the comments at Thanks for not being a zombie they talk about Grangerizing. In 1769 the Reverend James Granger of Shiplake published a book for portrait print collectors. It sparked the craze for Grangerizing, the extra illustration of books with portrait and other prints. You can read about it in Chapter 2 of Marcia Pointon's Hanging the Head. Lucy Peltz, now a curator at the National Portrait Gallery in London, expanded on Pointon's chapter to produce a PhD.

I say all this because I've just been reading Pointon. Earlier this afternoon I read 'Gods, Saints and Reformers: Portraiture and Protestant England' by Margaret Aston (pp.181-220) in Albion's Classicism: The Visual Arts in Britain, 1550-1660 by Lucy Ghent. Aston talks about Protestant attitudes to portraiture in the light of fears of Papist style idol worship. I'm currently waiting for another user to return a book by Frances Haskell that deals with collecting galleries of great men. Pointon also deals with it. If you're going to be looking at portraiture in early modern England then you'll need to be aware of all the issues I've touched on here.

BBC writers room

2005-01-22T16:37:00.000Z

I found this via James and the Blue Cat.

(Note to self: I will get on much better with writing and life in general if I stop taking myself so seriously)

Arts and history in the news

2005-01-22T09:49:00.000Z

Four women were among the first students to graduate from Birmingham University in 1901 - and the presentation ceremony was recorded on recently discovered archive film. BBC

The Spanish government is to compensate citizens who were forced to flee abroad as children during the 1930s civil war. BBC

Auschwitz was liberated 60 years ago this week, but it is fresh in the minds of its victims. Our correspondent reports from a centre in Toronto that helps them. The Times

Forget hype, it is recommendations that really boost a novel. The Times

WHEN YOU purchase a Chinese-made television set, which may be hiding its true identity behind a Japanese brand name, you are paying homage to Zhao Ziyang. The Times

The Louvre authorities have abandoned their objections to scenes for the film version of the thriller The Da Vinci Code being shot in the museum. The Guardian

Colonial attitudes linger, finding their most xenophobic expression among liberal defenders of free speech. The Guardian

The discovery that ancient artefacts sacred to Jewish history are forgeries has sent shockwaves through the museum world. But was the gang behind the scam only interested in cash, or did they have other motives? Rachel Shabi investigates The Guardian

Michelangelo's David is meant to be a representation in marble of the perfect male form. So why did his creator not make him - how would one say - a little better endowed? The Guardian

Lee Miller started out as a Vogue model, but by 1930 she had moved behind the lens to take piercing photographs - culminating in her rage-fuelled portraits of Nazi kitsch. Fiona MacCarthy reports The Guardian

On the eve of Russia's first biennale of contemporary art, Sarah Walden visited Moscow's museums and discovered that a lack of funding can be a good thing. The Guardian

Cogent Jorj

2005-01-21T23:28:00.000Z

Is there something we can do to counter this trend towards assuming that everyone who watches TV is a half-wit? Even the long-respected Horizon on BBC is doing it! Says cogent jorj, who I found via Tony. Tony uses the word 'blogiverse'. I must say that more often.

Snappiness

2005-01-21T20:15:00.000Z

I deal with a lot of students at work. In their different ways they're all very polite. I get snapped at about once in every five shifts. It's usually someone who's got their mind on other things. I remember what it was like to be 18 and absolutely panicked about your work. The snap rate increases in the summer when we have students training on a very high pressure course. I did the same course myself so I know how tense they're feeling. We all have snappy moments. I was horrible to someone last weekend. I wanted to sit quietly for 5 minutes in the cathedral so I went in a quarter of an hour before service. One of the ladies handing out service booklets asked me if I was staying for the service and when I said no she told me I couldn't stay. I said 'No problem. Quite alright' in my best eye avoiding snappy tone. I wish I hadn't done that. So we're all snappy.

I think solitary PhD students like me aren't really used to negative work related snappiness. I spend all day alone at my desk. When I start work for real I'll have to deal with brusque bosses, impatient customers and all that sort of thing. I wonder if sometimes the students who snap at me forget that I'm a person. They probably think I'm like a mushroom that sprouted out of the university. We meet so many people in our daily lives that it's sometimes hard to maintain the right level of empathy for all of them.

Sars

2005-01-21T17:49:00.000Z

Here's an example of a blog article that will be of interest to historians.

One does not simply walk

2005-01-21T17:36:00.000Z

I found this via James and the Blue Cat.

My flatmate forwarded me this spam.

FW: {Spam?} Soft and soluble lozenges for actual chaps
Our lozenges are only similar normal pills but they
are specially explicated to be pliant and soluble
under the clapper. The pills is took up at the rima oris
and goes in the fluid direct rather of proceeding
through the breadbasket. This results in a quicker much more
strong event which even up to 32 hours!

Fantasy

2005-01-21T17:02:00.000Z

If I was offered an academic job I would take it. When I see postdocs advertised I imagine myself pottering around in the archives. But it's not that simple. First my chances of getting a job in that area are not guaranteed. Secondly if I can get a job will it be in a place where I want to be? It would undoubtedly be a short term contract and I know my chances of continuing on after that would still be low. What puts me off most is that there are young academics who struggle on in part time posts for a couple of years, then get a good one year contract and then go back to struggling on in part time posts. You have to be very tough to get any kind of career stability and what you get won't necessarily fit in with your personal life.

At the moment I'm feeling a bit trapped because I'm writing up my PhD. I'm having fantasies about getting away from the academic career structure and doing something completely different. Like school teaching or something for a charity. I've stopped measuring myself as an academic and I've started looking at how I am as a person. In my fantasy I have a nice job and I spend my spare time reading and writing. LiL reminded us that Kafka was an insurance lawyer. Paul Gauguin was originally a banker. You don't need to earn money in arts and culture to make a life out of it. The internet is a big help not only in terms of self-publication but also because more and more resources are available online.

I still don't know the best way to measure my life. The little creature in Dale's post (below) wouldn't worry about things like that. At the moment I feel like a portable project. I've spent my twenties developing my arts/history academic side and now I want to continue with that as well as developing new subject interests, be more creative, explore religion and learn physical skills like ballroom dancing or martial arts. Sometimes I wonder if putting so much energy into myself is a bit self-absorbed and pointless, but why is that? If I'm here for a reason it's to make the most of life and learn as much as possible. (I know I know. I'm as corny as an after school special)

Subfusc

2005-01-21T16:45:00.000Z

Have you any idea what a subfusc is? I like this post of Dale's, particularly the lines:

Maybe there's a lift to it, a small exaltation, the same we feel any time when we are doing exactly what we're suited for.

That's the point of life. Doing what we're suited for. The world wouldn't work if we were all the same.

More on Summers

2005-01-21T14:18:00.000Z

Professor B has an interesting post on women and work inspired by the Summers row.

The internet shall set you free

2005-01-21T13:26:00.000Z

I'm taking the morning off. I have to go to work this afternoon and I absolutely must do some writing over the weekend so I thought I'd relax today. Listen to how guilty I feel.

I don't know anything much about manuscript circulation in 17th-century England. I know there was a lot of it going on and that in our printed age we tend to underestimate it. The 17th century saw a huge increase in the amount of printed news. Alongside all the pamphlets, broadsheets and newspapers news was also transmitted in manuscript form. London journalists ran manuscript newsletter services. I'm a bit hazy on the details but I think they were sent around the country via the developing postal system. They were sometimes sent out with printed newspapers like The London Gazette. When we think of Restoration England we sometimes remember the really dirty poems that got passed around the Royal court. A large proportion of these were also passed around in manuscript form. I remember attending a talk given by an academic researching Catholic poetry. She told us how these poems were not intended for printed publication but were copied out and passed from reader to reader.

What I mean by all these examples is that back then news and other literature could circulate on a very individual level. It wasn't reliant on the say so of a big publishing house or a panel of editors. If it pleased the reader it was copied out and passed along. The internet has given us a similar environment. We are now free to express ourselves in any way we please. Just look at the recent explosion of blogs. If we want to publish poems or stories or historical research we no longer have to get past the judgement of others. We can put it straight online. If it's any good it will get linked and passed around.

I know the publishing houses and review boards serve a very useful purpose. They maintain a certain level of quality. When an article is published in a respected journal you know you can trust it because it's been peer reviewed. People can publish all sorts of dross online. I don't think the quality problem is one that should deter us. As more people use the internet for this kind of thing mechanisms will evolve to filter out the crap. Even now you can see bloggers peer reviewing each other. Peer review is less necessary for creative writing than it is for academic work. If the reader likes a poem then that's enough. You don't need a Harvard professor to tell you it's good. If you really take your academic or creative work seriously then you should take some responsibility for your own quality levels or ask someone to check it for you.

You might say that my enthusiasm for self-publication means that I know I'm too mediocre to get past a publishing house. Perhaps that is part of it I admit. But when only something like 0.6% of submitted manuscripts ever get published you've got to start asking questions. Obviously a large number of failed manuscripts are absolute rubbish but how many good ones just aren't getting through because they're a bit unusual or not likely to make money?

Maybe one day we'll have fewer books published each year because only the ones that are popular online will make it onto paper. That will be better for the environment at least. The freedom of the internet will change things and it will unleash a lot of rubbish, but if it means that every man and woman can publish their historical research and express themselves then it's worth it. I keep hearing the joke 'Everyone has got a novel in them and that's where they should keep it.' Sure, fine, yes I can see the point. But won't it be better when we can see everyone's novel and decide for ourselves what's worth it?

I'm meandering and rambling now so I'll log off.