Transitions
I had a bit of an intellectual crisis of late. In the last semester or so, my work ethic has … diminished, shall we say (and it was already pretty low). Sometimes, it makes me wonder if this is the right industry, etc. Anyway, I’ve been worried about my ability and/or desire to read novels for a living, at the same time that was struggling through Thomas Pynchon’s gargantuan (and grossly over-rated) Against the Day. Last night, around one in the morning, as I soldiered beyond page 350, trying to get to the end of Part 2, I realized I just didn’t care about the book, anymore. In a huff, I set it down, convinced I was a failure as a graduate student (I nominally study postmodernism and, despite this, have only managed to ever finish one of the quintessential postmodern author’s books).
This morning, I started reading Cormac McCarthey’s The Road, a stripped-to-the-bones travelogue through a postapocalyptic landscape. It’s fantastic. I really got into this afternoon and am hooked, having already finished pretty much a fourth of the novel (and generated at least one paper idea (possibly two)). Turns it out, the worrying was all for naught.
