The Thesis Concept

For all those who weren't aware, I've started writing my thesis this semester. Sadly, I've quickly become bogged down in post-modernist theory and commentary on Tristram Shandy (hereafter referred to as TS). And while I've been enjoying the whole getting acquainted with the idea of the thesis, I've already come to the conclusion that I am actually quite tired of reading books and am ready to start actually writing. It's just too bad that I've got a long way to go before I'm able to get there; at this moment, I still need to read three books by different leading theorist in the field and also another two books upon TS, as well as needing to reread TS. Now granted, I could be looking at this as a glass half full kind of situation, where I see that there is only this few amount of books left before I get to start putting pen to paper (I've already read about 7, as well as over 20 articles), but I've come to the moment where I just want to get started and can only see these books as more obstacles that I have to maneuver around before I can get going.

Now at this point, you might be asking why not just start, and skip these last few books. Well, here's the dilemma that I face. I feel that I need to situate myself into the conversation that's been taking place with TS, and to do this, I need to read as much scholarship as possible on this topic before I get started, so that I'm not covering other people's tracks, nor am I repeating other's ideas. So, though I feel somewhat prepared and really fed up with TS essays, I have to plow through this shit before I see the bright light at the end of the tunnel, the bright light in this case being my monitor.

As for the theorists, I look forward to the challenge of reading these works, but wish I had already read more of this stuff beforehand. At UNT there appears to be a much greater emphasis on new historical research, and very few of us are using any kind of theoretical based scholarship. So, while I've done a lot of theory in the past, I'm, to a certain extant, one of the few in the English department right now who will be doing his or her thesis with a particular framework in mind. And while I enjoy using this particular method when writing papers, especially while looking at a particular work, I wish that I had been given the opportunity to have taken more of these types of classes while I was still taking classes.

Regardless of this fact, I'm looking forward greatly to putting pen to paper (or in my case, digits to keyboards) and getting started.

Now that I've read this over, I quickly came to the conclusion that this particular post wasn't particularly funny. Regardless of that fact, what do you want for nothin'?! It's free ain't it?