Monday 16 May 2011

"We have an obligation."

I'm deep in the depths of dissertation week, or Hell week as it is commonly known amongst third years. Something i just found out is that because i am doing a joint honours degree, i have to write twice as many words as people doing single honours. I now judge anyone on a single honours course who is freaking out because they have to hand in 10,000 words next Monday. I think they are week and a laugh at their pain. 


I have now finished one of my English Essays, a 4000 word analysis of humanity and limitation on the works of Kazuo Ishiguro, and am hoping to have finished my 8000 word Dave Eggers dissertation by tonight, so that i can really focus on my 8000 word Sexy Vampire dissertation, which i haven't done nearly enough work on yet.

In re-reading all of Dave Eggers' books in preparation for this dissertation, i fell back in love with him (not that i ever fell out of love with whim, just that it had been a while since i read some of his books.). Probably my favourite passage in the whole of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is this exchange between Dave and a friend of his, where they plan out how the world should be.

“Get everyone together.”
“All these people.”
“No more waiting.”
“Means through mass.”
“It’s criminal to pause.”
“To wallow.”
“To complain.”
“We have to be happy.”
“To not be happy would be difficult.”
“We would have to try to not be happy.”
“We have an obligation.”
“We have advantages.”
“A luxury of place and time.”
“Something Rare and Wonderful.”
“It’s almost historically unprecedented.”
“We must do extraordinary things.”
“We have to.”
“It would be obscene not to.”
“We will take what we’ve been given and unite people.”
“And we’ll try not to sound so irritating."


It makes me want to get out of this damned library and do something with my life, but i can't, because i still have 10,000 words left to write by the end of the week.

Send me all your luck.

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