School zombies

[icarus]

It's night of the living dead at school right now. heh.

Haven't slept much either, in this weird pattern of writing till I drop, crawling into bed at all hours of the night, collapsing; then crawling out at strange hours. Up at 6am. Sleep at two. Up at seven. Write till three. Up at ten am...

Daylight and night have lost all meaning, and there are stretches of time where I stare off into space, or am in the bath and suddenly -- aha! *scribble, scribble* *drips on notebook*

Just wrote the first 17 pages of my 12-page research paper.

My teacher says, "that would make a great book."

My original research proposal read something along the lines of, "Science Fiction and Fantasy are the new mythology. Comparing SciFi and Fantasy to ancient literature using Campbell's work on archtypes, I will demonstrate that mythology has merely changed form."

I re-wrote it to demonstrate what I've actually written:

"First, I'm going to define the importance of mythology to human endeavor, with reference to Jungian psychology, Campbell, cultural anthropology, and classical myth. Then, I'm going to show how Science Fiction and Fantasy are the modern mythology, with reference to Campbell, archetypes, and genre studies. I will relate ancient mythology, Science Fiction and Fantasy to their cultural time periods, and I will explain modern genres, how they tie to archetypes and subcreation. I will touch on the historical roots of modern Science Fiction and Fantasy in the 18th century, and the conflicts between the two genres. Lastly, I will define major Science Fiction and Fantasy sub-genres, and tie them to mythological archetypes, with examples and quotes from nineteen major authors and their works, spanning the last sixty-nine years. Where possible I will utilize both an early (1935-1969) and a modern (1970-2004) example for each subgenre."

Okay. This is what I used to do in high school. Take on a HUGE project, turn it in late (though I'm very satisfied with it) and get a glowing B+, because it got marked down from an A -- because it as late.

I was willingly handing in mediocre work on time all year (and getting A's on what I felt rated a B, maybe B+), and my grades were far better. I embraced mediocrity because in my RL at least, on time and decent was better than late and brilliant.

Hmmm.

I may have learned something here.

*goes back to not-sleeping* The world's a haze.

Comments

[pxr5.livejournal.com]

Not that I have much intelligent to say on the topic that can be summarized quickly, but as an aside, Robert Holdstock writes Jungian fantasy, if you need a quick reference ;-)

[florahart]

I now want to read your paper. Just so you know.

[nadai.livejournal.com]

That paper sounds very interesting. I'd love to read more, if you ever wanted to post it.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's rather cool. I'm a little too far along on the paper for that now, but I've found that Kent State University has done a lot of research on genre studies and SciFi/Fantasy in particular.

Icarus *bookmarks reference*

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Heh. Well, I have to finish it first.

I'm a little nervous about where I'm classifying Harry Potter actually. It's fine for my audience, but the HP people might jump all over me. There's an arbitrariness to genre classification, especially when you get into finer distinctions. It depends on your criteria. I have a caveat that just as the same stars form different constellations when seen from Earth or Alpha Centauri.

I warn you though, this is written in my Tolkien-esque "thick" writing style.

Icarus

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

We'll see, um, the style of the writing is more Tolkien-esque, I guess, since I was reading a lot of his stuff at the same time. It may be a rather dry read.

Icarus

[nadai.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's all right, I'm used to academic papers. I took a class in Folklore way back when I was in college, part of my Anthropology degree. Very interesting, though the professor was unfortunately a jerk.

I've just realized I'm being pushy, and I shouldn't do that. I would love to read it, but if you feel uncomfortable about some stranger reading your papers, feel free to tell me to bugger off. :)

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Oh no, I'm very flattered. But I sort of feel like I did when I first started publishing fanfiction - what if they hate it?.

Icarus

[nadai.livejournal.com]

Well, I might disagree with parts of it, but I doubt I'd hate it. :)

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

*puts arms protectively over head*

If I think it's any good, I'll post it. For right now, Monte-kitty's sitting on my papers, so, cat's priority....

Icarus

[harveywallbang.livejournal.com]

wow, even just that one paragraph you posted, i feel a little enlightened... you enlighten me a lot, icarus.. it's like my daily dose of grand-high intelligence..sorta... i dunno, i guess your just older than me and have studied a lot more things than i have, but yeah... i like reading about your subjects and stuff...

[pxr5.livejournal.com]

I highly recommend Mythago Wood, and its sequels (for when you are bored, or need a change from HP ;-), which, on one hand, would be cool, 'cause then I'd be pimping an author I really like, but bad, because then you wouldn't be doing as much HP. So I'm torn here ;-) )

[the-gentleman.livejournal.com]

Sounds like my work- except in my case, I get marked down because I don't jump through their precious hoops. Comments such as "This is fantastic work, but it doesn't fit the mark scheme" abound. :( But at least you get personal satisfaction!

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Ooo. That sounds familiar.

It's good not to be alone in this particular brand of foolishness. Though I do recall that once you finish school, no asks you for your grades again.

Icarus