lisajay

@bfat ahhh, ok. yeah, fair enough. i still think the ending-ending was perfect, but you're absolutely right that leading up to it, there's quite a bit of frustration & hair-pulling along the way. won't say more at the risk of spoilers, but i think i dig what you're shoveling. @datatape dolores claiborne is fantastic. dust bunnies... *shiver*

wait wait wait. the ending, or the coda? cos the ending was just perfect to me. & the coda... i just try to pretend didn't happen. i actually was tempted to rip those pages out of the book & never read them. but i didn't, & i still sort of regret that decision.

my pleasure!

[brace yourself: nerding out in 3... 2...] ok, so! screw those grad students who clearly wouldn't know a good story if it bit them on the ass. SK gets a lot of unnecessary flak from lots of people (one of my favorite high school teachers regularly chided me for my love of "junk food for the brain"), but the fact is, the man can write. speaking of, if you haven't read on writing, i seriously can't recommend it highly enough. so good. so good. re: the gunslinger, i highly recommend reading the revised version at some point. i read books 1-4 in high school, with the original version of book 1, then when book 5 finally came out several years later, i started the series over & read the revised version of book 1, & holy shit. the original version is a better book (for reasons i won't go into lest i spoil anything for you), BUT! the revised version actually emphasizes some stuff that ends up being crucial to the series, so it's definitely worth while to read it (especially the introduction or foreword, i forget exactly how it's labeled, but it's worth the read for sure). the stand is actually DT-related in more ways than one. yay!

sadly, i'm not a comp lit person, so i don't really have anything to contribute. but: CSULB's comp lit department is holding its 48th annual conference 25 april 2013 - 26 april 2013, & the deadline for submissions is coming up in a couple weeks (friday, 28 december). if you're interested, check out the CFP.

@proflorax, if digital humanities/electracy/videocy interests you at all (particularly with respect to composition & pedagogy), you may want to consider university of florida as gregory ulmer is on faculty there & his work is pretty fascinating.

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. did you read the revised or original version of the gunslinger? oh man, i am SO excited vicariously right now. enjoy your trip down the rabbit hole. btw, at least among my circle of friends, book 3 (the waste lands) is sort of notoriously difficult to get through. i think it's really a pacing issue. there's something about transitioning from 2 to 3 that makes the pages start to turn a little slowly. but power through, & it will be so very worth it. btw^2: the wind through the keyhole takes place between books 4 & 5, so you could read it then, or you could read it in publishing chronological order (i.e. last since it just came out this year). how you tackle that is obviously up to you, but i think if i could go back & do it all over again for the first time, i'd probably read TWTTK after finishing the series proper anyway; it's a good read, but it's really ancillary to the series IMHO. just my $0.02.

re: both french fries & philly cheesesteaks, if anyone here ends up berkeley-bound, check out IB hoagies.

you might try reformatting them as endnotes rather than footnotes?

that, in & of itself, is an accomplishment. never underestimate the importance of enjoying some much needed downtime every now & again. it'll help stave off burning out.

that sounds like a good plan. i'll keep my fingers crossed for you! i'll be submitting tonight after taking a final. yay? my stress level is through the roof on this one. ETA: the application, that is. not the final.

this thread is all kinds of awesome. great idea rems! i just found out last week that the paper/video i submitted to the Contemporary Gendered Performance and Practice Conference at Queen's University, Belfast was accepted, so i now have an excuse to visit ireland for the first time.

hey sebastian, i haven't yet gotten to that portion of my UCR app (it's on the agenda for tonight), but if you're still having trouble uploading maybe email Tina Feldman and ask if you can send the writing sample directly to her?

my pleasure! glad to hear it's got people excited

although it's an american remake of a spanish film, there's always quarantine.

i wrote the CFP, so yay! glad to hear it! the original theme was pitched as something like "the evolution of the comic spirit," & someone else wanted a more topical/political theme (last year we did occupation), so i pitched hysteria as a compromise. i think we're all hoping for a decent portion of submissions to embrace the comic angle.

appropriate for phd application season at any rate?

hey everyone, CSULB is currently accepting abstracts for its second annual interdisciplinary graduate student conference, re/inventions. our theme for 2013 is "hysteria." here's the CFP in case anyone's interested. we're also accepting submissions for the CSULB english department's peer-reviewed scholarly journal, watermark. this year, watermark will feature a special "hysteria" themed supplemental section to coincide with the conference, but the actual CFP is wide open. please feel free to submit, spread the word, &c! thanks!

seconded.

must... resist... urge to... feed... troll.........

absolutely. i apologize if my post got folks riled up. i was only trying to respond to the OP and definitely didn't mean to imply that my interpretation of page count is right and anything else is wrong.

hell to the yes.

yes, they do. works cited page(s) count, too.

MLA style requires you to use TNR or a similarly standard font. So for Microsoft Office, your choices are basically TNR or Cambria (the new default). If you're applying to PhD programs in the discipline, you need to demonstrate your mastery of MLA style (hence you can't use Calibri or any other non-standard MLA font regardless of your aesthetic preferences). *gotta prove that you know the rules before you can break them on purpose (and for a legitimate reason) later on emoticon*

not sure about lit programs, but i worked for a consulting firm that worked with students on their MBA application packages, & the rule of thumb there was that +5% was acceptable. so in MBA-land, i'd cut at least 50 words. that being said, with respect to SOP lengths, darkmatter suggests over on not stressing too heavily if you run over a bit. & that seems like solid (& comforting) advice. all of this may or may not be helpful. the strength of your writing will speak for itself, right? so the most important thing seems to be to submit a piece of writing you feel is as polished & representative of your quality of work as can be. you got this.