perrykm2

I'm sure everyone has already seen these, but I thought I'd throw my links into the pot: http://betterbooktitles.com/ http://outofprintclothing.com/shop/ (out of print book covers screened onto T-shirts)

I've actually heard about the 1500 scores mentioned above^^^. I'm pretty sure that is accurate. I've realized that a lot of state schools I'm applying to (Penn State and OSU) seem to disproportionately care about the general GRE scores. I don't think it has anything to do with how the English department chooses qualified applicants, but it's important for funding students. They don't want to admit students they can't fund, and the financial aid departments have certain qualifications that need to be met.

Have a drink, eat a cupcake, go see The Muppets. This is a proven success.

This IS such a dilemma, isn't it? I don't have any advice. I'm still working this out for myself.

I have 3 confirmation emails that my LOR writers have submitted their recommendations.

Submitting my app later today. My first choice school. Of course, why wouldn't it be?

OH, I also want to mention, in terms of fiction writers, I hate, hate, hate Theodore Dreiser. Reading An American Tragedy was painful. I didn't find the book very profound, definitely not enjoyable, definitely not likeable, and about 300 pages too long. Kind of off-topic, but I feel so passionately about this that I had to share.

That's interesting because I find Butler to be not only lucid but very quotable/zingy. So many times I've found little blurbs in her writing that affect me so much more than other theory writers. I love the phrase "an identity tenuously constituted in time." I also love this quote from Undoing Gender, and I'm going to shamelessly plug it: “Let's face it. We're undone by each other. And if we're not, we're missing something. If this seems so clearly the case with grief, it is only because it was already the case with desire. One does not always stay intact. It may be that one wants to, or does, but it may also be that despite one's best efforts, one is undone, in the face of the other, by the touch, by the scent, by the feel, by the prospect of the touch, by the memory of the feel. And so when we speak about my sexuality or my gender, as we do (and as we must), we mean something complicated by it. Neither of these is precisely a possession, but both are to be understood as modes of being dispossessed, ways of being for another, or, indeed, by virtue of another.” Very punchy, in my opinion!

I don't know if anyone else has had to read her, but Elin Diamond. She teaches at Rutgers and has written a few pretty popular pieces of theory on feminism, psychoanalytical theory, and the theater. I have more problems with her general ideas and the way she formulates her arguments than her prose-style, but that's awful as well. When my professor asked us for our thoughts on the paper, I just said, "what IS this?" Has anyone read anything by her? Let me know I'm not alone.

I hope this is accurate. I asked if I will get into any of my schools, and it said "absolutely!" I asked if I will ever have a real job, and it said "yes." I've never wanted anything more than what this digital magic 8-ball has just promised me.

Hunger Games sounds like Battle Royale. But anyway, I reread My Year of Meats (not for a class this time,) and it was great again. I also picked up Year of the Flood recently, which is holding up to Oryx and Crake.

No. That's awful.

Yes. Emory, Penn State, and Buffalo. Good luck to us.

YES, this is so annoying. I'm spending thousands of dollars on my app process just to maybe possibly get into your school, and you can't even have a FAQ section. Something else that's been bothering me are schools that don't allow you to prompt LOR emails until you pay your fee. They have to realize how inconvenient that is. Although, so far that has been only Penn State for me.

I just submitted my app for Emory. No one told me it was going to feel so good, even if I have a lot of doubt about the quality of my submission.

Wow, good work. What game? Skyrim, MV3? They are seriously slowing down my progress.

My undergrad university had the best food. I loved the dining halls, had a meal plan all 4 years.

My friend got into a pretty competitive MFA program, even though she scored really high in quantitative and horribly in verbal.

His little blurb at Occupy Wall Street about ice cream without fat is the most quotable quote of the year.

Whoever told you to use critics instead of theorists probably isn't giving you good advice; not only is Zizek incredibly relevant to a lot of branches of literary theory, but I would say you could quote Kim Kardashian if it made your paper more effective. If you like the quote and it works, keep it. If it's kind of superfluous and dangling, and you want it just so adcomms will see the name Zizek, then get it out of there.

Then I didn't talk to Carla Mazzio. I talked to the person answering the phone for the director of graduate studies phone#. ;[

I think it's alarming how much weight I gained in undergrad (25-30 pounds) and how quickly I dropped it when I graduated and got a job. I'm sure it has something to do with my drinking and communal pizza eating in university.

The application process is so much more nerve-wracking and self-esteem destroying than I thought it would be.

OSU is 8-10 for undergrads applying. I would probably just use my perfected writing sample, cut it down to whatever page number, and then write up an abstract. This is what I'm doing for some of my applications. I dunno if it is okay, but that's what they're going to get.

I've seen a lot of this tooling around department faculty pages. Doesn't Duke have a joint PhD/JD?