What I’m reading 2: Lolita

I like reading the classics and I like reading the tough books, I like slow reading and puzzling things out. What I don’t like about reading celebrated books is the sneaking suspicion that I am supposed to be entertained when I’m not. It’s like being the only one who isn’t in on the joke. The celebrated books often don’t pull me along much when I’m scanning what appears to be so much dull text looking for the next little nugget. I’m bothered that the passage which seems so blank to me might be brilliant but that I’m just not sharp enough to enjoy it. Which brings me to Lolita, I’ve read descriptions of this book that made me laugh out-loud. The book itself didn’t, I suppose I’m a little too obtuse to pick up on the humor that inspired the commentators who did entertain me.

Clearly, Nabokov is engage in a love affair with the English language and like any great lover he is blinded, no charmed, by the short comings of his beloved. The prose is lush but I rarely encounter any profound insights in this foliage. Lush is a good word in this case, the deep forest is free of grand vistas.

There were the occasional passages that brought me to stop. Most noticeably HH’s epiphany on seeing the no-longer nymphish Lolita is sadly beautiful life.

I many ways, I get the joke, the self-justification of a child-molester who finds that, in the end, his desire for Lolita does not transcend time. She’s still doomed to be the semi-literate pregnant wife of a one-armed semi-employed man. It makes me thing about the meditations on transcendence and the erotic in Plato and, frankly, at least at this moment, Plato bores me.

5 lessons from 5 journal entries

5 posts over 4 weeks. This is a lot less than I had expected when I first started keeping a journal here but it is enough, I think to start drawing some conclusions.

1. of the 5 entries, none are posted on a Thurs. or Fri. even though Friday is my easiest teaching day. It seems that I start with the week with good intentions, but I’m in trouble as the week progresses.

2. I’ve got too many projects going. There are three projects represented in each of these entries, It gets worse, I tend to select a topic to write on based on whatever I’ve been reading and also whatever topic has produced the most interesting scribbles and stray notes during random moments since the last time I wrote.

3. I’m not sure that solid deadlines will help much. The first two entries were in response to a promising call for papers which only needed a 500 to 1,000 word entry by February 15th. I’m pretty sure that I’m not going to make that. Why not? because what I’ve got worked up is a terrible abstract with no point. Why didn’t I work on it more consistently to meet this goal? Because I’ve got a job search to run, cover letters to write and a dozen other small projects which require their own writing. I need a new way to organize things.

4. Large scale arguments do not materialize out of reading notes. I need to concentrate less on reading anything that could be remotely interesting and begin writing outlines to work from so that I can preserve some sense of a thesis.

5. Writing has to be more of a priority. This week my goal is three writing journal entries. Next week, I’ll get 5 up. Look out for some reflections on the ethics of science, that topic has been of great interest of late.

writing journal entry #5

Minutes Worked	25
Words/paragraphs Written	335 words
Type of Writing	composition
Reflections on this writing	felt good to be writing
Project	Dewey and Neuroscience
Goals for next time	500 words on any topic, develop a plan

writing journal entry #4

Minutes Worked	40
Words/paragraphs Written	300 words
Type of Writing	revising notes, writing abstract
Reflections on this writing
Project	Memory
Goals for next time	continue organizing material

writing journal entry #3

Minutes Worked	33
Words/paragraphs Written	472 words
Type of Writing	typing notes, drafting paragraphs, outlining
Reflections on this writing	Its just a relief to have done something on this project.
Project	LLP review
Goals for next time	Organize office, take notes on at least LLP paper/day and return to memory abstract.

OK, last week was a weak start, but this week is better. Give me two days of regular work and I may even write something interesting on this blog.

writing journal entry #2

Minutes Worked	23
Words/paragraphs Written	5 paragraphs
Type of Writing	free writing/ pen and ink.
Reflections on this writing
Project	memory project, also printed new draft of blog paper
Goals for next time	begin revising blog paper,do two 20 minute sessions, one on memory, one on blogs

writing journal entry #1

I am dedicated to finally applying Boice’s methods for successful writing. From this point on, reflective, whimsical or otherwise “fun” blogging is going to be a contingency on approximately 20 minutes of serious writing. Thus, any interesting writing on this blog will be preceded by the following worksheet summarizing my progress for the day.

Minutes Worked	20, exactly
Words/paragraphs Written	7 paragraphs
Type of Writing	fast notes on legal pad, outlining an argument
Feelings about this writing	I feel pretty good about this period because I successfully moved from premise to conclusion. However, I’m uncertain about the final value of this new material as I’ve often been misled by these sorts of feelings in the past.
Project	The Varieties of Memory: Cognitive Science and Memory
Goals for next time	continue on memory, begin revising paper on blogs as graded assignments.

Note: This work sheet has been adapted from the examples given here on toolsforwriters.com As I began altering the table to my own needs, I found that it changed quite a bit, the key is that it includes time spent, activity and some space for reflection. Fitness logs work in a similar way and seem to be much more common out on the web.

I had originally hoped to be adapting a list from another source, any advice on a good writing log format would be greatly appreciated.

A clarification

The writing group I joined over the holidays was sponsored by Academic Ladder. They draw pretty heavily on Robert Boice’s work on successful academic writing. His most prominent book is Advice for New Faculty Members, but he’s written plenty of other interesting things on topics like procrastination and writer’s block. Boice’s method depends on writing small amounts in a consistent fashion, about 20 minutes of writing a day, but 20 minutes of writing everyday. Academic Ladder is a specialized service, but I would recommend it for anyone in need of that particular service. I did learn a lot about disciplined writing. They suggest keeping a journal similar to the training journal kept by weight lifters and other athletes. Record how much time you spend writing, reflect on how it can be done better and don’t over do.

This description gives away the dirty little secret that I left unspoken in my last post; I am an academic.

As a younger person, I had a serious interest in becoming a writer of fiction, but that was put aside when I caught the philosophy bug. Of course, fiction and philosophy are by no means incompatible, but I decided to ride that philosophy wave as far as it would take me and it took me pretty far, all the way to a tenure track position at a major American University. About two years ago, my colleagues made it clear to me that I was not going to be tenured. This of course meant that I would need to find employment elsewhere. Two solid years of job search have been fruitless. It looks as if my philosophy wave has run out of forward motion. My lack of productivity, that is publishable writing, my teaching seems to have been well received. Put bluntly, not writing has cost me my dream job.

There are two paths open either I can pursue writing with an eye toward resuscitating my career as a philosopher, or I can just pursue my interest as a more general purpose writer. Of course, the second option poses some questions about how my family and I should go about eating …

what this blog is gonna be about

This journal, as of yet undiscovered, will be a sort of writing/reading log. Clearly I need a community to be responsible to if I’m going to be getting any work done. I’ll be trying to record my writing accomplishments each day. Obviously this will be a private endeavor of sorts, but I am more than happy if anyone who comes across this site would be willing to join me in a blog driven ad-hoc writing group.