Lee Konstantinou Stuff I write.

/patternHunter [/ph]

I was reading the Wiki entry for William Gibson, and I discovered at the end of the entry a link to the website /patternHunter [/ph]. If, like me, you have an obsession with really sophisticated science fiction and emerging techno-cultural patterns of change, this site is something like an endless feast of fun.

I have been, while home for the Thanksgiving break, frantically writing my novel. I'm working on the dissertation colloquium too, but it's mostly done--and my meeting with my advisors is on Dec. 13, so I have some time to write for pleasure. I've written 3000 new and pretty good words for my new novel. I've also had a revelation about the novel I began writing before I went to grad school; that previous novel I'd written 120,000 words of (out of a projected 160,000). I've decided to break it up into two 80,000 word novels, which means, essentially, that the first draft of the first novel is done. A little bit of editing, and I'll start submitting it. I'm in a good mood about my writing.

Invasion

I'm clearly too personally invested in the topic of my dissertation. I have found a lot of the ideas that I've been working on sneaking their way into this novel I've recently started writing--the book is rife with hipsters, ironic cool, searches for political sincerity in a hypermediated world, and an out of control celebrity industry. If I'm not careful, the novel will end up saying more of what I want to say than the dissertation itself; or I'll have to write a chapter about myself. I would title such a chapter merely "Solipsism."

And There Was Much Rejoicing

I have sent off a half-dozen copies of my pretty-much-complete colloquium paper to various readers. I am quite happy with how the process is coming. I am even managing to control my tendencies to write long, convoluted sentences with many relative clauses. More substance later, I promise.

Breakdown

My colloquium paper overview is essentially finished. It magically shrunk from 15 pages of convoluted argumentation and allusion to a tightly written 6-page statement of direction for my dissertation. I am pleased with this. I may post it here soon. Meanwhile, my chapter breakdown is a big mess. I have about a million ideas and I don't know how best to logically order them. Right now, I am conceiving of the dissertation as three long essays--each respectively on the theory, practice, and politics of postirony--the first of which is called "The Malignant Public Sphere of Postmodernity," the second "Hip Capitalism and Commoditized Irony," and the third "Serious Politics." Which is all well and good, but I have to be much more specific in my chapter descriptions and even propose an argument or two. I feel like I'm slogging through the muck right now, and that everything I write is logically predicated on establishing things that I mean to establish in later chapters. Ugh.

I have a title

I have settled on, for now, the title by which my dissertation will be called by when it becomes a book. Because dissertations have to have different titles than the books they become, I will probably come up with some academic sounding title when I file in a few years. But when the thing comes out in book form it will be called, copyrighted drumroll please,.....

Wipe That Smirk Off Your Face: Postironic Fiction and the Public Sphere

.... I have now, in the public forum of internetland, claimed this title for myself. Anyone else who might even remotely come up with a similar title is clearly plagerizing from my own endless brilliance. Right. I should do a google search to see if some variation on this title's been used anywhere else, actually.

The Kitchen Sink

I talked with my advisor and with a friend of mine today about my first draft of the colloquium proposal. Both meetings left me feeling good about the state of my dissertation idea, although I also have come to feel that my writing is less disciplined than it should be. My main problem as a writer is that I tend to want to put everything that is on my mind, whether or not it is related to the main topic, down on the page. This can lead to a false sense of intellectual density when it fact it reflects a lack of focus and an inability to prioritize my ideas. My sentences also have a tendency to ramble on, to deploy semi-colons unnecessarily, to use emdashes when commas would suffice, to run on and on and on. This has to stop, I've decided. I think, as an exercise, I will try to rewrite my colloquium with absolutely no semicolons, emdashes, colons, and other unnecessary typographical tics. Then I can reintroduce them where they are most needed. That's the theory, anyway. We will see if I can maintain my discipline.