I Love This So Much.

I’d like to be a Hufflepuff so bad. I’d like to be kind and hard-working and caring and loyal. I’d like to be a Hufflepuff, because then it would be possible for me to say “I’m a good person after all”. It’s hard to say it now. Now I fear that I am not. I fear that I’m not kind or smart or brave or ambitious. I can take the other ones (even tho they bother me sometimes, especially the smartness). 

But the kindness is killing me.

How do you live in a real world when your mind is constantly drifting away to the fantasy. How can you stay awake, how can you love this world, how can you find love in this reality, when everything sounds so desperately dull? I'm asking for a friend.

With academic writing... you never know. Did I just wrote the greatest essay of the century? is it a complete bag of poop? did I answer the questions or was I writing about my uncle's toenails for three days straight? You will never know... and so won't I. Because I am caffeinated, I ate too much chocolate and the screen is burned into my brain now. I can see the Time. Magical.

In this household we love Misha Collins and Misha Collins only.

just because there aren't as many posts of blm circulating and just because we're slowly posting regular "aesthetic" content again it does not mean you have the right to stop educating yourself on issues that affect black people. continue to educate yourself and others, call out racism when you see it and continue to donate and sign petitions. activism that only occurs when somebody dies or something devastating happens is not proper activism, it is performative. so, just because you aren't posting as much about blm or other issues anymore, it does NOT mean you can go back to being ignorant. continue to stay aware. keep that energy and use it and your privilege to help black people and amplify their voices. us non-black people need to recognise that choosing when to speak up or speaking up when it is big is a privilege and is ignorant and we need to fix this.

I am here And you are there And summer evening air Warm And close to the skin Like a lover’s breath And we have never said till death Do us part And partly cos We’re not a thing Yet waiting for that phone to ring The air The air This humid half affair This jungle deep It wants relief in rain And calling me You ask and ask again Is now for you A good time too? We can be friends You tell me as I walk Like children Can’t stop grinning when we talk An ocean and my caution Keep us free From plans to touch or try Or even see Our words in shadowed green This futile Fertile dream I still have so much fear Its on my skin That’s why I’m hidden here And why you’re in my head You read Every message Two ticks always blue So call me If you want We won’t ask what this is I cannot promise much Hotel robes hers and his But you have never asked For anything but time A million miles away You hold me on the line So see me as I am If you see me now at all Just waiting for the rain And waiting for your call

Kylie Flavel, “Summer Rain” (via random-someone-somewhere)

When Kafka said All language is but a poor translation and when Murakami said It is not that the meaning cannot be explained. But there are certain meanings that are lost forever the moment they are explained in words.

Harry's house feels like it's summer break but you are an adult but you got nothing exciting to do and days are just the same so you find escape in your past and then one day you go for a walk while the sun sets and it starts raining all of a sudden and you just stand there doing nothing and taking it all in. While memories play like a film reel in your brain and you are just about to give up.

Academic writing advice inspired by Umberto Eco’s ‘How to Write a Thesis’:

Planning

Determine primary sources/bibliography.

Determine secondary sources/bibliography. 

Find title.

Brainstorm a table of contents with as much detail as possible (with chapters, sections and even paragraphs and sub-paragraphs - see How to Write a Thesis’ own table of contents as an example at the end of this document) (if the first drafted table of contents is good enough, it will not be necessary to start the writing from the beginning).

Do a first draft of the introduction.

Note-taking and research

Use Google Scholar to make sure you do not miss important sources.

Keep the table of contents in mind when researching and take notes of which sources could go where.

While note-taking, differentiate which parts could be used as quotations from the ones that are simply important for the argument.

Eco underlines the importance of what he calls reading sheets, which can be understood as your notes on your readings. According to him, these should contain:

information about the author if he is not a well-known figure;

a brief (or long) summary;

they should mostly consist of quotations (accompanied by all the corresponding page numbers)

any commentaries you might want to add;

an indication of which part (or parts) of your table of contents the information mentioned belongs to.

Keep reading sheets on primary sources (which should be the longest) separate from those on secondary sources (which should only be 1-2 pages long).

In the end, re-read the notes and color-code all the different parts according to where they would fit in your table of contents.

Writing and editing

A good place to start would be by redrafting the introduction.

Define every key/technical term used/mentioned unless indisputably obvious.

General writing tips:

keep sentences short;

do not be afraid to repeat the subject twice (ex: Roberta went to the shop (…) Roberta bought carrots and tomatoes);

avoid excessive details;

avoid subordinate clauses (orações subordinadas);

avoid vague language;

avoid unnecessary adjectives;

avoid the passive voice.

While drafting, write everything that comes to mind. Leave the editing for the end.

Use your tutor as a Guinea pig. Make them read your first chapters (and, progressively, all the rest) well before delivery is due. 

Ask for as much feedback as possible. Ask colleagues, friends and/or family to read your work. They will provide you with more diversified feedback, as well as allowing you to know if your writing is clear to anyone.

Stop playing ‘solitary genius’.

Don’t insist on starting with the first chapter. Start with what you know best and feel more comfortable writing about, then fill in the gaps.

Leave time for editing and try to take at least a one or two days long break in between writing and editing. 

Do not forget to fill in the gaps. When you revisit your writing, go through it with all these writing tips in mind as well as a conscience of what your most common mistakes are.

Use Hemingway in the final editing phase.

Quotations and footnotes

Since there are two kinds of sources (primary and secondary), there are also two kinds of quotations: either we quote a text which we will interpret, or we quote a text which supports your interpretation.

Some quotation rules to know:

“Quote the object of your interpretive analysis with reasonable abundance.”

 “Quote the critical literature only when its authority corroborates or confirms your statements. (…)  when quoting or citing critical [aka secondary] literature, be sure that it says something new, or that it confirms authoritatively what you have said.”

“If you don’t want readers to presume that you share the opinion of the quoted author, you must include your own critical remarks before or after the passage.”

“Make sure that the author and the source of your quote are clearly identifiable.”

“When a quote does not exceed two or three lines, you can insert it into the body of the text enclosed in quotation marks. (…) When the quote is longer, it is better to set it off as a block quotation. In this case the quotation marks are not necessary, because it is clear that all set-off passages are quotes, and we must commit to a different system for our observations. (Any secondary developments [like the quote’s reference] should appear in a note.) (…) This method is quite convenient because it immediately reveals the quoted texts; it allows the reader to skip them if he is skimming, to linger if he is more interested in the quoted texts than in our commentary, and finally, to find them immediately when need be.”

Some footnote rules to know:

“Use notes to add additional supporting bibliographical references on a topic you discuss in the text. For example, ‘on this topic see also so-and-so.’”

“Use notes to introduce a supporting quote that would have interrupted the text. If you make a statement in the text and then continue directly to the next statement for fluidity, a superscript note reference after the first statement can refer the reader to a note in which a well-known authority backs up your assertion.”

“Use notes to expand on statements you have made in the text. Use notes to free your text from observations that, however important, are peripheral to your argument or do nothing more than repeat from a different point of view what you have essentially already said.”

“Use notes to correct statements in the text. You may be sure of your statements, but you should also be conscious that someone may disagree, or you may believe that, from a certain point of view, it would be possible to object to your statement. Inserting a partially restrictive note will then prove not only your academic honesty but also your critical spirit.”

“Use notes to provide a translation of a quote, or to provide the quote in the original language.”

Hopefully this will lift the heavy weight off someone's chest today.

reading vincent van goghs letters and he keeps repeating the same thing.. that i may be of use in the world. he repeats it over and over, in questions, in musings, in desperation. how can i be of use in the world? (the most precious question!) how can i be of use in the world? (how can anyone?) reminds me of that mary oliver quote: to pay attention, this is our endless and proper work. if i were any more insightful i could say something profound here, but i think if we keep focused attention on the question, we may find a way to be of some good. like rilke meant. by loving the questions themselves, we may one day stumble upon the answer.