Saturday 7 May 2005

quick question

My supervisor is telling me I can't say in my dissertation that You've Got Mail is "icky."

How should I handle this? It's just about the only thing in five years that he's ever told me I have to change.

13 comments:

Ampersand Duck said...

Maybe he just wants a couple more letters inserted to make it 'sickly'. Is that high-brow enough?

BwcaBrownie said...

'too much disbelief must be suspended to enjoy YGM' ?

Scrivener said...

You could change it to "YGM blows." Think that'd satisfy him?

Yankee, Transferred said...

Yeah, what Scrivener said!

Phantom Scribbler said...

Would he be okay with it if you just said that Meg Ryan is "icky"?

jo(e) said...

Maybe you are understanding the case. Perhaps "just plain stupid" is the phrase you need.

Anonymous said...

Laura, maybe you should alert your professor to the fact that well-respected cultural studies scholars such as Michael Berube (http://www.michaelberube.com/index.php/weblog/arbitrary_but_fun_value_judgments_iii/) use terms like "icky" all the time....

Not sure this helps, but the coincidence was rather amusing.

lucy tartan said...

I need to go beyond Meg Ryan to include Tom Hanks, as a bare minimum.
The problem sentence has icky as adjective - "Nora Ephron's icky movie YGm" - so while I very much like "blows" it doesn't work unless the whole footnote is changed.
Think I will try the Berube ploy - though he's apologising for the word - and if that's no go I'll just throw the whole pile of paper on the floor and storm out.
Actually, I've changed it to sickly. Thanks duckie!

lucy tartan said...

I really do like "blows." How about N.E.'s chunk-blowing movie YGM?? Worth a try.

Scrivener said...

I like it. You have my permission to go with that.

Jellyfish said...

Sickly works well, although icky is definitely funnier. Reminds me of a time I got into a fight with a cinema lecturer over my right to call some Soderbergh camera work 'snazzy.' 'It's not a recognised cultural studies term, blah blah.' 'But it's such a jaunty word!' 'Oh, fuck off and become a film reviewer then.' Bah.

lucy tartan said...

Jelly, exactly. The movie is bad in a shallow and featherbrained way, so a shallow featherbrained word is the appropriate one to indicate its badness.

Anonymous said...

re Nora Ephron: I found it interesting that she wrote the first film about email, when her parents wrote the first (and Fabulous dialogue ) film about computers - The Desk Set. I love that film. Hepburn Tracy Ann Sothern, Eve Arden - all the female characters capable intelligent feisty. sigh.