Wednesday 2 January 2008

2008, how about that

My new years' resolution is nerdy. (Act surprised, can you pls.) It is: to read a lot of eighteenth-century english literature. I don't know what 'a lot' means. So far I have read James Boswell's private journal for the year of his life in which he first met Samuel Johnson (and resolved under SJ's influence not to indulge in so much rogering [except with Mrs. W in chambers], and his father the Scottish lord wrote him a severe letter lecturing against the utter folly of keeping a journal of one's trivial and fatuous doings which made me feel quite nervous about blogging), and Moll Flanders. Liked them both.

I thought briefly of doing one of those projects which gets you a paragraph in the papers on January 1 2009 (ie wearing the same dress for a year, not throwing away any of your rubbish for a year) but then I thought better of it. I'm pretty sure someone connected with Fluxus did all the serious versions of this stunt back in the 1970s, anyway - he lived in a cage for a year, another year he didn't go inside any buildings, etc. Impressive.

Other things I intend to cause to come to be by the time twelve more months have passed:

finish, submit, and pass phd
revive blog and return it to a semblance of former splendour circa 2005-6
leave house somewhat
not go to Ikea again (there is an untold story behind this which makes me look like the biggest hypocrite who ever walked the earth and blogged about it, so untold it shall be staying)
do some writing for payment

The main thing though is that I'm going to give myself one more year in university to get a proper job, then go on with something else if I don't get one. It's pure self-indulgence to stay on any longer under current conditions, and it won't be my fault if it doesn't end up working out.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

She lives!

*acts surprised*

PhD: heh.
2005/2006: Statuary Friday. That's all I'm saying.
House: meh.
Ikea: HEH.
Filthy lucre: excellent idea.

HNY, etc.

Kerryn Goldsworthy said...

The prose is easier going than the poetry IIRC. Most of the poetry -- 'The Rape of the Lock', eg -- is about real people and has some tortuous story behind it about who's squabbling with whom in the coffee house this week that makes all those Dryden poems and so on incomprehensible unless you know the story first.

But Defoe is cool. So is Fanny Burney.

kate said...

I resolve to keep coming here and pressing refresh so that I eventually get Bazlotto. You'll need to blog more to remind me to come.

Alexis, Baron von Harlot said...

I'll give you a dollar if you read Clarissa. I'll give anyone a dollar if they read Clarissa.

Phantom Scribbler said...

Reading for payment is almost as good as writing for payment, I say. Go with Clarissa and call it a success.

Oh, and happy new year!

Unknown said...

May all your resolutions become fulfilled commands in 2008. Happy New Year, LT.

Blessings and bliss

Ben.H said...

Hmmph, no-one's mentioned Smollett yet.

So, when does the new new BBC version of Sense and Sensibility get screened in Australia? It's about time someone turned out another Austen adaptation.

Ariel said...

Good resolutions, I reckon. Esp. the one about writing for payment. Go for it!

I decided never to go to Ikea again after driving in there one Saturday about a month ago and experiencing the horror of just the first floor of the carpark. We turned back and drove home just from sheer claustrophobia.

Meredith Jones said...

My friend y carried a pair of crutches for a year. It was a piece of performance art. I haven't been to Ikea since it moved from centralish Sydney (Moore Park) out to woop-woop. But I really miss it, especially the ball room and the bargain corner.

lucy tartan said...

Ben, they still haven't showed the last batch of Austen adaptations on tv here yet. They're being saved up to be screened in a four-adaptation season the Marketing department has vomitously entitled 'Austen Fourplay.'

Ampersand Duck said...

I love all your resolutions. Especially the blogging one.
Good luck...