Sunday morning. 930.
My task this morning is to review pages from my thesis. Chapter 1.
Blimey it's 30,000 words and only needs 10, 000 at most. So I'm taking a large blade to the passages.
In so doing, I'm having to bridge sentences to link rather harsh edits. This makes me reflect some more and sometimes contradict what I already have.
In effect, the writing process is taking me through a series of "Inceptions"- the film. Reflection, through reflection, through reflection. Sometimes I don't know what state I'm in. As one door opens, that path leads to ever more fascinating and problematic areas which require new connections.
Sometimes these exist, sometimes they require new engineering; cue the library. In this case the first chapter has all it wants, the journey has become a metaphysical one. How do you know what you know?
And how can you teach that in a manner which instills critical thinking on the party receiving it.
In effect then this, what could be described as a rather tedious practice is all about self evaluation through enquiry in a chosen field. There's no eureka moment here. Just because it's being stated the first time and in print doesn't mean it's not he first time one has thought or recited it.
But something did make me sit bolt upright. Our penchant for the image, the moving image e.g image versus text, moving against print has been recycled over many centuries. We, myself too, might revel in the exactitude of the moving image, but for how long before the beautiful word makes a come back?
But more importantly, that is, that grand narratives are perilous. They reveal truths and mask flaws - often through a deficiency in knowledge. Enlightenment- industrial - electronic - Internet.
Our birth place in any one of these supplies us with want we want before some brilliant sage reveal patterns, flows that can be ascertained and corrected by arthroscopic surgery. Here comes Everyone, We Media, etc.
And on that note I'll return to my text. Now where am I again?
