Retreat 10

Old Lady Meng Handing out the Tea of Oblivion, reproduced in a book by Vera Schwarcz

I'm so sad that my retreat is almost over. I've gained a measure of discipline by working in this group, and in the meantime I have really gotten a glimpse at the scope of my dissertation, its limitations, and the work involved. It's all so emotional for me right now!

Today I began what I thought would be a short task of glossing over the preface to Yang Jiang's 1986 collection "About to Drink the Tea." I ended up writing a pretty nice piece that lays out the two main issues of interest in this preface, centered around the mythological motif of Old Lady Meng's Broth/Tea of Oblivion. It was the kind of researched, confident writing that comes with a central image - shown above - that I quite liked.

Later I went over part 1 of 7 of Yang Jiang's "Remembering My Father." I'm still very much daunted by this 50-plus page essay, but I'm convinced it deserves me as its first critical, literary reader in English. I made notes that are more readable than what I did for the essays in Memoires Decousus, but still its obvious I don't have much a thesis yet. It makes sense that I need to finish the essay next.

I began reading Chinese Reportage in earnest, again ashamed that I only sort of skimmed it before, not at all understanding its great value for my own work. I am correcting that now as I go over the text carefully. At first glance, Prof. Laughlin's own work seems to blow away mine because it takes on a wider scope of materials. However, I believe that I will be able to look at as many materials, though not of so great a scope. I need to proceed with a quick, intense reading of this book.

Overall, I'm feeling a bit better today.