Retreat Day 9

Rachel Carson, who I read a little bit about today

I'm in a worse mood as my writing deadline slips away, my draft seems flimsy and in need of so much more reading, my prospects for getting published look dimmer, and my prospects for ever getting a job look nil.

The worst thing about all this is that it kills the desire to work. Luckily, one great thing about the dissertation retreat is that I know I'm not alone, and there is a palpable energy that comes from having these people working together with me.

I need to breathe, exercise a bit, and then think again. Tonight I'll translate a bit and read. Tomorrow I'll begin by reading 10 more pages of the long essay by Yang Jiang on her father. I'll print out the section I finished today (making the draft 2/9 done) and begin thinking about the way to compress and revise. I think I better bring the book Chinese Reportage with me as well and begin going through that in earnest.

...

Today I took a little time to read from the journal New Literary History. There was an article by Bonnie Foote that I came on by searching for "network theory." It turns out Foote came up with a wide-scope literary theory Foote calls the "interaction model" by thinking through ecocriticism. Suddenly I remembered that Zhao Baisheng said that was his new interest. New Fulbright app, anyone?