also deflated and grumpy
Jul. 3rd, 2008 10:38 amftb a completely difft reason
i: a friend asked me to write a report on a contribution to his project
ii: i wrote a very through report and he was pleased
iii: it required that i take to pieces, in fine detail, a very very bad essay, whose root stance and politics i entirely agree with, which was lazy and posturing and incredibly stupid and rubbish
iv: in the course of the phone discussion that ensued -- my friend wanted advice on how to proceed with the contributor -- he characterised the contributor, according to their own self-description, in a way that floored me: "[xxx] considers themselves a [yyy]"
v: and i feel caught between two impulses -- outrage that someone so manifestly NOT a [yyy] should be going round saying so; and embarassment that i feel so let down when a [yyy] of all things fails to live up to basic standards of scholarship, competence, integrity <--- it's not as if history isn't CHOCK-FULL of this failing, for ALL POSSIBLE values of [yyy], mine, yours, whoever's...
vi: ... i am also fed up, i think, bcz the amount of work i did sets me up for a stage 2, which is actually for me to wade in and do the re-write and turn this into a GOOD piece saying the same thing, and chasing up the critical-analytical ideas it promises fleetingly to tackle then hurries right past
vii: so yeah CAPN SAVE-A-BONEHEAD, i am so lame
i: a friend asked me to write a report on a contribution to his project
ii: i wrote a very through report and he was pleased
iii: it required that i take to pieces, in fine detail, a very very bad essay, whose root stance and politics i entirely agree with, which was lazy and posturing and incredibly stupid and rubbish
iv: in the course of the phone discussion that ensued -- my friend wanted advice on how to proceed with the contributor -- he characterised the contributor, according to their own self-description, in a way that floored me: "[xxx] considers themselves a [yyy]"
v: and i feel caught between two impulses -- outrage that someone so manifestly NOT a [yyy] should be going round saying so; and embarassment that i feel so let down when a [yyy] of all things fails to live up to basic standards of scholarship, competence, integrity <--- it's not as if history isn't CHOCK-FULL of this failing, for ALL POSSIBLE values of [yyy], mine, yours, whoever's...
vi: ... i am also fed up, i think, bcz the amount of work i did sets me up for a stage 2, which is actually for me to wade in and do the re-write and turn this into a GOOD piece saying the same thing, and chasing up the critical-analytical ideas it promises fleetingly to tackle then hurries right past
vii: so yeah CAPN SAVE-A-BONEHEAD, i am so lame
no subject
Date: 2008-07-03 01:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-03 01:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-03 01:12 pm (UTC)i'm being super-guarded bcz i am enjoined to super-confidentiality and i am temperamentally a total blabbermouth