11 foot pole
Nov. 6th, 2007 08:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
theyellowhobbitOne would think that I would be done with all my midterms by now. Alas, I still have one more paper to write, for Prof. Cohen, which I'm writing on Qumran. It's a non-research paper, except that I did research. Mostly it was me using stuff I had already looked at for my thesis, except then I would find new articles and be like "this looks shiny, I want to talk about it!"
I justify the paper because Qumran didn't make it into my thesis, because I decided it would be best not to touch it with a 10 foot pole. That, and I don't focus the entire thing on miqva'ot.
I'm taking an informal tone with parts of the paper, because I can get away with it (I think. It's being read by both the prof and the TF, so I know the former will appreciate my sense of humor, but I'm not 100% sure on the latter. Still, it'll be more amusing to read in any case.) Especially since this doesn't need to be a research paper in the first place. It's still structured like one and has arguments like one and a thesis and all that, but my title, for example, is "On the Essenes: Approaching Qumran with an 11 foot pole." And I have a footnote in there insulting Jacob Neusner's1 work, because Prof. C. really does not like Neusner, and I'm not such a Neusner fan. In fact, one of my classmates had found this really harsh review he had written of a work of Neusner's. If you have JSTOR access, look it up. (If you don't, and you want to read it, e-mail me.) It's called "Review: Are There Tannaitic Parallels to the Gospels?" and it is very amusing. For example the opening paragraph:
"This book is a disgrace to its author and a disgrace to its publisher. The scholarship is shoddy, the writing repetitious, the tone vituperative, and the argumentation flawed. "Do not think these harsh judgments exaggerated or abusive. They are well merited and well founded"" (Cohen, 1996, p.85).
Seriously. I have not seen anything this harsh in academic writing ever. I e-mailed the article to Ben. So if Ben still exists he should be amused by it. We scholars have odd senses of humor.
But this is the paper that will not write itself. I only have like a page and a half to go, but I'm so dead. I'm operating on approximately 4.5 hours of sleep, since I had the midterm today and I wasn't sure whether or not I was going to get the extension. And meanwhile, I definitely got stuff wrong on the midterm. Ugh.
I hope this paper is good. So far I have not written anything good this semester. Everything I write is mediocre, because I keep on getting pressed for time. Also, my papers don't get good until something clicks inside me, and for some papers this never happened. When things don't click, writing a paper is an
agonizing process for me. Things are starting to click now, but I'm not sure how I am for time for completing this. Ideally, I want to finish it tonight so AK can look at it for me [again]. Though actually I might be okay self-editing it. Or![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
hatam_soferet if you'd like to look at it you can. Assuming I finish it at a reasonable hour tonight or tomorrow. I'm handing it in on Thursday at 10am.
1A Neusner joke: A man called Jacob Neusner, and Neusner's secretary answered the phone. The man asked, "Can I speak with Dr. Neusner, please?" The secretary replied, "I'm sorry, he's in the middle of working on a book right now." The man said "that's okay. I'll hold2.
2He's published over 640 books!!!! Most are written by either copy and paste or grad students.
I justify the paper because Qumran didn't make it into my thesis, because I decided it would be best not to touch it with a 10 foot pole. That, and I don't focus the entire thing on miqva'ot.
I'm taking an informal tone with parts of the paper, because I can get away with it (I think. It's being read by both the prof and the TF, so I know the former will appreciate my sense of humor, but I'm not 100% sure on the latter. Still, it'll be more amusing to read in any case.) Especially since this doesn't need to be a research paper in the first place. It's still structured like one and has arguments like one and a thesis and all that, but my title, for example, is "On the Essenes: Approaching Qumran with an 11 foot pole." And I have a footnote in there insulting Jacob Neusner's1 work, because Prof. C. really does not like Neusner, and I'm not such a Neusner fan. In fact, one of my classmates had found this really harsh review he had written of a work of Neusner's. If you have JSTOR access, look it up. (If you don't, and you want to read it, e-mail me.) It's called "Review: Are There Tannaitic Parallels to the Gospels?" and it is very amusing. For example the opening paragraph:
"This book is a disgrace to its author and a disgrace to its publisher. The scholarship is shoddy, the writing repetitious, the tone vituperative, and the argumentation flawed. "Do not think these harsh judgments exaggerated or abusive. They are well merited and well founded"" (Cohen, 1996, p.85).
Seriously. I have not seen anything this harsh in academic writing ever. I e-mailed the article to Ben. So if Ben still exists he should be amused by it. We scholars have odd senses of humor.
But this is the paper that will not write itself. I only have like a page and a half to go, but I'm so dead. I'm operating on approximately 4.5 hours of sleep, since I had the midterm today and I wasn't sure whether or not I was going to get the extension. And meanwhile, I definitely got stuff wrong on the midterm. Ugh.
I hope this paper is good. So far I have not written anything good this semester. Everything I write is mediocre, because I keep on getting pressed for time. Also, my papers don't get good until something clicks inside me, and for some papers this never happened. When things don't click, writing a paper is an
agonizing process for me. Things are starting to click now, but I'm not sure how I am for time for completing this. Ideally, I want to finish it tonight so AK can look at it for me [again]. Though actually I might be okay self-editing it. Or
hatam_soferet if you'd like to look at it you can. Assuming I finish it at a reasonable hour tonight or tomorrow. I'm handing it in on Thursday at 10am.1A Neusner joke: A man called Jacob Neusner, and Neusner's secretary answered the phone. The man asked, "Can I speak with Dr. Neusner, please?" The secretary replied, "I'm sorry, he's in the middle of working on a book right now." The man said "that's okay. I'll hold2.
2He's published over 640 books!!!! Most are written by either copy and paste or grad students.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-11-07 01:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-08 04:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-07 03:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-07 05:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-07 04:24 pm (UTC)Q: How many books has Jacob Neusner written?
A: What time is it right now?
And they are pretty dull and repetitive (and he's even duller as a speaker). But gosh, those translations of texts can come in handy in a pinch....
no subject
Date: 2007-11-08 04:35 am (UTC)