Insert title that is both funny, eye-catching and appropriate

[baleanoptera]

Thoughts in the aftermath of an art historical conference:

-Most young male associate professors use way too many complicated words. This makes their lectures almost impossible to understand, and it makes the debate following the lectures slightly ridiculous. This is especially true if the person asking the question is another young male associate professor – then the communication breakdown is complete. So note to self – go to lectures held by older, female professors. They call a painting a painting, and not a two-dimensional, visual object whose content must be seen in the context of the visual tradition.

-Also avoid lectures that consist completely of theory, as they have no connection to the real world. Okay, this is a pet peeve – but I feel that if theory isn’t connected to one or several examples its use is kind of limited. As any action flick will tell you – it was a good plan, in theory…


-How come on a conference spanning several days, with almost 70 lectures, no one talks about art outside Western Europe? Fine, I’m guilty of this my self, but the fact still worries me.

-Watching BSG and LOTR is a good way to relax when you head is still buzzing with visual theory. I’m still not sure of BSG S2 though – the story keeps telling me that Starbuck is so, so special – and I can’t see it. She shows up in each episode and behaves with the maturity of a five year old, and sulks her way through storyline after storyline. She is really starting to annoy me. And why do all the storylines in the later part of the season depend on the incompetence of the characters? The Pegasus is having trouble – their leader is incompetent. Or there is a hostage situation – Starbuck is incompetent. It just seems sloppy.

-As for LOTR – I still get emotional when Boromir dies. It might be the Sean Bean factor, but still.

Comments

[jorun.livejournal.com]

As to Boromir- nevahh underestimate the sean penn effect. But as you say, still..
And Starbuck.. don't you think the thing with her is that she is special, up to a certain point, and when her possible development has been fulfilled, she is incapable of going further. But what is expected of her is that she is supposed to just go on moving upwards, when in fact she cant. That is really disappointing, and then we, and Lee and daddy Adama etc. get irritated. Playing on our problem with the inconsistency with our/their earlier picture of her, kind of thing. Then of course there is the whole Anders situation, even though even I can't say (and mean, at the same time) that she handles that very well..

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Most young male associate professors use way too many complicated words.

Definitely true. The older middle-aged guys speak a little simpler and tend to use more jokes. It is like they are more sure about themselves.

I had some problems with Starbuck's behavior in season 2 too. I don't find her annoying, I just lost that feeling of "Oh! I think she is great!". There are many inexplicable twists in her character in season 2 , but this happens to the other characters as well

[losyark.livejournal.com]

Most young male associate professors use way too many complicated words.

Yes. I had a new Prof do this in my first real Critical Theory class, and it was the most singular frustrating experience of my life. To the point where I went to his office after the ninth hour of class and said, "Listen, Professon, I`m not a dumb person. I`m a fourth year honours student and I`m at the top of this class. But I have no idea what you`re on about. I want to learn the terms, but can you define them before you use them?"

He sort of blinked like a dead fish and mumbled something that sounded like, "You don`t know them already?"

Maybe as a fourth year honours class, we should have, but then my school was pretty piss-poor at making sure everyone had a common vocabulary to build from.

After that he was pretty good about defining words before playing badminton with them.

I also think it`s a sort of insecurity - that young professors, especially male ones, need to PROVE themselves. They need to use the big words so that they can sound as intelligent as they possibly can. Academia is a rough game, and if you`re not good enough, you`re out on your ass.

Once you`ve proven yourself, then you can fall back on a leisurly discussion in plain language, with jokes. Before that, I think most feel the need to prove that they can, indeed, play with the big boys. I think the male factor is (and please forgive the stereotype), just like playing sports. It`s an ego/testosterone thing, where they have to out maneouver the other players.

I`m guilty of the former, of course. Especially when I`m writing for someone I know is above my level - I want to use all the big words and I want to use them correctly.

Also, I think using the big words can help with time and word counts. Why use ten words to explain when one will do? Of course, if you don`t know that one word...

Ah, LOTR. It`s been way too long since I`ve seen that. I contemplated buying it, but in Japan a single DVD is upwards of forty American dollars, and that usually has no extra features. So, special edition boxed set of the trilogy? Not bloody likely.

[reginaspina.livejournal.com]

Hello, new friend!!

I don't think I've ever managed to watch the last 20 minutes of FOTR without crying (definitely at least 90% Sean Bean, although I think the writing for his final scenes was a huge improvement on the books ;))

And man, I don't think I could agree with you more on Starbuck - I loved her so much in Season 1, and then they had to make her all specialdestinywoundedinnerchild blahblahblah and I just ... I have no interest in that kind of character at all. And I also resent that somehow HER pain at her childhood abuse is supposed to be more special and riveting than the fact that EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER ON THE SHOW LOST THEIR HOMES AND FAMILIES IN THE NUCLEAR GENOCIDE.