…and I don’t mean that as in two persons conversing physically, but metaphorically.
See, here’s my two cents after acquiring a Master’s degree and on the verge of a PhD, and don’t quote me on that, this is just my personal experience, but…
When people think about researching, in the humanities in particular, I guess that they tend to think about hours of people writing nonstop, for whatever reason. Now, what they don’t account is that, in regards to Academia, you can’t just quote those goddamned voices on top of your head, oh hell no. You even could but you would face ridicule, for not being aware that there are such things that need to be in your text like citations.
And therefore you would be referencing other people, their ideas, whichever they came from, and what more you’re gonna do with it… Maybe morph then into a newfound concept of sorts or the like, whatever-you-have-it. But the ideas don’t come out of nowhere, they must be harvested, in vast amounts.
So, contraty to popular belief, research is not about writing in particular. A small portion of it is actually that, but more than half of your time will be spent probably skimming through textbook pages and a whole bunch of articles that probably very few people on this earth (besides you) had to have the audacity to go through them.
As you can see, it gets lonely, pretty darn fast. You have to abdicate from your own goddamned time in order to spend hours upon hours with the thoughts and points and concepts of other people which you may very well know they are not even alive nowadays… But for whatever reason, somehow, their ideas, in just the slightest sense of the word, makes the world go round. Be it with the philosophies that back politics, ideologies, religious perspectives, metaphysics, what-have-you!
It is all there, in the fabric of society, and you so chose Academia, and you are deaing with the very threads that compose our entire pathetic, (ahem), I mean marvellous civilization.
In here goes my proposal, from what I’ve witnessed firsthand on dealing with pages upon pages of books and the like… (as longs as it is not an uni/library book), you are allowed to take some annotations on the sides of the pages, even have a small notebook with you, grab that goddamned page number, insert it into that blank page and start debating with that fucker. It is not as even they will care at all! Hell, for all accounts, they are even dead! You are allowed to say some mad words in their ghastly faces that may be accompanying their own works. Like:
“Dude, no way in hell, this makes absolutely no sense! Or is that am I too dumb? Or maybe both!”
You see, grabbing yourself some space within those pages and feeling them with your own thoughts and feelings is what’s gonna give you some authenticity in your research (or so I guess), and then, you will actually remember your train of thought when you come back and see what the hell were you considering (opposing or agreeing) with said arguments that were being proposed.
It is okay to debate with your authors because, at one time, if you have to present your work to your other fellow researchers later, well, just guess what’s gonna happen?!
“_Oh, oh, oh! I know, I know! I know what’s gonna happen?” - Says you in a franctically and erratically voice.
“Yes?” - I say, despising your crude demeanor.
“_We are gonna grow RICH! It is that what research does to people, right? …right?” - You look at me with weary eyes.
At that point I slap you in the face and tell you the utmost truth you had to ever hear in your miserable academic life.
“Oh, hell no, you stupid! I guess they don’t make smart academics now anymre, do they? If you wannaed to grow rich you should have picked up some other venue! This right here is for the masochis–…”
Anyways…..
As I was saying… What the hell was I saying?
Ah, yes.
What’s gonna happen (after our small detour) is that people are going to DEBATE with you! You will have to present your work, and defend the darned thing! So that all of the world can know what a marvelous cauliflower you are.
But no, now, seriously, people are going to question your work. And they won’t do that lightly. And you will have to argument back, and forth, and so it goes, until they get satified and know that you are a good citizen because you were able to spend hours upon hours of your precious little life tormenting your soul with blamishless rhetoric going through endless pages that no human would–…
They will question you kindly about whatever the hell it was you did. And you better be prepared.
So why not get prepared onwards, from the very first time you lay your eyes on the pages and start “arguing” with those authors which are supposed to support your work like the pillars of the greek ruins?
And then, you see, you are allowed to talk with dead people in here… Just, please… We might get a bit worried if you hear or feel that they in those pages of those books, are talking back at you.
Then, be very afraid, and please, consult a psychiatrist.
Make the world a better place.
Well, I guess that is all people, I am done with my shenanigans.
Write on those goddamned books.
Don’t treat them as little barbie dolls. They are actually instruments of science, bitch!
Now do your thing and go read that article. It will not read itself alone.
Make you both feel alone (just for a very brief time), then go resume your things.
That’s it for today guys.
I hope it was insightful.
In any case, I’ll see you around.
Bye now.
Paece.