Book titles and other woes.
Telling myself not to expect anything yesterday, I settled in to write my essay. Its not as ugly as it was, in fact, its one of my less ugly babies this term. Apart from my freak-out about primary sources (and I am still a supreme academic failure because of it) it turned out fine. Its now sitting on my screen awaiting the print... but I'm trying to come up with a title.
This is something I've noticed: Books used to just have titles, now they have composite titles. Ooooohhhh composite. Like, instead of just calling a book "A Brief History of the U.S. Environmental Movement", it has to be called "First Along The River: A Brief History of the U.S. Environmental Movement", and instead of being, "American Environmentalism at the Close of the Twentieth Century", it becomes "Losing Ground: American Environmentalism at the Close of the Twentieth Century". Now I can see the point of all this, oh yes. Obviously, titles with some sort of interesting aspect to them are catchier, and sexier, and make you stand out. I mean, who wants to read something called "The American Response to the Environment in the Twentieth Century", we'd much rather read it if it has "Saving the Planet:" tacked on the front. Oooh I'm saving the planet, let's read this one!! Okay, maybe I'm making a big stink about nothing, but when you've spent weeks reading these books it becomes sortof funny in a strange sort of way. Did I mention that my essay now has a composite title? Oh yeah. Because who wants to read something titled "Silent Spring and the 1960s environmental movement", I'll definitely get a better mark by adding "The right place at the right time:". Shut up. No shut up. Well I think its clever. Maybe if you did weeks of research you'd understand it too. No you're being unreasonable. *throws "First Along The River" at you*... see, it makes a better weapon with a composite title...
...aaaanyways, the rest of my story goes as such: phone rings at eight, numerous insinuations about the rest of my evening and how I plan on spending it. I ignore them. The third one I respond to with a sly comment about maybe someone wanting to hang out. Games aside, because I refused to let them get in the way of me getting some (and getting some motivation to conclude my essay, which I was struggling with), so I believe I came out on top of this one in more ways than one. Neither of us mentioned the fight, except my murmured apology about my friends being belligerent, and how their opinions in no way reflected my own. I smell his girlfriends in this, and I'm glad they are sensible creatures. So things seem to be back on track, my essay is done and I'm going out tonight. Life is good.
This is something I've noticed: Books used to just have titles, now they have composite titles. Ooooohhhh composite. Like, instead of just calling a book "A Brief History of the U.S. Environmental Movement", it has to be called "First Along The River: A Brief History of the U.S. Environmental Movement", and instead of being, "American Environmentalism at the Close of the Twentieth Century", it becomes "Losing Ground: American Environmentalism at the Close of the Twentieth Century". Now I can see the point of all this, oh yes. Obviously, titles with some sort of interesting aspect to them are catchier, and sexier, and make you stand out. I mean, who wants to read something called "The American Response to the Environment in the Twentieth Century", we'd much rather read it if it has "Saving the Planet:" tacked on the front. Oooh I'm saving the planet, let's read this one!! Okay, maybe I'm making a big stink about nothing, but when you've spent weeks reading these books it becomes sortof funny in a strange sort of way. Did I mention that my essay now has a composite title? Oh yeah. Because who wants to read something titled "Silent Spring and the 1960s environmental movement", I'll definitely get a better mark by adding "The right place at the right time:". Shut up. No shut up. Well I think its clever. Maybe if you did weeks of research you'd understand it too. No you're being unreasonable. *throws "First Along The River" at you*... see, it makes a better weapon with a composite title...
...aaaanyways, the rest of my story goes as such: phone rings at eight, numerous insinuations about the rest of my evening and how I plan on spending it. I ignore them. The third one I respond to with a sly comment about maybe someone wanting to hang out. Games aside, because I refused to let them get in the way of me getting some (and getting some motivation to conclude my essay, which I was struggling with), so I believe I came out on top of this one in more ways than one. Neither of us mentioned the fight, except my murmured apology about my friends being belligerent, and how their opinions in no way reflected my own. I smell his girlfriends in this, and I'm glad they are sensible creatures. So things seem to be back on track, my essay is done and I'm going out tonight. Life is good.
posted by Care @ 2:52 p.m.
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