No Longer in Stasis

Fairly self-explanatory. Things have mostly started up. I had various induction-type things on Monday and Tuesday, which were frankly exhausting and not particularly illuminating--the usual jargon of "This is a great school!", "You're the cream of the crop!", then followed, of course, by "But get ready to work your ass off!"

It was a little better than that, and there was some useful information sprinkled in, but that was the general feeling. I had a bet going with an archaeology student as to how many times the international community was going to be referred to as "vibrant". Ah, corporate-speak.

Anyway.

I am almost registered. I should hopefully be completely there by tomorrow. Durham is rather old school with its insistence on lots of real paperwork in addition to online paperwork, so it's a bit more annoying than Leeds' process, but the end is in sight, which means that soon I will actually be able to take books out of the library.

It's a good thing too, because I am plunging straight into research. I had my first meeting with my supervisor, which went really well. He seems both reasonable and personable, and we were able to hash out some of the beginnings of what I'm doing with little fuss. He's apparently quite interested in intellectual history and cultural context, which suits me just fine, considering my topic.

My topic, as it happens, is morphing in new and interesting ways. I think I'm going to start by making a case for studying nonfiction within the framework of the Gothic, which I started doing a bit with my MA dissertation, but didn't really get to address fully. It's an unusual approach, perhaps a new one, but I think it could be really useful, not just for me but for other people looking at political readings of Gothic literature--what are the consequences of reversing the feed, as it were? Is it even possible? I suspect that it is, and I hope I can prove it. The topic can perhaps become the one which I'll address in my first official writing sample, which is due in May. From there I can start examining nonfiction on the Industrial Revolution from a Gothic perspective, and see where it takes me.

So yeah, that's about it. I'm meeting some cool people from all over the place, and getting to know the area a bit more. And writing 3000 words or so in the next week. Hey!