boo

grade was posted for presentation on proposed dissertation on doctor who
58% joint worst mark ever now
stuff like "could have been more securely located within a theoretical context" and "would have benefited from a clearer structure and sense of purpose" and "rambling" and "without a very clear sense of the wider context of the material" and "bogged down in detail"
in other words I can talk about Doctor Who for a really long time... but that doesn't make a dissertation.

but gender in Doctor Who is a good topic, the comments say, so I just... have to fix it so it works.

lovely.

if I do really well in the research proposal and annotated bibliography then this unit might end up with an overall grade worth having
but at the moment I'm thinking, not so much likely.

which is okay, because it's a second year module and only the good ones count.


okay. I have five hours to finish and upload my Short Story commentary without using my extension. Or two weeks and five hours with it. essay time now.



ETA: I spoke out loud in front of humans! I have in previous years been excused doing speaking presentations on the grounds of being, er, me. I have sat at the side and made the powerpoint work while others do the talking. I have made the computer talk, which is so boring even I can't listen to it. But this time I talked, out loud, in front of humans.
I win.

television reporting

The BBC are moving all their children's TV to the children's channels after digital switchover is complete.

( Read more... )

Now all the Children's content will be on the Children's channels that ratings say are what all the children are watching anyway.

There will still be children's tv and it'll get the same amount of money.

This is non news in a news wrapper.


The really interesting, newsworthy, squawk now stuff is all hidden much further down the page, where all the things that will get their budgets cut, be reduced by such and so percents, broadcast fewer hours, or simply cease to exist, are all bundled together.

So why is the headline children's TV?


*stage magic hands*


I'd go poke the details but I should be doing my essay right this minute. Also I spent those minutes comparing the bits about children's tv to see what they actually meant. Clever.

*blinks a lot*

I like electronic submission. In the old rules, I'd have had to go in to college. And I'd have had to do it before about 5pm. Now? I have 57 minutes left of the 16th, so I am still plenty in time.
Actually the computer thinks I have another two weeks.
But I wasn't going to use the extension this time.
So, I have uploaded my short story and critical commentary, even though I've no idea if the critical commentary is at all the sort of thing that's meant to go in a critical commentary.
balls to it all.

yes, in sensible people land one finishes the essay substantially before 56 minutes before deadline, puts it aside, and goes back later to see if you wrote 'I am a fish' several hundred times on accident.

:-ppppppppppppppppppppppp to sensible.

... okay, I would have been more sensible if insomnia hadn't eaten quite so many hours.
given the computer's idea of a deadline, it could well be I still have time to go back later and upload different versions. I don't know.

or, at this precise minute, care.



Also, I read the introduction to the Frank O'Connor book I got out yesterday, or at least read it the quick way looking for anything remotely relevant. ( Read more... )

I'm not so sure outsiders write about isolated lonely people and that's the essence of the short story as a genre. But I'm willing to write with that as a theory, given we have 500 words and I am fed up of this unit.

Not fed up of writing short stories, just of this unit about short stories. I still don't know what we were supposed to learn. Unless it was in the general category stuff I learned when I was the age everyone else in the class appears to be.
(yaay fandom, writing masterclasses ongoing)

Comics plots

Okay, so I wrote a comment on someone's entry and then realised once again I'm so lurky on other people's blogs I'd just be popping up out of nowhere to tell them a really long comment on how, er, wrong they were, and so I hid again.

But I can post on my own place.

So: they couldn't think of a superhero plot because comics are just someone kicking someone else's arse.

Which strikes me as kind of like saying dance is just people moving their arms and legs around. I mean, yes, but...


I don't know as I think of comics plots being about the arse kicking.

They're sort of about a hero's relationship to power and to other powerful people.

( Read more... )

Movie plots are kind of about power, but really substantially about being a teenager and relationships to your parental types.

( Read more... )

I still haven't seen Avengers. I'm an essay, a research proposal, and an annotated bibliography away from seeing Avengers. I should be doing that instead of movie plots.

BUT anyways...

Saying the plot is all kicking someone is kind of missing the why of kicking, which is probably why boring. It's always about illuminating the hero, their moral choices, and their relationships.

( Read more... )

The fight sequence is how they work out their problems, but there's a really varied ton of problems they could have in the first place.



Also? See previous post Tell us not that monsters exist but that they can be beaten

It's not just why are they fighting, it's why do we need them to?
And why do we need to read it?


And there's a Joss interview that I'd go look for but I'd bump into a bunch of Avenger's spoilers
he says something about the moment, for him, is all about where someone stands up and realises they have power

Because we all need that one, that clear moment where you see the problem, see the solution, and see that you can actually get it done.

And, yes, as a genre feature, that involves kicking, usually while wearing spandex.
But that's what makes it mythology, and not a day at the office... though come to think a bunch of it makes mythology *of* the day at the office. See: Daily Planet, etc.

There's the moment we take the camouflage off and turn out to be something more, the moment we take a step and fly, the moment we face our fears.

On the outside, okay, someone kicks someone's arse... but the outside is not the story.

So there's a bazillion comics plots.