Wednesday, January 30, 2008

The finished thing

Good news! But first, a parable:

My first year of college, I'm hanging out in my dorm room with some friends, and a friend of theirs whom I'd just met. Let's call him CM (for Cookie Monster). Maybe we've just watched Monty Python -- we're lying on the floor or the futon, cracking nerdy jokes or some such. The conversation hits a lull, and CM turns to me and asks nonchalantly,

"Do you have something that I could eat all of?"

I look nonplussed.

"I just, feel like eating all of something."

I remember there is a partially-eaten box of cookies that could be sacrificed to the Monster's all-consuming (literally) hunger. He eats them. End of parable.

I can't really describe how confused I was at that moment. I had never associated the activity of eating with the idea of consuming a pregiven quantity. For days, I quoted him bemusedly to other friends. But (while I still don't tend to choose my food according to my ability to eat all of it) I do understand his obsession with finitude and completion.

The news is that I've submitted a chapter draft to my advisors. It's (temporarily) finished. That's what I've been working on the past four weeks, ever since getting back from California. And I kind of found it impossible to write anything else, including blog posts, while I was working on it. I had to get it done, to the point that I even typed up the bibliography.

I don't really know why I found the cookie episode so bewildering at the time. I love consuming all of things.

10 comments:

Hilaire said...

Congratulations!!

khora said...

Wonderful news!

Huzzah!

Anonymous said...

I love. Love. your parable. :)

And whooohooo!

Alice Academic said...

Yay!

Maude said...

woo-hoo! i'm glad you're back, too!!

SK said...

I am so jealous. I want to finish all of comps now ! You might have just motivated me. Oh no. this is a disaster, I might actually have to go DO something now! how about a race... comps vs. dissertation? that's totally fair, right?

kermitthefrog said...

Thanks, all!

Hi, Alice - do you have a blog? In any case, welcome!

Soph, er, I don't know how we'd quite manage that, since I'd hope you finish your comps well before my dissertation. How about we have a race -- comps vs. my finishing Season 4 of The Wire? Although I warn you that's likely to happen in the next couple of days... Comps vs. my eating all of something?

Belle said...

Cooooo-keees. Missed you; congratulations on the good work!

Anonymous said...

Hooray! And I, too, love the parable.

Dr. Curmudgeon said...

Congratulations and welcome back.