gimcrackgirl

I'm not sure what I make of David Mitchell yet.... I know when someone mentions something cultural in style that's been done, it's post-modern referencing if you like it, or poaching if you don't, and ventriloquism seems a bit in between.

I can't make my mind up - is he just showing off, or is it a completely relevant style? I think I need to read everything he's written to date, and then make my mind up. So far, I've read Cloud Atlas and am half way through Ghostwritten.

Any other opinions on this matter are heartily welcomed.

A question, rather than coming before an explanation.

There is so much injustice in the world, how does anyone go about doing something about it?

I wouldn't have been able to be a doctor of medicine, even if I wasn't so damn squeamish (my chemistry grades would never have been good enough!)


So I guess the question I'm asking myself is what good can a young (ish), white female do once she's got her PhD in English lit... I don't speak any other languages for example... so not sure how I could help troubled areas with such qualifications.

I guess one way would be to do some serious research and get in touch with activists, see if anything I've got (including the desire to help) could be useful to anyone, anywhere.

Or, the other thing I could do, which may well be what I end up doing, is lecture. In English Lit, in England or similar, and try and save the world (as in, help save some kind of tiny corner niche market part) in some other way.

It seems to me, though, that whilst I've never had money and getting this far has been a struggle (i.e. the two somewhat, ahh, menial, to an extent, jobs I currently hold to support my education), surely I should use how far I've come, the knowledge I've gained (etc), to help others less fortunate (and I should probably read more Plato, I bet that would help with some of this soul-searching).

In some places, I suspect my ethnicity, my background, my gender, my probably lack of practical skills, would fairly prevent me from actively helping... so what to do?



And yes, I do just enjoy over-punctuating (I don't do it in academic work LOL. Neither would I use LOL. Or is that just blinking obvious... hrrrrm. Endless questions!)

If anyone would like to, please check this discussion between cupkatething (me) and 'isaacbrown' on a Janet Street Porter article.... http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/janet-street-porter/janet-streetporter-why-we-all-need-to-stop-worrying-and-start-talking-1668824.html

I'm half worried that I shouldn't have engaged with such shocking views, and half worried that I ought to argue him down with a BIG LONG LIST of every intelligent, successful black person I can think of. I know, I know, it probably wouldn't make any difference to name nobel prize winners etc (he'd probably claim they stole white man's work in any case) but how, in this DAY AND AGE where America has a BLACK president can this nasty little man write: 'There's no evidence to show that black people are as intelligent as white people - if there is, let's see it.'

I am fucking outraged.

There's some interesting stuff going on at the moment - I've been reading a lot of the F Word and Knockback. There's clearly a lot of unrest out there at the state of the world, and the question of the exclusiveness of a white, middle-class, University-educated version of 'the truth' is a central point.

I had an excellent discussion in the smoking area of a local venue (club is definitely not the right word for it) with a friend on Friday about corrective rape in South Africa. So I guess the question is what do we do about the state of the world at large? Unfortunately, I'm part of that white, middle-class, University-educated version of 'the truth' but I think (the failings of structuralism aside) that you can honestly change institutions from the inside out. Or at least, you can try. Here's to a truly inclusive future.