March 30, 2009

Going for It

Friends,

Yeah, I'm going to chase the PhD route. Why not, right? It only costs money to apply and it gives us more options when it comes to moving, which will happen again soon anyway. So, why not. I got the time. I got the interest. Let's do it. I'm not looking for MNSU MFA, Round 2 because that can't happen again, but I will be looking for a PhD in creative writing, or a creative dissertation with a lit crit focus of some kind...still sorting that part of it out. I know Rhetoric/Comp Theory is where the jobs are, and I did like my Comp Theory class, believe me, but if there was a way to do fictional composition theory or fiction rhetoric, then I'd be all about that. Maybe even narrative theory, that would be fun, I think. (I just realized something...I haven't written a substantial critical paper in years, or possibly ever, aside from the comps. Hm. Maybe I could just edit/extend them into something a little better...)

So now I'm prepping for the GRE and the Lit GRE. The Literature one...well, that one looks daunting because I don't have an English undergraduate degree, and I'm not as exposed to the canon as I would like. I have some, don't get me wrong, but it's been a long, long time, and I don't particularly like that kind of literature either (timeless classics my aching ass) so I have a lot of grueling reading to do. Selective reading, of course, of all those long dead white guys that I've managed not to read very closely, but I just have to know enough to do well on this test. I can't read it all, I just got to be able to fake it for the test.

This leaves my book diet, which I have horrendously derailed by the way (I figured out instead of eating like an addicting, I'm book-buying like an addict), dead. So, those sidebars, I'm deleting them. I've gotta Norton-ify my life, except in the toilet. That's my time, dammit. David Simon stays.

I'll keep ya'll posted on what schools I find, where I'll be applying, and some such.

Also, hey, any information you could provide about this would be good, too.

viva el mustache

1 comment:

Luke said...

Man, I can't speak for the subject GRE test, but I do know that the normal GRE isn't too hard. The math doesn't go above trigonometry, the writing section should be a snap, and the verbal... well, you just have to know a shitload of words. I mean a shitload. It's more or less a vocabulary test. I think those books help, but mostly you should just take as many practice tests as you can.