Wednesday, December 17, 2008

The End of the Tunnel. I've finally reached the end of the tunnel for the fall semester. My grades are in, my office is cleaned out, and I've started outlining chapters for my sabbatical. It will be interesting to see whether I can carry on my blogging into the sabbatical. I was highly motivated to attack the Bush administration, the Republicans, and conservatives when I started Red State Impressions. But I'm not sure that I'm not sure I'll have the same motivation to defend the Obama administration. There was a famous incident in the making of Chinatown where Faye Dunaway asked about her motivation and Roman Polanski said something to the effect "you're getting paid." But I'm not getting paid to blog. So I need to find motivation.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

What will you be working on during your sabbatical?

timb said...

That's too bad. Besides me, who will the folks at Protein Wisdom hate?

Ric Caric said...

Hi Tim. I don't know if the folks at PW just hate you and me. They're putting a hate on Obama, gays, blacks, women, and the country as a whole these days.

I'm not exactly planning on shutting down Red State Impressions. But I do need to figure out a reason for writing as much as I do.

I also need to catch some sleep.

Have a good holiday Tim.

Ric Caric said...

To the first commenter--I'm going to be working on a book on popular culture in Philadelphia from 1785 to 1850. The manuscript is entitled "Displays of Degradation: Cultural Transformation in Philadelphia, 1785-1850."

Here's the titles for the projected eight chapters.

1. Introduction
2. Traditional Popular Culture in Philadelphia.
3. John Fitch and Cultural Failure
4. Taking the "Man" Out of Workingman: The Workingmen's Movement
5. Delirium Tremens and the Final Failure of Traditional Popular Culture.
6. From Ordered Buckets to Honored Felons: The Rioting Fire Companies
7. Displays of Degradation: The Washingtonian Temperance Movement in Philadelphia.
8. Conclusion: Blackface Minstrelsy and the Secret Societies

I've already published six articles out of my research for Chapters 2, 3, 5, and 6. During the sabbatical, I need to finish the introductory Chapter 1, get full drafts of Chapters 2, 5, and 7, and knit the whole manuscript together into a narrative.

Given that I have a full eight months free from teaching and administrative work, I have a good chance to get all the chapters written. I'm not so sure about knitting everything together.

I also need to write the Conclusion chapter.