Friday, January 16, 2004 Being at the tail-end of my masters dissertation, I feel a strange mix of relief and nostalgia for it. On one hand, I'm really grateful that I won't have to try and make sense of Derrida and his difficult-to-follow brand of philosophy that is Deconstruction (try this for size: deconstruction is already in itself a failure; and it is from this failure that deconstruction arises [or something to that effect: it's not a quote]) again. I was also occupied with Kafka's short stories; so much so that I can more or less memorise some of his shorter parables and aphorisms.

In the past year, I had my brain worked to the limits just working out what Derrida means. Because his approaches are fundamental, that is, he approaches issues from their basic conditions of possibilities, I not only have to rethink the many assumptions that I have, but I also have to work out how these assumptions come into being in the first place.

But on the other hand, letting go of the thesis also means that I have to let go of the one thing that has most occupied me for the better part of almost 2 years; I can't help but feel a little rudderless at the moment. I really don't want to end up not remembering anything that I have written and have it become a distant memory.

Over the past 2 years, I hadn't read as much as I'd like to, mostly due to the other books that I have to read for the dissertation, but I think this would be a good time to start reading in ernest again. I'm particularly inspired by david's project to read 52 books in 52 weeks. I'm reading Kundera's Unbearable Lightness of Being. It's almost embarrassing to say that I've never read the book before, given that I am a Literature student and everything. And it's a really good read. I finished almost two-thirds of the book just last night, and I can't wait to get back home to finish it up tonight.

I'm not sure what is on the reading list next. But I have books that I have not read, so I guess I will start from there. But most of it are non-fiction, philosophy-type books. If anyone has any recommendations, please let me know.

posted by Sharon K at 7:43 pm