Friday, October 30, 2009

to-may-to, to-motto

While perusing Cornell University's English Department website today, I came across the following quote, which I have since written on our chalkboard and adopted into my growing list of graduate school application slogans:

"To pretend I actually do the thing: I have therefore only pretended to pretend."
-Jacques Derrida

This gives me hope: if I can just continue to act like I know what I'm doing for the next five-to-seven years, I'll magically end up with a dissertation and a fancy title at the end.

Other (less snobbishly academic) mottos-o'-mine*:

"Whoa! Dream big."
-Juno

"
Trying hard now
it's so hard now
trying hard now

Getting strong now
won't be long now
getting strong now

Gonna fly now
flying high now
gonna fly, fly, fly...."
-The "Rocky" Theme Song



*Being unsure of the plural of "motto," I checked it out on Dictionary.com, which indicated that both "mottos" and "mottoes" are correct derivatives. I have chosen "mottos" here for the obvious reason that "mottoes" looks silly.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

i want this


Dear Elna Baker,


This is just a note to express my appreciation and gratitude for your non-conformist fabulousness. As you probably know, George Dawes Green had this to say about you:

"Elna Baker's memoirs of Mormon chastity and self-denial are presented with such passion and wit and unbridled effervescence that somehow her life comes out as pure erotic adventure, a romance of wild sunshine hedonism. As she juggles it all before us-her doubt and her deep faith and her lust and longing and fierce discipline-she's a dazzlement, a living breathing paradox and an absolute original and a joy to behold."

If I buy your book for all my friends, will you please teach me how to be you?

Sincerely,

Haylie Swenson