And she's back! Did ya miss me?

 

Corsham Court. I work from here! Really!

 

The up side about doing a PhD is:

·      Telling people you are doing a PhD

·      Going into Corsham Court to my lovely little office to do said PhD

·      Researching and thinking about PhD

The down side about doing a PhD is

·      Actually  DOING the PhD.

Holy Swotting Hell Hermione!  You may think you have a cracking idea but it would seem that a great many people have already had a version of your original idea and have written vastly on the subject and often in the language know as ‘Freakouttheignoramus’.   As a ‘for instance’ look at this impenetrable and frankly completely baffling bit of academic swank by Griselda Pollox, a feminist scholar who should know better.

 ‘The matrixial gaze emerges by a simultaneous reversal of with-in and with-out (and does not represent the eternal inside), by a transgression of borderlinks manifested in the contact with-in/-out and art work by a transcendence of the subject–object interval which is not a fusion, since it is based on a-priori shareability in difference..’

What the hell, Griselda? Manifest this...!

It doesn’t help that a lot of the articles and books I am sourcing are in a difficult format for me to read. I like to have hard copies still rather than reading from a computer or being read to.  This means all has to be in 20 font and arial and there is a hell of a lot of time taken up with just making things accessible and printing. The university, Bath Spa, and my supervisor have been wonderful and as I am the only blind in the village this is all new to all of us. I am trying Dragon Dictate and will eventually have another look at Supernova and Jaws (screen readers). I also have, this year, study support in the graceful, wise and very, patient guise of Jennyfrommyblock.  (Turns out she is my neighbour)  She gets the near impossible job of trying to help me ‘organise’ myself.  Apparently there is something called..’filing’....? Who knew?

And what I hear you cry am I actually doing my PhD on?  It is a damn good question.... As it’s a creative writing PhD the main bulk of my time is to be spent writing a fiction novel.  Mine is an experimental thriller set in a dystopian UK.  More on that another time.

The critical component of the PhD, which should both inform and influence the novel is called:  Blurring the Image; a comparative study of the representation of visually impaired women and children within selected literary genres.  Good eh?  Took me three months to come up with the title. It’s tough being a student.

But I am not really complaining I LOVE this stuff!  I am having fun. And I love this crazy small Corsham town as does Grace who seems to have her own celebrity following.  So much to tell....but as this is the first post in a very long time and all that, I will keep it short and more shall follow! Hope you are all still out there!  Let me know,

Tanvi x