Play

My supervisor has just returned my fourth chapter - saying that is is absolutely fine and that the argument is logically and clearly presented! I didn't realise how hard I had worked on it until I heard that. For 7 of my 11 years in HE, I worked very little. I'll admit it - I've got skills and a head for literature. But I never worked like I have for this thesis. Funnily enough, I've never enjoyed studies more. A line from Donna Tartt's The Secret History always comes back to me when I'm feeling most optimistic and fortunate about my chosen career. Asked by the erstwhile narrator how much work he requires, the slightly creepy, very eccentric professor explains that he doesn't consider what he does as 'work': it is 'the most glorious kind of play'. Today, I agree.

Listening to: The Goldberg Variations by J.S. Bach, played by Glenn Gould

No matter how many times I hear this recording, I am struck every single time by the sheer brilliance of Gould. And I my very favourite part is listening to him hum and sing along to his own playing. It feels like such a very embodied performance, perhaps because I can hear his voice rather than the disembodied playing of a 'perfect' recording. Of course, now, it's a disembodied voice. Which begs the question, can the body be captured? Does it last? Is there part of Gould preserved in this recording? The music implies his hands; his voice implies much more.

And now I am thinking of my very favourite ever writing by Mary Wollstonecraft, from Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway: 'Life! What art thou? Where goes this breath? this I, so much alive? In what element will it mix, giving or receiving fresh energy? What will break the enchantment of animation?'

Luckily, I'm working on Wollstonecraft today, so I can just keep thinking about her...