Thesis Updates

Thesis Update: Nearing the End!

Thesis Updates

It’s all coming together! My supervisor gave me the deadline of “as soon as possible” (meaning Tuesday at the absolute absolute latest) to pass in my draft of the paper.
So that’s good news for me. I’m spending this weekend typing away, finishing and finessing the document. There’s a continual theme of “I have too many ideas for a 40 page paper and presentation, I might as well write a book” running through our discussions. So who knows. Maybe a book will come from all of this.
It’s appropriate that I’m spending what would have been Patrick McGoohan’s birthday writing a paper about his show…I may have to watch “Many Happy Returns” this evening, if I need a break.

Though sometimes I feel like this is a Village of its own, an inescapable place where the end is always *just* in sight.

Though, unlike Number Six, this Village is one that I will be leaving. April 28th…

Thesis Update: Midpoint Revelations on The Prisoner

Thesis Updates

One week ago tomorrow, I turned in the half completed portion of my thesis (which will probably end up meaning its but a third completed, as I have a lot I still wish to discuss).

A huge relief in passing the thing in. I’ll have roughly a month before jumping back in, but during that month I’ll be rewatching The Prisoner, either for fun or actually picking out arguments for the thesis, along with writing up an appendix with brief descriptions of each episode. Why? Well, its a cult show. I think probably about 7 people on my entire campus have seen it start to finish, and that’s a liberal guess. Unfortunately, if I say I’m writing about The Prisoner, if someone’s heard of it, they assume its the remake. No no no.

I’ve learned three things while writing this first half (all of which can be named with the letter “P”):

Planning

I’m not generally a fly by the seat of my pants person when it comes to writing papers. I need to gather data, make outlines (of a sort) and need an idea before I can really start working.

Persistence

Ah, the essay known as “The Essay of a Thousand Directions.” Each time I met with my supervisor, I had a different topic in mind. “I’ll do a character study of Number 6 using Cambell’s The Hero With a Thousand Faces! Oh, I’ll look at the stifling of individuality in The Village! The presentation of The Village as a prison! Ooh! Ooh! New shiny topic! So many topics my supervisor suggested I just write my doctoral dissertation on this…(not going for my doctorate at this time…)

Well, while reading sources and brainstorming, I persisted in my quest to come up with an original topic. Though not my entire paper, I’m looking into the perversion of childhood signs in the show.

For next semester, I’m keeping on target, working hard and finishing this paper up.

Passion

Roughly seven months into this project, and I still enjoy working on it. I still love The Prisoner. I’m happily devoted to this project. It interests me and continues to hold my interest. That, and I care deeply about writing it well.

My friends see this project as bordering on obsessive. So what if it is? It’s fun.

 

Here’s to the upcoming semester. May it be fruitful! And may Christmas break be restful. 🙂

Life as a NaNo Rebel

The Twirl and Swirl of Letters, Thesis Updates

So, November is upon us. And with the falling leaves, brisk wind and blue skies here in Boston comes the season of flying papers, dead highlighters and balding college students. Why balding? We rip our hair out trying to stay sane.

Two years ago I participated in NaNoWriMo for the first time and won. I wrote a rather disappointing novel, but I wrote one. The experience showed me that I can write a novel, that it is possible to finish one if I have the proper motivation.

Last year, I knew I wouldn’t have the time to truly participate, so I wrote a short story and called it a day.

This year, it happened to fall that I have three major papers to work on over the month of November. They aren’t due until December, but I figured, why not use NaNo to rebel?

I’m doubling rebelling, as I started writing these early.

And will I reach a total of 50,000 words? I don’t know. Probably not. All I care is that these essays get completed well. And if I’m writing them, might as well take advantage of the little word count chart, eh?

Best of luck to all NaNo-ers, Traditional or Rebels!

TU: Arrival of the Books

Thesis Updates

Well, it turns out that I don’t need to make a trip to Washington to get my books. One of the other school libraries in Boston had them, and now I do, too.

So, hurray! I can now spend my days finishing my preliminary research and revising my proposal. I still need to determine which theoretical lens I’m going to examine The Prisoner through. I’m leaning very heavily towards postmodernism, someone like Foucault. But I think I will reread Marshall McLuhan’s The Medium is the Massage before I return to school in September.

Lots of reading ahead of me! And I still need to finish watching Danger Man.

For fun, I’m reading John le Carre’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and enjoying that very much.

TU: A (momentary) kink the equation…

Thesis Updates

So, I finished Spy Television today. I think I have close to 70 notecards written, and I intend on photocopying the chapter on the McGoohan spy shows for future reference.

Last week, I requested four books through Inter Library Loan for the project–only one of which is in a library in my homestate. So, after some minor complaining and wondering how I was to get two of these (I’m just going to bite the bullet and purchase one), my mom made a brilliant suggestion:

Go to the Library of Congress.

Brilliant.

So, in August, if all goes well, I’m going to Washington, DC to do some research for this project. It may end up being only slightly more expensive to make this trip as opposed to buying all of the books that I need. The LoC has all of the books I need. Not to mention the International Spy Museum, which really won’t help my project much, but it’s a fun museum. 🙂

This may be slight overkill, but it will be fun. And it will make my project-overseeing professor laugh. And in the end, it’ll be totally worth it.

On a semi-related note, I picked up Defend the Realm, the Authorized History of MI-5 (just for intelligence work in Cold War info, more for my own enjoyment than background material). My god, that thing is a CORNERSTONE. It’s massive, weighs more than my AP Euro History book in high school.

TU: Arrival

Thesis Updates

Thesis research is going well. This is definitely the most fun I’ve had researching a paper. I’m reading books, both fact and fiction, about spies and spy television. I’ve got my next trip to the library planned (Monday!) to pick up a book by John LeCarre and to return Casino Royale. I hope to find a book about Britain and the Cold War, or at least a European perspective on it. That may prove difficult, but I’ll try my best.

Once I finish this viewing of The Prisoner, I plan on watching a few episodes of The Avengers. I picked up a few DVDs from the library. Should keep me busy for a couple of days.

I’m really hoping that I’m able to get Secret Agent AKA Danger Man from one of the out of town libraries. It has been on my watch list since December. I’ve seen a few of the 30 minute episodes and am anxious to see the hour long ones as well. So many of the academic sources I’ve found on The Prisoner discuss Danger Man as well, so I consider it vital viewing. So vital, I may have to buy the series when its rereleased this fall.

The book I’m currently reading, simply entitled Spy Television is fascinating. It has the history of the different shows and some cultural analysis as well. I intended only on reading the intro, conclusion and the chapter on the McGoohan shows, but going from start to finish–I can’t put it down.