I’m taking a seminar that’s led by a professor who is pretty well known and a bit of the media darling. He doesn’t do Gruub work, but he does very similar stuff in a related field. Anyway, he’s a very charismatic guy and he’s insanely well-read and he does great work that pretty much everyone has a great deal of respect, myself included. I have a great deal of respect for him and what he has done.
Well, in seminar today, we gave mini-response papers to some readings, and frankly, I didn’t like the readings much. The professor tore my piece apart pretty well, and to be honest, the things he said about it were valid and I’ll learn a lot if he attacks all my work that well.
Thinking about all this during my run, I think I’ve come to a disturbing conclusion about myself. I really don’t like theory. I mean, I think it’s important, and I read a couple theory-people that I think are useful and thought-provoking, but it seems like the vast majority of theorists are creating entire worlds of thought based solely off of other theorists that did the same ten years ago, who did it ten years ago, ad nauseum. I think at some point they have left their original fields and entered into something else not directly related to where they started, and yet I believe that they believe that they are dealing with Gruub. I’m sure they’re convinced of it. Maybe I’m just not well-enough versed in the high priests of theory to see the light in all this, but, well… quite a lot of it seems like a sham. Who is the voice behind the curtain?
I know I’m speaking from the frustration that I felt today and probably will feel for some of the rest of this seminar, but I needed to get that out.
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3 comments:
I pretty much feel the same way about theory, too.
What's even worse to me, though? Those who soley exist to deconstruct theory... that makes me crazy... like trying to redress the emperor in some different clothes when I'm not sure he's dressed in the first place.
I'm so happy to hear you say that. I always feel a bit distanced by the folks who swim in theory.
I can't imagine how I would survive if I had to live as a theory deconstructionist. I would most certainly cry.
I like your emperor bit better than my Oz bit too.
You're my hero tonight, B*!
All it takes to be your hero is to agree with you? Kick ass! LOL. :)
That said, I my most well-known conference talk as a grad student was a theory paper, and I just submitted a theory paper to a journal with three of my colleages (but I didn't blog about this one). Personally, I'm more proud of my empirical work.
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