I like writing these essays because: it means I have an excuse to reread the texts (The Ticking is the Bomb, Leaves of Grass, Ghostwritten and basically every text we’ve looked at in Religions of Asia since spring break); it helps me to practice my critical/analytical/theoretical/academic writing, something I’m not terribly good at; thinking about texts in new and interesting ways is a general academic/life project I find to be important; it’s helping me come up with lots of subtopics for next year’s dissertation; I have an excuse to be grumpy when needs be; it’s a really great way to incorporate all the four modules into each essay - I take bits from each of my seminars and somehow manage to work them into the text; I’m writing in single space and then double spacing.

I dislike writing these essays because: I’m stressed.

I have recorded 15 minutes worth of me reading quotations from Julius Caesar, Edward II and critics. I’m playing it on repeat. I hate the sound of my own voice anyway. I feel like I’m in that scene from Being John Malkovich when John Malkovich goes into his own head and it’s all the Malkoviches.