Ch-ch-changes

Today, my copy of the collection of essays in which my last medieval history publication appears arrived in the mail. I hugged it and petted it and called it George... okay, well, I didn't, but I have been kind of picking it up and admiring it on and off since I opened the package. (Although the image on the cover is pretty fugly, I gotta say.) There's just something so satisfying about seeing your words in print, looking all official and snazzy and so on.

It's funny, though - I had to reread what I'd written (I mean, I originally wrote this like three years ago, I don't really remember much of it), and of course found three errors - isn't that always the case? - but what really struck me is how ACADEMIC it sounds. At the time, I was very pleased with myself for how clear and accessible the writing was. I look back on it now and think: Yeah, not so much.

Don't get me wrong - I'm damned proud of this piece (it was my first non-dissertation project, I came up with the idea my very own self, worked through everything, and really like it, a lot). But clearly at the time, I was a fish swimming in very different water from what I'm immersed in now, and dipping my toe back in for a moment was a bit of a shock.

Comments

[Rana]

Disconcerting, isn't it?

[SEK]

Awesome is always awesome, even (or especially) when you can recognize its foreordained irrelevance/irreverence. So celebrate the awesomeness for what it very clearly is...