Words on a Page

I’ve recently been re-reading Chief Joseph’s account of the Nez Perce War and subsequent internment in Indian Territory, and like many before me have been struck by the eloquence and power of his words. Whether this eloquence comes directly from Joseph himself or from the transcriber hardly seems to matter. The power behind the words is Joseph’s. I am also struck by the continuing relevance of his words and how they mirror so much of what we tend to think of as ‘modern democratic values’ and Christian teaching.  +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Chief Joseph: Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt / In-mut-too-yah-lat-lat  (Thunder Rolling Down the Mountain) Our fathers gave us many laws, which they had learned from their fathers. These laws were good. They told us to treat all men as they treated us; that we should never be the first to break a bargain; that it was a disgrace to tell a lie; that we should speak only the truth; that it was

Someone has recently sent me a link to an interesting article that appeared in a January 2010 edition of Times Higher Education   which I thought was worth passing on to the other postgrad students out there.  In it, Tara Brabazon, Professor of Media Studies at the University of Brighton, discusses her role in preparing PhD students for submission of their thesis, and examining the work of other PhD candidates.   My teaching break between Christmas and the university's snowy reopening in January followed in the footsteps of Goldilocks and the three bears.  I examined three PhDs: one was too big; one was too small; one was just right.  Put another way, one was as close to a fail as I have ever examined; one passed but required rewriting to strengthen the argument; and the last reminded me why it is such a pleasure to be an academic. Read the full article:  How Not to Write a PhD Thesis by Tara Brabazon

I've been busy working on my novel the past few months, so haven't had any new literary research to add here.  Recently, though, while writing about farming in north Idaho, I've needed to get hold of some information linked to phases of the moon and favorable planting dates, and through the magic of the internet I was able to track down a copy of the 1981  Old Farmer's Almanac in South Dakota and have it posted to me here in the UK for a mere $9. I've also got my hands on  a Gurney's Seed Catalog from 1967, complete with an ad, torn from some magazine or other, for fishing trips to South Dakota's Great Lakes where you can find 'Northerns up to 35 lbs., walleyes to 12 lbs., and paddlefish to 90lbs!'  Research on the internet is fine for some things, but there's something about holding a hardcopy publication in your hands that is just so...so real .  Flicking through the yellowing pages of the almanac, past ads for "Apache" Arrowheads (t