Wish me luck. First undergraduate paper presentation in about 9 hours

[UnforgettableLemon]

I'm going to be presenting my paper, "Fair Folk and Goblins Damned: The Presence and Purpose of the Supernatural in Shakespeare" at the VMI/Mary Baldwin/Blackfriar's Playhouse Shakesperean studies conference tomorrow. I've moderated sessions before, but this is my first presentation. I also plan on doing a presentation at the Plymouth Medievalism Conference at PSU in the spring, possibly both this year and next. It's going to be an experience. I hate public speaking, but I think I've got a pretty decent paper together. I wrote it almost a year ago, but it's gone through a massive reorganization for this conference.

 

[foray]

Hey Lemon. You own a blog? Just asking for no reason.

 

[UnforgettableLemon]

Nah. Too much work. I'd never update it.

edit: You weren't just asking that 'cuz I posted it here, right? I'm sorry if I'm flooding the board

 

[verte76]

Good luck!

 

[Doozer61]

Good luck!




in bed

 

[dandy]

wow, sounds like fascinating stuff. i have no words of advice, as i loathe public speaking, but i can offer good karma.

 

[MissVelvetDress_75]

good luck

 

[bayernfc]

Sounds fun. Good Luck

 

[foray]

Nah. Too much work. I'd never update it.

edit: You weren't just asking that 'cuz I posted it here, right? I'm sorry if I'm flooding the board

No, no, when I said no reason, I meant it

I am just in search of intelligent blogs, that's all. They're pretty hard to find.

foray

 

[UnforgettableLemon]

OK, thanks then. I've been in a severely hyper-critical self-conscious mood lately. The conference went really well, but seing as I wrote the paper about a year ago, I wasn't adequately prepared to answer some of the more pressing theological questions my paper raised... fortunately the other professors were all chiming in before I could say anything so I didn't have to answer too many questions. Although I did sort of begin to wonder something about Hamlet's ghost and his son. Hamlet's ghost is obviously Catholic, speaking of purgatory, etc. (Yes, there is also evidence that he could just be a demon spirit, but entertain this thought briefly). Hamlet, was NOT. Though medieval denmark was catholic, Shakespeare has Hamlet the younger sent off to study in the German birthplace of Protestantism. His audience would have been well aware of the contemporary connotations of Whittenburg. So if Hamlet was struggling with his protestantism and accept the Catholic aspects of his father's ghosts... Well, it's believed that Shakespeare's father was an underground Catholic long after the split with rome. Is there an intentional father/son parallel here? this is interesting stuff, when I mentioned this, it actually got the PhDs in the room to think. I felt very good. I think I would have gotten best paper in my session if not for the incredibly good Lear paper from this one girl. But her paper was great, so no hard feelings. I'm more confident in what i presented than I would have been with some of the other students' papers. Now to get working on that Morte Darthur/Modern Arhturian reemergence of Pre-Christian religions paper. Plymouth is only months away.

 

[u2valleygirl]

U.L. , I am sure you sure you did great....that last post went way over my head. You are very smart.

 

[UnforgettableLemon]

Sorry to go over heads. I'm really not that smart. I sorta feel like it's an unitentional facade that will crumble away and reveal me as a fake at some point. Of course most of my professors tell me this is a normal feeling that doesn't go away.

 

[dandy]

Sorry to go over heads. I'm really not that smart. I sorta feel like it's an unitentional facade that will crumble away and reveal me as a fake at some point. Of course most of my professors tell me this is a normal feeling that doesn't go away.

ah, this is what my group of friends has termed 'fear of being exposed as a fraud'. seems like a universal thing that goes with higher education. and no, it doesn't go away--it lingers long after it should have dissipated.

give yourself some cred, sounds like you've been doing some great work.

 

[tiny dancer]

Best of luck to you!

 

[verte76]

Wow, UL, I think I'd enjoy reading your papers. I'm actually a bit weak in the medieval literature department because I'm so damn prosaic. But that stuff sounds fascinating!

 

[UnforgettableLemon]

Yeah, I just talked to my advisor. He really enjoyed the paper (said I should have won, not just his bias. I don't agree, but it makes me happy). Anway, he said that the work I was doing was good master's thesis stuff, if it were in an expanded form. So I'm going to revise it for the Plymouth conference focusing solely on King Hamlet's ghost and Robin Goodfellow.

 

[foray]

Maybe Hamlet was schizophrenic. Might explain his paranoia.

foray