it’s a gorgeous summer day with 35 C (95 F) outside and i lock myself into a darkened room to write. is it madness or pure insanity? or both? i do not know. i wish it weren’t so, but unfortunately the finish line of my thesis will be crossed in August. i have no choice but to continue and end this project on time as planed.
this is just a short entry to let you know that i am still working hard on my thesis. the chapter on Equilibrium turned out to be longer and more elaborate than i anticipated. however, i still try to stick to my inital outline and tomorrow i am starting with the chapter on Minority Report.
after watching Equilibrium a few times this week i cannot help myself: there are several scenes that are undoubtely inspired by Matrix. not that this is necessarily bad, but i find that, well, surprising i guess. the most obvious example is a duplicate of the famous “hall fighting” scene from Matrix (yes, the first part). see for yourself:
i guess i will be very busy the next few weeks. i thought that i would not have to write a paper/thesis/whatever in july, but well, that is not going to be the case. july is the “sacred” month for cycling fans because it is the month when the Tour de France (TdF) takes place. however, i am quite sure that i will manage to view the essential parts of the TdF and still write my thesis — all it takes is a little planning and juggling with time. an acquaintance of mine tapes the interesting stages of the Tour when he has to work/write in july… i think you have to watch this event live and not on tape. can’t hardly wait for le tour to start…
i’ve been kind of neglecting my blog in the past few days. well, the reasons are quite obvious: in order to stick to my schedule to get the thesis done by the end of july, i have to spend no more than a week per film. so i worked pretty hard to finish my analysis of Solaris today. that means that i can start with Equilibrium tomorrow. at least the weather is pretty bad for this time of the year; it is raining cats and dogs. my urge to ride my bike is somehow suppressed right now.
oh yeah, i am having so much fun with zizek, again. to be blunt, his writings are like mexican food: toss in psychoanalysis, add a little popular culture and ready is your almost perfect zizek article or book. one this is for sure: i will never ever read a book by zizek again after my thesis is done. never. it’s not that i do not find his ideas interesting, but i guess there comes a time when you’ve had enough of it. and trust me, i am very close to that moment…
after the analysis of Mission to Mars and Red Planet done, i am heading straight to Solaris. that will conclude my chapter on lacan on outer space. next up are Equilibrium and Minority Report. so, still plenty of work ahead of me, but at least i know where the road is going to take me. it is going to end with the Matrix trilogy, which actually will be sort of fun to write about.
i realized that life is basically about filling the void within. the desire to get rid of the constant lack you are experiencing. be it a blank page or simply an empty feeling that leads you into spending piles of money for stuff that you really do not need. the void is the basis of our desire and no “object” will ever be enough to fill this void. maybe that is one of the reasons i keep filling blank pages with ramblings about sci fi and lacanian psychoanalysis.
i have to make this short, because for what reason whatsoever my ISP just capped my connection and i cannot reconnect. i suspect that is has something to do with the heavy thunderstorms that are raging around this moment. right now i am online using my fallback university dial-up account (i.e. no flatrate) to upload today’s progress of my thesis to a server overseas and post this quick message. so that is the downside of summer: thunderstorms that cause both power and communication outages for hours (or worse, even days!). well, i am going to continue watching the second season of Frasier on DVD as long as the power lasts and hope that by noon tomorrow my ISP has fixed the problem.
well, what is there to say? my life is rather dull right now, each day is basically the same. get up, breakfast, turn on the computer, check mail, start writing… churning out page after page, racing toward an end. yeah, 200 is the magical number and i think there are about 60 pages or so missing… btw. summer is finally here, the weather is really gorgeous right now… hot, sunny, just right for a ride… oh well… there is still august left for riding.