Emily's the knitter, Clare's the spinner, and we both like cocktails!

Thursday 28 September 2006

Essay

Just a quicky from work - Alice asked what essay? And of course I haven't really mentioned it.

I'm doing this MA in Medical Humanities at Swansea University, and have my 5th and final essay to get in by October 13th. "examine the significance of mortality for human life". Quite a subject! And my friend's (can I have a 'best' friend now I'm practically 40?) father died fairly suddenly earlier this year - he was my dad's childhood friend. So the essay is well-timed, in that I am thinking about this stuff anyway, and I seem to know lots fo people whose fathers have died in the last year or 2 (though this is by far the closest).

I suppose this age (did I mention???? 40 in March) is when our parents do start to die. I know I am rehearsing mentally, not that that will help when it happens (I so want to say 'if' but am not that out of touch with reality).

So I am watching 6FU (ie Six Feet Under), Harold and Maude, reading bits of Hamlet and Socrates and so on, and coming up with lots fo ideas. So far, as usual, I have about 1700 words (no, actually, way ahead of usual no at this point because I don't want to do any during my holiday) on a variety of areas, like how we think about mortality at different ages, the way the death of a parent slaps you in the face, illnessa and bringing ideas of our own mortality, plastic surgery and reluctance to age...

Shall I stop now, Alice? Too much information?

Wait till I start my dissertation...

3 comments:

Alice said...

wow medical humanities! I love it when I find things in common with people who's lives I only get insight into through knitting!

(my PhD is in science literature, I did quite a bit of sociology and history of medicine in my undergrad too)

Emily said...

Ah, so you're a potential resource (don't worry, I won;t really harrass you). I've been reading Philip Roth aged 30 odd and 73 (Portnoy's Complaint and Everyman) and noticing the differencees between what mortality means for a young and an old man.

And I've started thinking about doing my dissertation on gender in health, or gendered health - thinking about intersex people and (even more so) transgender, and what the losses and gains are, medicalisation of difference etc etc etc ...

You'll hear more!

Anonymous said...

Well, thanks for enlightening me. I don't like it when my curiosity is not "quenched".

I suppose there's just so much you could write about in relation to your subject and it's a case of choosing your angle.