Did you miss me?

It was a busy few months at the binarylife HQ, not least because I was away for a month in my hometown. Admittedly I spent that month mainly on my friend’s couch playing playstation and consuming copious amounts of beer or getting into rather hazy states at various dubious locals of Warsaw. But not exclusively. I was meanwhile devoting some of my time to reading on subjects such as representation, proliferation of imaginery, film analysis (youkh) and global underdevelopment. I will publish some excerpts from the resulting essays here, ones that are digestible for sociology-lay person, in a vain hope that they will endear the most beautiful of sciences to you (I can say that no that I’ve finished my degree). Obviously, I left myself about 3 days to write that final 15 000 word, the ones that will hopefully see me finally gain some formal higher education and unfortunately released out of the bubble and back in to the “normal life” of capitalistic society. Three hardcore days they were but I could clearly see that I did learn something during almost 5 years of academic life (if you count in my brief romance with higher education in Warsaw): how to write an essay quickly and make it seem like it’s not a total pile of crap. And this knowledge I feel obliged to share with you in case you ever institutionalize yourself in an university.

1. Every effort put in being allowed to write about subject that interests you is worth it. It takes some strong will and a presence of mind to pile through thousands of words of academic essays when you know you could be writing film scripts depicting past few years of hedonistic life, drugs and alcohol abuse and sexual indecency. So it better be interesting.

2. No methodology allows following gut feeling when it comes to choosing which sources to use and trust. However with years your gut feelings will learn to be more and more accurate. So you can trust them – just make sure to make up some highly theoretical excuse for using the books you read because they were most interesting.

3. It’s better to be too critical/suspicious of what you’ve read than too trusting. Trust me.

4. Don’t hesitate to write down sarcy comments while you’re taking notes. “Culture is the essence of life” and some such. Plus they will make your day when you find them later.

5. Don’t be afraid to go off on a rant. Just put yourself a word limit – usually only first two sentences out of a rant make any sense whatsoever.

6. Put in illustrations. Everybody likes books with pictures.

7. Do not check the word count every 2 sentences. You’re only making it worse on yourself.

8. when really short of things to write go into more detailed description of some example or case you mentioned. Make a case of it later (this seems like a tricky bit but actually when approached from right angle everything is of use; make sure to mention that the case can only be generalized to an extend – unless it’s representative of everything).

9. Drink a glass of water for every cup of coffee you consume. And two glasses per each redbull (ps. relentless works just as well and is cheaper). Water is your friend. And when you finish you won’t be too exhausted to get drunk. Celebrating is an important part of symbolic life of your psyche. If you don’t celebrate, you won’t know you’ve finished.

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