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Got 78% for my first essay. The one I felt terrible about. WHAT is going on 😂

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When you’ve read the same paragraph 4 times and are still not taking anything in it’s time to call it a day.

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Settled on an initial title for my second essay of “How does the use of mesmerism in Arthur Conan Doyle’s ‘The Parasite’ challenge Victorian views on manliness?”

Started it today but only got as far as 125 words before deciding to leave it because I’m too tired.

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Things at work are winding down before Christmas and I haven’t had much to do so far this week, so I’ve managed to get through 4 papers a day.

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Got a meeting with my tutor this afternoon to discuss my idea for the second essay. Let’s pray that it’s viable, because I’ve already done a lot of research and note-taking on this topic.

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Somehow gotten to the point where I’m feeling on top of things. Two more weeks of term left and then that’s the densest block of the whole two years done. I have well-formed ideas (and a lot of notes) for my next two assignments that are due in late Jan and early Feb, so I can chill about those.

Feeling good now 🙏🏼

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Submitted the first essay on Tuesday. Was definitely not my best work, am expecting perhaps a low-to-mid merit for it. I’ve got two ideas so far for the second, longer essay due towards the end of Jan, so will see how that goes…

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Feel overwhelmed by this first essay. I’ve got my essay plan but actually writing the thing proper is proving very difficult. I want to at least write the first sentence tonight, but the words are not coming.

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It’s Saturday and I’ve done 8 hrs studying today. Managed to put together a draft essay plan to get brief feedback on and got a load of reading + writing up done.

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Well scratch that last post. I’ve finally decided on an essay title (with the much-appreciated help of one of the lecturers): Why was the street reimagined by Victorians between c.1840-1900. But I think I will do something to do with Jekyll and Hyde for the next, longer essay. I like the idea of looking at agency in relation to Jekyll/Hyde…

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Still haven’t nailed down an essay topic, but am leaning towards an analysis of how London in ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ is a Gothic location.

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FINALLY finished Frankenstein. It’s a short story, but it’s taken me over a month to get through. Work, studying, and general life really makes it tough to get through books.

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Very productive studying weekend. Answered all seminar questions for next week and read + wrote up a load of papers. Trying to get a general feel for several potential essay topics and will hopefully have a question nailed down in the new few weeks.

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Do not become distracted by Russian Gothic literature, do not become distracted by Russian Gothic literature, do not become distracted by Russian Gothic literature…

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For our first essay, due towards the end of Nov, we can choose from a list of questions or come up with our own topic. I'm attracted to one of the questions suggested, which is on analysing the language of contamination and contagion in Gothic writing, but at the same time I'm tempted to try and come up with my own question that would play more to my strengths.

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Hoo boy the workload for this masters seems a lot bigger than my Philosophy MA, but I think that's because this MA has two live online 90 min seminars (not lectures, seminars that require 3 hrs of prep each) per week. The mode of teaching is very different compared to the OU, where we only had one live online lecture per module and the rest of the time we were entirely left to it. I much prefer that - two compulsory long seminars a week is too much for what's meant to be a flexible degree. I just want to be given the materials and left alone!

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CHRIST I just found out that Imperial’s running an online course in the history of magic and the occult beginning in October AND they cover the specific topic of the Victorian occult revival, which is directly relevant to my thesis idea.