Maybe I’m just crazy, but I’m having withdrawals right now from reading. Finals have basically started here at UC Santa Cruz, which means I have a total of four essays to write. I mentioned earlier that I wasn’t going to be reading during this period because I just had so much work to do. Well, now that I’m officially not reading for my own enjoyment I’ve found myself craving it. Literally. I’m writing one of my shorter essays because it is due tomorrow and right in the middle I stopped and wanted to reach for my book. Then it occurred to me that I intentionally didn’t bring any reading with me because I needed to stay somewhat focused–this post being a diversion of course. The sooner these blasted finals are over the better.
I think the good news, at least, is that three of my essays are going to be exceedingly simple. My Modern German Fiction class requires a final 6-8 page essay on a topic of my choice, approved by the professor of course. I think my topic will be easy to do in that space and I won’t have to worry too much about revision since I know what I’m going to talk about.
One of my other essays is a rewrite of a previous essay, which is required even though I really don’t see a point. That shouldn’t be too hard. I have an A- and a B on my two essays thus far in that class, and doing a revision of the B essay shouldn’t be too hard. To be honest I’m not too concerned with my grade so long as it is a B or above. I know a lot of people work really hard to get As, but I see little point in putting that sort of pressure on myself. I like not having to work too hard to get my Bs and As, which for the most part is the case anyway as I’m fairly sufficient at writing essays and being productive.
The third essay is for the same class as above. We’re reading The Manifestoes of Surrealism by Andre Breton and the essay has to be an argument paper that addresses one of the points that Breton makes during his manifestoes. It’s somewhat difficult, but I think I can manage.
The last essay will be the hardest. It’s for my opera class and it has to be 5-7 pages addressing some aspect of the opera Moses und Aron by Shoenberg. The problem? I cannot stand this opera. I like what is being said, but the music is so utterly horrible to me that I actually had a headache at the end. It’s not even opera. So it’s going to be difficult to address this opera I think, but I imagine I will have plenty to say on some points. We’ll see how that goes.
But in the end, I’m having withdrawals. Does anyone else have this problem sometimes?
