A quick progress update.

The essay, including experimental ending, is nearly at a complete first draft stage. The writing has been a really enjoyable process, very liberating to ‘open up’ again, whatever that means. The only sticking point has been the problem of length. It was close to 8000 words at one point – without any discussion of Angelika, Ryvold and Kyrre. This posed the problem of how to condense the length without compromising either the experimentation or the depth. The current solution is to focus exclusively upon Liv and Martin. While this creates a manageable scope (sort of), it runs the risk of turning the essay into something dialectical; type and antitype. The challenge in subsequent drafts is going to be making sure that doesn’t occur, that the essay retains its nuance, ambiguity and complexity without being overly long. I console myself with the thought that when the time comes to put the together the monograph on John’s work there will be plenty of room to incorporate discussions of Angelika, Ryvold, Kyrre and Maia within the experimental structure.

On an unrelated note, I’m also in the final stages of putting together an outline of my monograph (PhD thesis) on Don DeLillo entitled ‘[T]he Language of self’: Strategies of Subjectivity in the Novels of Don DeLillo – thanks to Jake for some helpful feedback. Though I wont claim I’m enjoying writing the outline, reading through the PhD again for the first time since the viva I was glad to find I still loved the work. Was a nice feeling after hearing horror stories of disenchantment and revulsion. It should be finished by next week so I’ll post it in its entirety (it’s currently sitting at about four pages).