Almost done with the introduction...

13 June 2024: "(I once asked a young dissertation writer whether her suddenly grayed hair was due to ill-health or personal tragedy; she answered It was the footnotes)" (Russ 137). 

I am low-keyed obsessed with this paranthetical from Russ's classic How to Suppress Women's Writing. First, it's just so funny and rings with such authenticity. Second, it's a bit of a time-capsule: 1) footnotes in the 1980s must have been a nightmare and 2) you kind of can't imagine someone asking a woman this question in this way today. Third, my own current version of this drama might be, "It was the introduction."

But today--the very day I re(read) those words--I think I've made it through a decent draft of the darn thing. Going to print it out and give it a read-through before calling it quits on this part of the project for the day, but this feels pretty okay (???). 

Unrelated photo of someone who is not at all getting gray hair through any kind of worrying today.

Work Cited

Russ, Joanna. How to Suppress Women’s Writing. U of Texas P, 1983.