LETTER FROM A READER: HAPPINESS (D89)

Dear TYCDIGS,

I am a miserable grad. Show me the way to something slightly resembling happiness.


Thanks,


Glum in college suburbia


Dear GiCS,

I think the best way to arrive at real happiness is to become a fanatic for some sort of pointless sport. But if you study any of the social sciences I'm familiar with, your graduate education has no doubt taught you that allegiance to any sort of sports team just some pointless derivative of nationalism. So you could try a hobby that fits into your budget, like bottle collecting, especially if you live in a state with cash deposits.

Love,

TYCDIGS

I CAN WELL UNDERSTAND WHY CHILDREN LOVE SAND (D88)

One thing that is great about not having a GRAD LIFE but being somewhat familiar with it is you can pursue any pseudo-intellectual thread you desire and feel good about yourself for it in the way only grad students can but without other grad students around to criticize you for any misinterpretation along the way, such as figuring out with the help of Wikipedia that Wittgenstein's Mistress is not surprisingly strongly influenced by Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, and then having PDFs of both open on your computer as you go back and forth between them, feeling really damn good about yourself, because you completely disagree with Wittgenstein's approach to language but nevertheless really enjoy both texts.

And then you can say to yourself, and no one else except your poor blog readers, oh dear, doesn't the overemphasis for Wittgenstein on the relationship between language and reality and simples and complexes seem oh so similar to my man John Wilkens, who (centuries before Wittgenstein) tried to create a perfect philosophical language from the little kernEls of truth and materiality that words represent but got not much further in real terms than translating the Lord's prayer and making funny charts like this:

And then, rather than saying anything rigorous or new or even very interesting, you make a blog post and feel productive for the day!


Hey everyone, listen to Turks in space!

[UPDATE 15:33: LOVE WITTGENSTEIN BUT HATE ON PHILOSOPHERS]

TYCDIGS CATCH-UP EDITION (D79-87 BACKDATED)

Oh dear, more than a week without a single post! I was occupied by an emergency trip to the south to consume emergency rations of delicious seafood, listening to great music by yet another beach although I was too lazy to get there in time to actually swim, etc etc.

UNIQUE (D78 INSTALLMENT TWO)

All happy office workers are alike; each unhappy office worker is unhappy in his or her own way.

TALK TO THE HAND (D78)

While poking around on the new Endangered Languages project, I was surprised to come across what is known as "Mardin Sign Language," a form of communication developed among an extended family with a number of deaf members living in Mardin. Following the well-known pattern  of language shift and of most local or family sign languages (which linguists call village sign languages if they develop along with hearing signers), most younger signers are now only passive in Mardin Sign Language, communicating actively by speaking or using the dominant/national Turkish sign language.

A quick read into village sign languages reveals some fascinating stuff, such as a village in Brazil that uses an indigenous sign language to communicate with only one deaf child, and a number of villages in which the majority of residents sign despite a relatively small number of deaf residents. Linguistics make a distinction between these kind of sign languages, which are spoken by deaf and hearing people who share a great deal of cultural context, and "deaf community sign languages," which form in situations such as schools for deaf students in which the attendees have no common language.  A famous example of the latter is Nicaraguan Sign Language, developed by deaf children who were being taught spoken Spanish and lipreading at newly formed schools, of NPR fame.

Given the linguistic mix in Mardin, which draws from Turkish, Arabic and Kurdish, I would love to read more about all the gestures and utterances that this family's interactions are built upon.

EXTRA EXTRA: There seems to be very little written about this (134 hits on google and no Turkish wikipedia page, but look here and here), but apparently there existed a complex sign language of the Ottoman court spoken by the hearing and those called "mutes" alike. While I feel it is fairly well known that the Sultan employed a range of gestures for court communication, I had no idea that there was also such a complex language (related? distinct?) that could be used to recite stories and religious texts and communicate complex ideas. Its deaf users would have been valued as providing an extra layer of security and secrecy, as it would have been difficult for them to communicate with others and they would have been unable to overhear the sensitive information providing fodder for harem and palace drama. Apparently Osman II was the first fluent user and required a number of his court to learn it as well.  Unfortunately, no documentation exists of this language and linguistics are unsure if this language is related to any contemporaneous or currently existing sign languages.

WHY DID WE GO OUT (D77)

I started this tiny, cobwebbed corner of the internet to talk about all the TYCDIGS (Things You Can't Do In Grad School), and to countdown to the days when I will again join the ranks of those who do little else other than read dense social theory, sleep in libraries, annoy the shit out of everyone else not in their little grad club, and engage in elaborate self-hate rituals. To cleanse my soul before departing on said journey, I found it fitting to do as many of the things I CDIGS as possible. In theory a bit like a gap-year rumspringa, interpreted at times by such jejune enjoyments as ALL VODKA WATERMELON ALL THE TIME, which was really only one time but you get the idea.

Enter this article, with the apt and timely (in this NON GRAD life) title "Why Go Out," part of the adorable Toronto lecture series "Trampoline Hall." (Trampoline Hall is the cutest idea ever - gather people in a bar and get a few of them to deliver prepared lectures on topics completely outside of their areas of expertise.) In the end, this little charmer of a speech acknowledges that you do indeed need to "go out." But the first few paragraphs are a great read for anyone who is more than a little tired of it. I love this part:

At home, you can wear your pyjamas. No one is going to snub you or disappoint you. At Trampoline Hall, you could be snubbed or disappointed. The whisky is not cheap. It is less depressing to think the same thoughts you thought yesterday than to have the same conversation you had last week. Few of us will get laid. Why did we go out? My father never goes out. His emotional life is absolutely even keel. He is a deeply rational person. He doesn’t see the advantages.

The same conversation you had last week! If I had a kuruş...

Is my rumspringa peaking early?! But I have the whole summer to get through! Why have I started reading Lefebvre? It is not yet my time! Bring on the VODKA WATERMELON and let me live out my summer in peace! Oh, but Henri understands me.

THINGS OFFICE WORKERS DO (D76)

A grad friend of TYCDIGS sent in a link to this comic about a maladjusted office worker just trying to get by:

Here at this office, we've got some winning coping mechanisms as well

- Blog about meaningless drivel
- See how many cups you can accumulate on your desk (they are sporadically collected, making it a somewhat difficult task. This one is officemate's game)
- Browse internet delivery sites for food until you're not hungry anymore
- Make strange lists and hide them under the computer monitor, look at them again later and laugh hysterically
- Read trashy novels
- Wreak havoc on your internal body temperature by drinking multiple cups of hot coffee while also turning the AC as cool as it will possibly go (also a challenge, because it works rather unpredictably)

Oh the TOWD!

[UPDATE: 17:40: Officemate reminds me that we also
Paint nails, study spanish, study for the GMAT, inofficeworkout, read novels, plan vacays]