Wednesday, June 20, 2012

No, it's not alright


Despite my initial intentions of trying to write a witty yet insightful blog about the books I've read I have managed to write nothing. Well, that's not strictly true. I have written several, incomplete, entries which are now happily cluttering up my desktop, the only reason I haven't posted them is because they are utter crap.

Honestly, I have tried writing something interesting about the use of archetypes as relatable, yet stock characters, in popular fiction but frankly its just terrible. I seem to have lost my insightfulness in the wake of this grey stupor.

So I have decided to do what almost every unsuccessful blogger does and use this opportunity as a form to bemoan my life.

First off my lack of a job.

I'm sure everyone on the planet knows how utterly bollocks it is to go looking for a new job. Not only are you confronted with the frightening statistics of the lack of employment and underemployment being shouted at you from every available media outlet but you must constantly avoid your creditors for all the horrible amounts of money you owe them. Because like an idiot you thought that "getting an education" in a given field would somehow improve your chances of getting a job.

This is of course faulty thinking. Just because you got an education in a given area doesn't make you somehow unique and therefore more employable. There are literally a thousand of other people who have the exact same education with similar or more experience and are infinitely more likeable then you, so there is really no reason you should get that job over Sally Sue there who in her spare time nurses three legged blind cats and is much prettier then you anyway.

Of course everyone says it’s not about what you know it’s who you know that gets you that job so you must network!

Network? Network?! Is there anything more hateful then networking. I have never, ever, met some one who lists networking as a favourite pass time. No one. Most people I talk to about it grimace when ever networking is mentioned but they all put on that waxy rictus of a smile and chirp out "but you gotta do it". 

I don't think any of the potential participants enjoy the whole networking thing. Its basically going up to perfect strangers and pretending to be friends with them in the hopes that they might somehow help you get a job in the near and distant future.

Don't get me wrong I'm a moderately social person and genuinely enjoy meeting new people whether socially or professionally but somehow the specter of "networking" taints the whole interaction. I feel like I'm using them, or that they are using me, for some insidious selfish purpose. Which I suppose when you look at it objectively you basically are. 

Yet this is some how okay, why? In any other scenario using someone for your own end is always seen as bad or wrong yet not in this context. Is that the point? Is the perceived cultural and social morality of society only a thin veneer? Is this the real world, we just use each other up till we get what we want then bugger off?

I'm getting off topic. To much philosophical meanderings leads to nothing but trouble.

Anyway, my point is, looking for a job sucks.

Monday, June 4, 2012

The Poorly Matched Marriage in Cecchi's The Horned Owl


A literary historical essay originally written in 2010
Cecchi, Giovan Maria. The Horned Owl. Translated and edited with introduction by Konrad Eisenbichler. Waterloo, ON.: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1981.