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gryphen
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Name: gryphen
Country: United States
State: New York
Metro: New York City
Birthday: 3/12/1978
Gender: Male
Interests: reading novels, social theory and philosophy. (borges, eco, palahniuk, pamuk, joyce, nabokov, baudrillard, foucault, zizek, Nietzsche, wallerstein), theater (brecht, shaw, becket and a feckin irish piece every now and then) documentary, independent and foreign films(pedro almodovar, zhang yimou, elia suleiman, hayao miyazaki) , good bread and cheese, wine, turkish coffee, the new york times, the guardian, le monde diplomatique, BBC, political cartoons, music (gregorian chant,, nusrat fateh ali khan, hildegard of bingen, french rap, bjork, pet shop boys) traveling, languages (arabic, hebrew, turkish, spanish, french, dutch, mandarin chinese and russian), going on aimless walks around the city, art (flemish renaissance, walton ford, jenny holzer, remidios varo and surrealism in general, diego rivera and other mexican muralists) leftist propaganda, graffiti, situationalism….
Expertise: social theory, philosophy -- particularly poltical, coffee, people watching.
Occupation: perpetual student and coffee p
Industry:
Message: message me
AIM:  smashingdogma
Member Since:
12/18/2002
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| http://www.librarything.com/catalog/gryphen User gryphen : author cloud (tags sized by frequency) | | |
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The seders went smoothly, but I'm glad their behind us. My goyishe system can only handle so much gefilte fish, chrayn and bulbes kugel.
The search for graduate programs continues.
Today I'm finish some reading notes, going to the midtown library, an catching Drawing Restraint 9, Matthew Barney and Bjork's epic at the IFC Center.
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| I dropped out of law school.
Last week.
Hated it.
Every minute of it. For so many reasons. It would have been easier had I done poorly, but I didn't. I just don't want to be a lawyer, and there didn't seem much point in staying.
I had this illusion that law school would be a forum of heady discussions, acute debates, an academic challenges --- mental gymnastics. Instead it was a factory, where day in and day out are told how to interpret cases that may or may not be relevant, and often have reasoning so antiquated, flawed or immoral you have to force yourself to care to read further. You are told exactly how to write, which sources are acceptable which are not, you are pitted against your classmates, run through hoops, marathon exams and tedium ad nauseam for which you have the pleasure of paying $35,000 dollars a year. If you are lucky, and by lucky I mean willing to give up three years of your life and by the grace of a higher power -- rank in the top 10 or 15 percent of your class you will have the opportunity to work 80 hours a week for a law firm that represents corporations who rape and pillage the planet for which your will be compensated 125,000 dollars a year and a bonus if you are especially soulless. The other alternative is working for a non-profit agency who will pay you $30,000 dollars a year to "save the world" one thankless micro-step at a time. Mind you with you have to budget your $30,000 salary in a way that you can pay the minimum monthly payment on loans that are most likely top $100,000.
Ok. There was a bit of hyperbole above -- but that's how it felt the whole time –an indication that it wasn't for me.
So I cut my losses. And for all of the people out there who knew I would be miserable, who couldn't understand why I wasn’t pursuing a PhD, who giggled a little bit when I told them I wanted to be a lawyer, that I believed that the study of law would make a real difference in people's lives, and I'd be able to buy a brown-stone and a Saab.....
Yes. You did tell me so.
So....
What now?
Well. I've gotten a job at an independent cafe/bookstore in Manhattan near the library and Bryant Park which I love and will be applying to PhD programs in Sociology for the Fall of 2007. In the meantime I will relax, work, read, write two academic pieces to submit to departments, attend conferences, research programs, travel, take the GRE's etc....
I'm going to cast a wide net when applying, including schools in Europe, Canada and the West Coast.
It's thrilling,
I'm thrilled.
And happy.
Genuinely, deliriously happy.
Cheers!
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