(no subject)

[atolnon]

On the 8th, I sent an email to my committee chair with my draft, and my more complete notes that spoke to my work in the draft and my overall direction and focus. A week later, I emailed my chair asking to push the draft reception by the committee readers past the 28th, because I did have a reasonable amount drafted, but nothing like a complete draft, and nothing polished. I did get some notes back on the draft a week after I sent it, asking me to "explain what science fiction was" to my committee - one of whom writes extensively on video games, including Mass Effect. The chair herself is a reader of fiction along the lines of both Harry Potter and taught a class on steampunk - I thought she'd had a generally okay grasp on sci-fi basics (as in, what it is), but somehow that assumption wasn't correct.

Not sure how to deal with that.

I asked when she'd be in the office, because her office hours are not a good indicator of when she'll be around. Didn't get a response for five days, got one back on the one day I didn't check my email first thing telling me she'd be in that very day - well, I spent most of the day at the hospital with Kay, so it didn't matter. Good to know that stuff ahead of time, yeah? She was on vacation.

At this point, I drop her a line to let her know where I'm at on the deadline an to put in the appearance of expecting feedback. This has not been... fruitful. 

Comments

[laurenthemself]

I wonder if they wanted you to explain SF to them to show what your understanding/definition of it is?

That's the best I got.

[atolnon.livejournal.com]

Very likely not, though I appreciate that take on it. The notes were along the lines of, "You're assuming too much knowledge of the material from the committee; you need to build a foundation that will allow the committee to understand where you're coming from."

It's frustrating, but it's not altogether bad advice; I selected my committee based on who I thought would, first, challenge me the most and, second, based off their knowledge of the material. That said, I can't be entirely sure how much they're already specifically familiar with and, I suppose, in a general sense "cyberpunk" as a subgenre isn't as well understood as I had expected. By providing the foundation instead of assuming, even if my committee is decently knowledgeable, I can at least make sure we're all standing on the same footing.

The good news is that I recently finished a book of essays on the feminist critic/philosopher Donna Haraway, who's famous for writing "The Cyborg Manifesto" (which I actually *haven't* read) that has provided some helpful descriptions of the science-fiction genre from a feminist perspective, which is useful in my writing.