Time flies

[a_belladonna]

Today it's exactly 6 years since I handed in my master's thesis on Norwegian black metal.

Comments

[sonofgodzilla]

Happy anniversary! :p

[a_belladonna]

Thank you! I still remember how I barely got any sleep the last night, went to hand it in (and get my piece of candy) and then later in the evening being invited to the local rock bar by a friend and her husband to celebrate, still running on 4 hours of sleep. And how they insisted on paying for all the drinks. :)

[sonofgodzilla]

hahaha, I bet that was an amazing night of celebration!

Now you have to turn this great work into a reference book so I can put it on shelf. :p

[a_belladonna]

It was! :D

Haha, yes, I'd love to. I still have the feeling I have a better feeling for the material compared to the English-speaking academics and journalists, yet have a bit more distance than the Norwegians (who quickly become a bit too proud about it all).

[sonofgodzilla]

Which is really good, because there is just an absolutely dearth of details covering this in English, so you'd absolutely be providing a vital resource for, ah, weirdos like me. :p

[a_belladonna]

One thing I quickly learned was that the majority of "metal scholars" only knew English (and their native language if they weren't Americans/Brits), meaning that they had no way to read all the material available in Norwegian.
It made for some really frustrating moments, because they'd sit there with their published material being more "official", writing awful, generalizing (and sometimes bordering on 'just plain wrong') things about Norwegian black metal...while I had access lots of interviews with the musicians in Norwegian where they gave more nuanced background information about their actions or quotes.
So a lot of the time I ended up arguing against the existing academic material on the subject matter.

[sonofgodzilla]

I find this so sad, but not surprising. I think there is the uncomfortable notion that if it's not in English, it's not an important source, and that irks me. I'm glad we have you and the work you do basically!

... having said all that, one day I would like to be able to read your work too. :p

[dr_zook]

Oh man, I'm looking forward to it as well!! a_belladonna should stop dangling her thesis in front of our hungry puppy eyes, and just publish it (in a language we both can read, ahem)!! :D

[sonofgodzilla]

Agreeeeed! Listen to your target demographic, a_belladonna! :p

[dr_zook]

I guess I've never been called target demographic before, and I must say it's lovely company. *blows you a kiss* :D

[sonofgodzilla]

Stop being so charming, you. :p

[dr_zook]

Ha, never. :*

[a_belladonna]

I had a course on the German Hanse at university, and I still remember reading a paper where the author flat out wrote "since the sources either don't exist or aren't available in English..." or something like that.
And I was like, you're kidding, right? How can you be studying a subject and only know one language? A subject where at least a knowledge of modern German would be an advantage, and a knowledge of Medieval Low German seemed a bit of a must.

Heh, I can see I need to work on some sort of translation. *blush* Truth is, the thesis didn't really work out the way I'd hoped, and while I'm proud of it, I'm also a bit, not ashamed, but "it could be better". (It's my perfectionism speaking, I suspect.)

Ah, well. I guess I "just" need to pull up my sleeves and write the thesis I actually wanted to write? (That's going to be a bit of an undertaking, though. It'll have to be posted in chapters, I guess.)

[sonofgodzilla]

I still remember reading a paper where the author flat out wrote "since the sources either don't exist or aren't available in English..." or something like that.

UGH. That's so obnoxious! But all the more reason to show them up! I'd certainly love to see this happen!