Quick Beginning

Hi all -- can't talk about this properly till I'm done with the marking of the finals, but there are a couple of things I wanted to get down. First, ouch! That's the other reason I can't blog properly -- the chapter brought up a lot of stuff I really need to sort through, especially the paralysis and shame. But I'm also having a little problem with the assumption that everyone who's reading the book has a job -- for all he talks about the "us/them" thing, it's as if (at least from where I am) there's an implicit "usness" of the employed academic upon which much of the other stuff is based. But then, i'm touchy on that these days.

I was also just appalled by his connection of unhealthy (if Carlylean) workaholism with "belief systems" like ... Nazism!?! (p. 8) There was so much in that bit that just felt wrong to me. Otherwise, though, I think there's some good stuff in the chapter. I also now feel that I have to go out and buy (and read) Middlemarch. I've never read Eliot.