Thesis-erick

Sometimes, one of the worst experiences of doing a research PhD - other than the sheer torture that can sometimes come with the writing process - is being constantly asked what your project is about. Most around are quite unaware of how much internal damage that seemingly innocent question "so, what's it about?" is likely to ellicit when you feel that you don't really know what it's about either.* But, one does develop a standard response to be repeated verbatim until the topic changes again. At the moment, my stock sound byte is: "it's an analysis of virtual and actual types of cinematic touring, based around the discursive growth of film-induced tourism." This is usually enough for both non-academic and scholarly friends alike - after this, they are content to leave me to my sorry fate, I think. But for those who do enquire further, I've just developed a more interesting mode of expression, via the underused poetic form of the limerick:

We watch film with a touring gaze
It was different once from these days
Now - we want real
Then - film itself was the deal
I will show you in so many ways.

I love the crudity that comes of this ultra-condensation. I'm thinking about putting my thesis-erick onto small pieces of card and handing them out to people when they ask me in the future. Although I might have to write a second verse explicating further upon the "in so many ways" bit.

* I am speaking generally for PhD research students even though perhaps not all feel the same way that I do - it's just that when I try to say that I'm the only one who feels this way about things, I am then accused of being paranoid.