Not there

I feel like I’m making stuff up, and that this is a load of rubbish that has very little bearing on intended (or realised) meaning. But it doesn’t do well to tell someone that their discipline (linguistic analysis, it seems) masqurading as English is completely unhelpful and generally full of crap. This feels so much like “close textual referencing” in the Advanced HSC course. Extension was sensible and was far more concerned with the context and comprehension of a text… this, I suppose, pretends to touch on comprehension but in practice seems to be far more about composition without any regard for context. Yet, somehow, we’re not meant to argue against the grain. This sorcery is enough to make me want to abandon the subject altogether — the subject of this analysis is a dead horse, and I am neither a jockey nor a necromancer. Still to conjure: several hundred words. Why? About what? There is nothing useful here! Empty parallels and distinctions have no bearing on meaning or characterisation! If it only asked for a contrast between the two, that would be fine. The idea that grammatical analysis makes a (meaningful) contribution to this particular excerpt is, at best, farcical. And I am venting here so hopefully I do so less in the essay proper. I so don’t get this subject.

Later: Well, the fiction is over. I don’t want to think about the exam, though at least that is limited in the scope of rubbish expected. I’m having one of those I-really-want-to-take-a-semester-off/drop uni nights.