yoga and remembered rapture

Writer’s block would be putting it mildly. . .I am avoiding the dissertation, completely and totally. Even though I am sitting here in the library with my fellow dissertators, who I know are being productive. Meanwhile, I’m perusing google reader, checking email and facebook, and thinking about insignificant wedding details. How did I make it this far???

I did go to yoga this morning, which was yay. I feel productive on that front at least, although the class also reminded me of how out of shape I’ve become over the last year or so (and the tightness of my jeans only adds insult now).

I started reading Remembered Raptureby bell hooks yesterday; I read an essay out of the collection for my exam, and I’ve been holding onto the book for the past year, so I figured I should read it since I can’t renew it anymore (it’s due back to the library at the end of the month). I wasn’t sure why I held onto the book really, other than being drawn (of course) to the titles of the essays in the collection, but I’m glad I did. hooks spends a lot of time discussing writing about writing in the essays and she also uses place references to discuss writing as a verb and noun. I think hooks’ ultimate goal is to reiterate the idea that writing is action, and that writing can help a person find their voice (as cheesy romantic as that might seem, I still think there’s truth to the idea of finding one’s voice).

 hooks does rely on romantic ideals of writing in some ways, which I find ironic given her espousal of subversive transgressions through writing, teaching, and being. She repeatedly refers to the writing process as lonely and isolating, which hearkens back to the idea of the romantic writer alone in histurret, writing by candlelight. That being said, hooks also acknowledges the fact that she finds herself writing with her audience in mind, which reminds me of the internal dialogic view of invention that LeFevre discuss in Invention as a Social Act.  Perhaps I should include an analysis of hooks in my discussion of essayists writing about writing as a topos? For some reason, I feel like hooks captures exactly what I mean when I talk about the strategy of writers writing about their process and the benefits that can give them in terms of their own awareness of their invention process(es). Or something. I just don’t feel like diving into this right now. Maybe it’s the snow outside the window distracting me.