Friday, October 27, 2006

Quite an emotional day. Saw the finished, bound copy of the PhD dissertation of a woman who works here. It was absolutely gorgeous, as these things are. I stood at her desk, talking to her and absent mindedly picked it up to feel it and turn the pages, as I think these things-- education, intellect, ambition, achievement-- are soooo sexy. Took her 6 years to produce the damn thing.

I was utterly dumbfounded to see she had dedicated it to me.


JBelle
Bellemaison
The 'Kan EWA

7 comments:

Unknown said...

oooh, that is so cool. are you gonna tell us what the title is? (i'm nosy).


one of my uncle wrote a book. He died four years ago or so, leaving one son who wasn't much interested in writing/reading. he's an engineer and spend his time in various oil rigs around the world.

The publishers came the other week and asked me to do an edit for reprint. They were told specifically in his will that no changes are allowed for reprint.

For the first time, i look at the small print of the book, he put my name as the editor of the book. I was about 8 and i used to correct his language. It's a weird feeling.
The publishers figure that if i do it it wouldn't invalidate the contract.

JBelle said...

Randolph, that*is*hot. If you'd edit my language and Tivish would push my French, maybe I could make something of myself.

:)

JBelle said...

I'll want to get the exact title. It's ...well, it's a dissertation. But it's about leadership. My brother took a year to produce his disseration from Cambridge. He did his PhD in Theology there when my children were quite small. At last it was complete and I was so excited that he agreed to let me read it. I was reading lot of theology at that time in my life and thought about the meaning and value of faith and life daily. Reading my own brother's take on things was devilishly exciting to me and knowing who he studied with and where he studied thrilled me deeply. He brought it home to my mother's house and we met him there one hot August night. I bathed and put the kids to bed with such anticipation at immersing myself in this work, largely drawn from Emanual Kant. At last, the "mom, mom, moms" quieted down and I climbed on top of my old bed and held the leather-bound volume close. It was gorgeous. I settled back on the pillows, opened it up, skipped the intro, forward and dediction and went straight to the first page.

The damn thing was written in German.

He still gives me a wide-eyed, thin smile over that, 25 years later.

Unknown said...

that is very interesting, theology in Cambridge? Sometimes i wished i'd done that.

you didn't say anything on my Dawkins post, what do you think? :p

and oh, language, no, can't possibly do that. Some of them trolls who came to visit me tells me that non-native speakers don't really understand english and therefore articulately challenged. maybe you should help me edit.

raymond pert said...

JBelle,

I just caught up to your comment about Rescue Me and Dennis Leary and Raymond Pert and the Beatles. Thank you for the encouraging words about my writing....and now I have a somewhat better idea why Eleanor Rigby's name is beside Raymond Pert in your Blog Roll!

Happy Sunday to you.

MarmiteToasty said...

Goodness me, wow to have something dedicated to you... see you will live forever :) 200 years time someone will open the book and read your name.....

x

Anonymous said...

da title of da tome is: Volunteer Board Members and Performing Musicians: Do They March to Different Drummers? Should also be mentioned that the Christ Child is named on the acknowledgments page, for "expertise and technical assistance at critical junctures." The entire Chow Nation gets the assist on this project!