I wasn\u2019t expecting congratulations when I mentioned handing in my PhD writing yesterday, all I really did was hit submit. People replied as if I\u2019ve suddenly become Dr. Wiseman, but it doesn\u2019t feel that simple. I\u2019m still just a thingamaBob. Last summer I finished the novel, but that wasn\u2019t enough. A second piece required: the framing document. That dragged on some weeks, until finally, the other night, I sent it all in. And now? Who knows. They might not like a word of it. The framing doc is supposed to explain the novel, odd exercise. I\u2019d rather let the book explain itself. No wonder Glenn Gould scribbled imaginary reviews on his record jackets: psychiatrists dissecting his emotional tone, communists complaining that one piano had replaced an entire symphony. His way of mocking the world\u2019s hunger for commentary over creation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I feel same. I hate the premise of playing analyst to my own art, as though the artist must double as their own critic. A lifetime ago, Lorne the accountant gave me a piece of advice about Revenue Canada: \u201cRemember, Bobby, it\u2019s their game.\u201d I suppose academia same.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I wasn\u2019t expecting congratulations when I mentioned handing in my PhD writing yesterday, all I really did was hit submit. People replied as if I\u2019ve suddenly become Dr. Wiseman, but […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"Layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[119],"tags":[],"class_list":["entry","author-rockbob","post-9095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9095\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}