Love Letter to My Thesis Competition: Most Romantic
And… the WINNER of our Love Letter to My Thesis competition’s Most Romantic Letter category!
Congratulation Rachel Ashenden!
With winter weather not quite done with us (SNOW in the forecast next week, Glasgow!) have a quick read and consider snuggling up with your own thesis:
Dear Fish-Tailed Femininity: A Critical History of Siren Mythology in Surrealism,
No one understands you like I do, baby. When I tell people about you they think you're the sirens that go 'nee-naw-nee-naw', and not the Homeric kind who lured sailors to their death. They don't understand your lethal appeal like I do, baby. Your classic duality: woman as idealised-but-detestable. (I promise I'm not a misogynist, but you do emulate that unachievable etherealness). I'll do anything for you; I'll wear those earplugs made of wax you find so sexy, and let you tie me to the masts of your bed. I'll be your Odysseus.
People were wrong about us. They thought we were going nowhere - too off the beaten track to contribute anything worthwhile to the academy or to the public realm. But with that exhibition we've been planning, and that programme of lunchtime talks, we'll be disseminating our love all over Scotland. Funding body's eyes will be blinded by our PDA.
It's been a rough time, I know. It's not all been smooth sailing. Especially when I started developing feelings for Reading Exhibition Maps as Literary Texts: Curating/Constructing a Feminist Identity. As soon as I realised she wasn't the one for me I came swimming back to you though, didn't I? People said she was better for me - more "strong and stable". But if Theresa May's advice is anything to go by, I'm so glad I'm back in your arms.
I can only apologise about our rocky past. But for now, and whatever surprises the next three years brings us, I am so enamoured to be spending Valentine's Day with you. Just please don't try to kill me.
With all my love,
Rachel 'Odysseus' Ashenden x
Thanks again to everybody who came down to our Valentine's Love Letter session last Wednesday and a big round of applause to our competition entries! As always, feel free to send thoughts and responses in our comments or on Twitter.
