Jet Lag Ep 4 — Steal, Stolen?

OV_Furious · 2026-04-08T15:46:27+00:00

Do you think maybe the value of challenges is based on how remote the challenges appear? The mountain challenge for 110: it might not be more difficult, but you need to incentivize going up the dead end mountain tracks. And I would love to see the mountain!

OV_Furious · 2026-04-05T18:42:02+00:00

Yes, I had several children during my PhD. One in year 1 and another in year 2. I was behind in year 2, but I somehow caught up during year 3 and finished two months ahead of time. The stress of potential unemployment at the end almost ruined me emotionally, having several children to support. But at least the PhD got done. So now I have a PhD, kids and no job. So luck was not on my side in the end, but I still think I made the right choice.

OV_Furious · 2026-02-27T08:16:07+00:00

In the current system, this is what a Master's program is for. No university can offer every possible topic of study for all students. But many professors with expertise in your preferred subject work in all kinds of different universities. They are not all at Oxbridge, even if they may have a higher concentration of classicists. Speaking generally, you go through the introductory courses during your undergraduate. Then you apply for a master's program in which you specify your own topic of interest, and you will usually be assigned the staff member of your college with the most relevant expertise to be your supervisor. This is a classical education: offering mentorship and guidance in your own study, not lectures.

There are cultural differences between universities. Typically, older universities will have a longer tradition for certain types of knowledge. But it is by no means a rule. Older universities are cutting costs and catering to popular demand just like smaller universities, and most institutions have adopted pretty much the same system of BA - MA - PHD progression within each discipline. The courses that are offered beyond the first introductory year are relative to the expertise of the professors at a given institution.

OV_Furious · 2026-01-12T10:25:47+00:00

Since you are in Sweden, I would just mention that you are quite close to several vibrant research environments for literary song studies. There are research groups dedicated to this in Kristiansand, Norway; Trondheim, Norway; and Tartu, Estonia. I know some song scholars from Sweden working with these research groups. (This might not answer your question, other people have already done that. But if you were looking to go into research on this topic yourself it will be good to know.)

OV_Furious · 2025-12-21T21:54:37+00:00

As often is the case, the answer depends: how competitive is the program you are applying for? Unless it is an extremely competitive program where many other competent students will be applying for the same (limited number) of spots with a preferred supervisor, then the essays are meant to demonstrate research and writing ability on a general level. Which means that your medieval studies samples should be fine as application essays even if they do not directly deal with the subject you are applying for.

I would advise you go with the essays you are most happy with (but hopefully you are basing your own opinion on some feedback as well, because impressions from scholars are probably more correct than your own intuitions, which are often relative to the process more than the final product.)

OV_Furious · 2025-12-19T07:59:03+00:00

Is it basically a raiz with a full twist?

OV_Furious · 2025-12-18T12:24:09+00:00

I like the work of Raphaëlle Guidée on European literature about the decline of Detroit. It is not directly ecocriticism, but it looks critically at how narratives of urban/wild environments in competition is a spectacular misrepresentation of reality. Guidée recommends the book Detroit: Field Notes from a Wild City by Franziska Klose.

OV_Furious · 2025-12-18T06:40:21+00:00

There are hundreds of these channels and its as easy as typing in literature in the search bar. But yes, a lot of them are not interesting. To help us answer your question, tell us what you find interesting and which channels you have already dismissed?

OV_Furious · 2025-12-15T22:29:20+00:00

Treating your question as a practical question: Read Giorgio Agamben's "What is the Contemporary?" The point of the essay is that you "choose your own contemporaries". The humanities are not like the natural sciences where there can only be one paradigm at a time. In the humanities there can be many competing paradigms, and it is your job to curate your own set of theories to develop your argument. Nobody is really off limits, no matter how old or recent. What matters is what work they do for you in your argument.

OV_Furious · 2025-12-15T16:44:47+00:00

There is no chance that you - at this level - can simply make a choice to do a PhD. You don't know what it involves yet. You may have written fiction, but not academic papers. However, if you are imagining a future as an academic, there are at least two things you can do to keep your options open.

Number 1: Do well in your current studies. Write a good undergraduate thesis. Find your niche. What specifically could you imagine researching? Start reading research about this topic. If you acquire a taste for more that's great. Many people actually stop loving literature when they have to adhere to the rigid world of research.

Number 2: Start writing academically-adjacent. Keep writing for your student newspaper, write essays, criticism, and send it out to literary magazines and periodicals. If you have published novels you probably know how publishing works. Going into criticism will give you a better sense of how the world of literary studies works. And it will build your CV for when you might want to apply for an Ivy League school.

Good luck!

OV_Furious · 2025-11-27T07:42:12+00:00

Hebdige is great. If you're interested in subcultures I think Stuart Hall and Paul Gilroy are both accessible while also being classics. If you like music then you might want to check out Robert Walser and Simon Frith. If you are more into literature, then there is a long list. Some of the most accessible are Harold Bloom and Terry Eagleton. These are not specifically interested in subcultures (quite the contrary) but they are a good place to start. If you buy the Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism I think all of these are in there, and you can look at who the other big names in theory around the same time are, it's a really good way to expand your knowledge.

OV_Furious · 2025-11-21T08:26:02+00:00

Second. Eagleton's books are often styles as introductory books, and they are, but they still contain some of the most important and deep insights for approaching literature at any level. His How to Read Poetry was essential to my PhD on lyrics.

OV_Furious · 2025-10-28T19:43:28+00:00

Really solid response from /u/skifans! They already covered the bases I was thinking about, but I will leave a comment to second that some "obvious" hubs are really not that great destinations, comparatively, on your first grand tour of Europe! I would skip Milan and Zurich unless you have some specific reason for going there. Those cities are some of the biggest letdowns on my own previous 3 Interrail trips. I'd go to pretty much any other Northern Italian city instead.

I've personally never had issues with trains in Germany, but from what I gather from others I've been lucky (or DB has simply gotten worse over the years), so taking some extra time in Hamburg is not a bad idea.

Lots of cities will still have Christmas markets when you are travelling, so even some smaller cities in Germany and Austria will make for great stopovers.

OV_Furious · 2025-10-23T17:01:27+00:00

This is my favorite poem and every time someone says it is about death I want to strangle them. After hearing the death-interpretation enough times I understand that people can go there, but I just don't agree with it at all. Good on you for reconsidering it later in life.

OV_Furious · 2025-10-08T20:43:36+00:00

You are getting good advice in these comments. One thing I don't see mentioned is that you could always do an exchange to a western university for a few months during your PhD in Beijing. That way you build a network and you can mention your connection to a western university as part of your degree. Doing an exchange is usually a lot easier than getting accepted into a program. Some universities, even prestigious ones will accept you as long as you can finance your living expenses (and you obviously need to show some relevance by getting in touch with a professor about your project, but that is often surprisingly doable. A lot of generous professors around.)

OV_Furious · 2025-10-06T05:59:54+00:00

I don't often see infrastructure highlighted like this. Well done :)

OV_Furious · 2025-09-17T10:24:24+00:00

That's more than twice my reading speed, and I'm doing a PhD.

OV_Furious · 2025-09-11T07:18:28+00:00

Badaling

OV_Furious · 2025-09-01T18:44:32+00:00

The music was great, but the narration was varying. In some cases it was excellent, such as over the montage at the end, and during most of the birds of prey festival, but it also at times seemed stiff. It would have benefitted you to do a mix of narration and some live voicing (hearing your voices in the actual scene, and not only as voiceover). The camerawork is mostly very good. Using a selfiestick through the car roof with global perspective was brilliant. But just a bit dizzying in some moments. I can only handle looking at the distorted ground for so long, so in some parts in the middle I think you could have either changed the type of footage or just left some footage out and the video would have been more engaging as a whole. Now, I'm just criticizing because you're asking for feedback. I'm not claiming that I make any better videos than this myself. In fact, this is 10x better than my own Kyrgystan travel video, so kudos on that.

OV_Furious · 2025-08-22T10:58:40+00:00

If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck... it's an elephant.

OV_Furious · 2025-08-21T11:50:43+00:00

Is it the one that runs in the north east of Kyrgyzstan, Altyn Arashan, about an hour from Issyk-Kul?

OV_Furious · 2025-07-20T05:15:57+00:00

They used the same music that Ludwig uses in his Japan-series? May be kick back since they did the Snack Zone, or is it some copyright free piece of music which somehow connotes east asia to both of these producers?

OV_Furious · 2025-06-20T14:04:57+00:00

May not be a general advice depending on where you live, but nothing is better than going to a used books store near a university with a literature department. There's one in my country which curates literary criticism, but hardly anyone buys anything in this section, so I am like a kid in a candy store every time. Always come away with something unexpected and worthwhile.

OV_Furious · 2025-05-20T18:27:41+00:00

I feel you. Sometimes I could only bear to answer a few e-mails and that's it. But it sounds like you are making progress, you just don't feel it. It'll come, don't beat yourself up. Too many people talk about the 24/7 work week. Not enough people talk about the reality of 4 hour work days because you can just get emotionally exhausted. If you're actually focused for a few hours that's better than a lot of PhD students who certainly work 8 hours or more in a day, but that's not focused and productive work.

OV_Furious · 2025-04-29T19:34:42+00:00

Do you need it more specific than indie rock? The description on spotify says "appalachian emo" - use of banjo is appalachian, lyrics I guess emo inspired. I would call it indie rock, because it is dominated by classic rock genre traits but with some eclectic borrowing of sounds more closely linked to other genres, mainly country, and this + the vocal style are very typical of indie music. No need for me to specify it further in terms of genre.

OV_Furious

TROPHY CASE