The predominant intellectual trend of the past 200 years (or longer, actually) has been to relativize and historicize. Although it's possible to read this in a contradictory sense (historicizing is an anti-relativising move), these are also two sides of the same coin. In each case, the mask of universality is removed and that which seemed transcendental is shown as local and contingent; Marx, Freud, Einstein.

Yesterday, the 10th September 2012, I passed my Ph.D. Viva, straight-out, no corrections. It was an amazing experience. I'd been incredibly nervous for the preceding two weeks; lack of sleep, tension headaches and the rest. As the day approached this only got worse.

in my Ph.D. viva. By the time you read this, I will be... was originally published by Martin Paul Eve at Martin Paul Eve on September 10, 2012.

As is now common knowledge, the Finch report has recommended the Gold Open Access route and the government policy implementation has followed the advice that all publications from RCUK must be published in Open Access destinations (or in Institutional Repositories after a short embargo period). This includes the AHRC . It's important to ask, then: where are the OA venues for the humanities disciplines?

I'm very pleased to report that I'll be speaking to the Contemporary Fiction Research Seminar on Saturday the 13th October from 2-4pm. I hope to see as many of you as possible there! Conference Panel: Pynchon Now (Contemporary Fiction Research Seminar) was originally published by Martin Paul Eve at Martin Paul Eve on September 06, 2012.

I've been a long-term user of Astrid and Producteev to manage my tasks list. When I went to reinstall Astrid today, I noticed that there was no longer a Producteev sync option. After much digging about on the forums, I found that it's been hidden. You can re-enable by going to Settings -> Misc -> Enable Third Party Add-Ons.

I run Google Apps for Domains to handle my email. Recently, a friend was having trouble emailing me. I asked her to send me the source of the message. In there, I found this: My A records point to my server. My MX records point to Google Apps.

Yesterday, the Plashing Vole posted a request for tips on keeping up with research. While I don't want to improperly place myself in the "super researchers" category, I thought I'd do a quick list of ways in which I keep abreast of new research. I don't. I've given up on reading in one particular area in a generalized sense.

With less than a week until my Ph.D. viva, I've been taking everyone's advice to heart and not going completely nuts on the revision. After all, I do know this stuff pretty damn well. Anyway, just so I remember what I did this week, I wanted to make a public note of it (probably of more use if, after the event itself, I can say it worked...) My thesis is broken down into three distinct themes, or sections.

One of the references in Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow that eludes me (in its specificity, not in its generality) is the following quotation: A couple of critical pieces have dealt with this. Deborah Madsen, in the recent Cambridge Companion writes that Pynchon addresses Karl Marx to make the denial that colonies are just cheap labour.

In a recent piece for the LRB, Mattathias Schwartz gives an inside look at the truly scary world of carding, the practice of stealing credit card information, through a review of Mischa Glenny's new book DataMarket: How Hackers Became the New Mafia . The point that I want to quibble about (although perhaps it's not a quibble; language is important) is the use of the term "hacker" throughout.