What do you all think that is saying?

I think this is saying: Joe needs more coffee.

You ever see a dog shake its head in that convulsive way that suggests it has a fly in its ear that it is desperately trying to dislodge? I just did that.

Which does NOT, I have to stress, mean your writing is incomprehensible or incoherent, vw. It means...I need more coffee.

ALSO, unrelated to vw's thesis: I was trying to think yesterday what was bugging me about Laga's sister's ex-asshat. What was I missing? What was I forgetting?

And it came to me in a flash, this morning.

Now, where is it? I used to carry it right here...ah!

*STABBITYSTABSTAB!* *SPLORCH! *squeeky!*

There. I feel much better.

I think this is saying: Joe needs more coffee.

You know, you have a point. It's awfully cruel of me to introduce such meaty and thinking-necessary words before 9am. What was I thinking?!

What was I thinking?!

Yeah, seriously. Just 'cause you're a mad Brainiac with sparkling insights first thing in the morning, doesn't mean the rest of the world is! Give us grunting Morlocks a chance to get our neurons up to speed fer God's sake!

Okay, have re-read vw's thing.

This is what I took away from it (keep in mind that I have not read any of the rest of the thesis and am gleaning concepts from the text presented):

"Shared authority", being intrinsic to the nature of oral history, automatically disqualifies oral history from being "literature" since there can be no single "author" to whom the story can be attributed. You think this is bullshit. You did not find the issue of "shared authority" affected the quality of the final work of literature as the process of collaboration between researcher and narrator allows for a "redundancy" or sorts, a kind of "quality control" wherein the researcher, if they're good enough, will allow the narrator to check their facts or whatever and correct any mistakes either in the initial relation of the story or in the transcription or translation.

In short: Neener neener neener.

...

Did I get it? I must add the caveat that I may be stupid.

Ok. See, you got it. Maybe it is ok...

Also, I love the neener, neener, neener. If only I could actually say that in my thesis!

ETA: Though, I think it's probably implied in the fact that I'm giving each person that told me this a copy of the thesis.

Though, I think it's probably implied in the fact that I'm giving each person that told me this a copy of the thesis.

Exactly! I think research is how the scholarly world does "neener neener".

On this rainy day with total gronkitude, I had to go all tl;dr on vw's thesis section, but I will go back when my brain is working. But YAY on thesis finishing!!! That is so awesome.

In other not completely sucky news, we heard back from the social worker and 2 relatively good pices of news were communicated:

1) Tom's dad FINALLY got it together to get joint access to Tom's mom's bank accounts so thet he can coordinate with social services there to get money out for food shopping, and potentially private home care- this is HUGE because it's been an enormous sticking point and stressor for the last couple of months. No one's letting her starve, but it's been really annoying and frustrating.

2) They are re-assessing Tom's mom, which means that the social services department that we originally had contact with will be back in charge again, with the woman who is MADE OF AWESOME in the lead. She knows us and knows the situation very well, and... yeah.

All things considered, things could be much worse. We are pretty much braced for whatever is going to be necessary, be it private in-home care or actually having to move her to a facility.

Oh, Nora, that is SUCH good news. I'm so glad to hear it.

Huh. Wouldn't that prevent works in translation from being considered literature? Maybe I don't get this "shared authority" business. But I think your refutation looks just fine!