In the land of geeky things, getting a portrait of yourself as your favorite badass bounty hunter (if you haven’t been watching the series Killjoys, seriously what rock are you hiding under???) counts towards moments of pleasure. Thank you so much to the talented illustrating duo at Billy and Bedevilled for taking my mind off the craziness that is life at the moment. South African politics proved a whole new level of corruption yesterday and I shudder to think what that may mean for us in the future. I tend to stay away from talking about politics on my blog as it only fuels my aggressive tendency against injustice. I admit though… I do often see myself dressing up as Dutch and getting my weapons ready to fight battles for those sitting on the fringes of inequity.
I’ve been thinking… life is painful…and it’s hard…and most of the time it’s pretty darn lonely. But I’m a fighter. It comes from the children’s books I’ve read growing up. Tales of overcoming problems, finding solutions and stumbling upon magic hidden deep within yourself. I will continue to fight everyday…but only for things I trust. Trust to me, is like a mythical unicorn. I dress him up in pretty rainbow tutus and we dance to The Bangles. Trust = safety= happiness = creativity. Don’t ever let anyone take that away from you. And if you have it…fight hard not to lose it. Losing it may mean losing your faith in people and worst of all, losing faith in yourself. When all seems lost though, grab your favorite childhood book and remind yourself of all those creatures that wait patiently for you at the brink of your imagination.
If Wonderland has, in an unfortunate stroke of bad luck, somehow closed its borders to you…fear not. I think if we adopt the Killjoys motto of “the warrant is all” and see life as a series of bounty warrants that need their asses kicked and delivered, then the days suddenly have purpose. You can still motivate yourself out of the funk. You can ALWAYS motivate yourself out of funks. The quicker you do, the better. For the longer you stay in one, the less chance you have of ever leaving that pit of ghouls and nasty things.
Right now, I should be celebrating. On some level I am, with beetroot crisps and orange juice as my stuffed animals and Han Solo doll cheer me on. Last week, was the first time I ventured to submit an abstract for an academic conference. Yesterday, I received the news that it was accepted. So in August, if all goes according to plan, I will be presenting my first paper at the Association of Professional Italianists of South Africa conference 2017 in Johannesburg. I’m looking at a topic that is quite close to my heart, and one that my Master’s thesis actually explores : children’s literature through a psychoanalytic framework. Unlike my Master’s thesis, which unravels the uncanny in Neil Gaiman’s Coraline and The Graveyard Book, in this particular paper I will be focusing on nation-formation and the presence of subaltern spaces post the unification of Italy in the beloved Italian fairytale Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi.
It’s quite daunting but academia is where my heart lies, and hopefully I have more exciting experiences to share with readers as the year progresses. It’s funny how stumbling out of a wardrobe into Narnia, or the Little Prince asking for a sheep, or even taking that flight with Peter and Wendy, led me here…where I was always supposed to be.
Of Tales & Dreams 