Dear Vienna, are you singing?

I have a rather awkward, funny anecdote from work today (I waitress at a local diner). I was using a towel to hold a hot plate, and when I put it down on the table, I accidentally took some of the man's french fries (in the towl). He looked at me, and I looked at him, and I said, "I'm sorry, do you want these?" which I awkwardly followed up with, "This has never happened to me before." Needless to say, he let me keep them.

I know, I know, that had nothing to do with Austria. I just thought it was funny.

I'm going to use this post to explain exactly what this project that I'm working on entails, so that all you avid readers out there aren't adrift in a sea of confusion in a few weeks.

My thesis is on a poem called transcript by Heimrad Bäcker, an Austrian poet who, before World War II, praised Adolf Hitler in one sentence of one newspaper article, and spent his entire life after the war making up for it through this project. transcript (nachschrift in German, which translates equally well into "transcript" or "postscript") is one-fourth of "Epitaph," which also includes nachschrift 2, a photography collection, and radio production. Thus far, my study has not expanded beyond the first nachschrift.

transcript is unique because Bäcker technically did not write any of it. Rather, it is comprised completely of quotations pulled from primary source documents from and about the Holocaust. Bäcker uses isolated quotation to draw attention to the words being used and, more specifically, the juxtaposition between what the words said and meant. By doing this, he exposes the successful manipulation of language as a functional component of the Holocaust. In other words, the Nazis got away with it because of the way the corrupted the language, and made it mean what they wanted it to mean. Get it? Got it? Good.

My personal research involved defining Documentarism and Concrete Poetry as the structure for transcript, as well as examining how those two very different styles are reconciled within the poem. I also read an article involving quotation theory (which is exactly what it sounds like - discussing the implications of quotes), especially as pertains to Bäcker. Furthermore, I analyzed the organization of the quotations within the larger body of the poem, including the arrangement of individual quotations and the poem at large.

Whew. Yeah, so that's what I'm doing with my life. I'm not quite sure exactly how I will be expanding that work in Vienna, but I'm excited! The goal for this trip is to develop my ideas enough to condense them (I know, right?) into a solid Fulbright Scholarship project proposal (something which I totally just spent a good 20 minutes researching in lieu of finishing this post in a timely manner).

In other news...I'm finally tackling Ulysses. It is my goal to have it finished before school starts. So far...it's good. Interesting. I need Google when I read it so I can look up the Irish slang and Latin phrases. Don't worry, Internet, I'll keep you updated.

One last item: my to-do list is getting smaller (hooray). Today I went out and bought a new watchband and a bag that both hangs across my body and zips. Look at me, what a smart tourist! However, I'm also adding things to the list.

The list stands:
1. Clean my room.
2. Clean my bathroom.
3. Clean my car.
4. Get my haircut.
5. Call my debit card company.
6. Buy a new external hard drive.
7. Edit my Honors Project.
11. Rent an international cell phone.
12. Refill my prescription.
13. Pack.
14. Laundry.
15. Toiletries overhaul shopping (I've been letting my shampoo and stuff run out so I could just buy new ones for the trip).

Items in bold are new.

IT'S MIDNIGHT. I AM LEAVING IN ONE WEEK. Squee!


Auf Wiedersehen, Internet!