Sobriquet 51.8

I spent a few hours this afternoon adding to the chapter I began writing yesterday. Though it's only been two days since I started the Disgrace chapter, I'm beginning to recall all sorts of unpleasant writing-related sensations that I'd forgotten about in the months since I wrapped up the chapter I put together on The Master of Petersburg: the feeling of being tethered to my office, the annoying tendency I have to find fault with everything I write, and (perhaps I should add especially) the weight of the albatross I wake up with each morning, reminding me to crack my knuckles and start writing. The lattermost feeling actually reminds me a bit of how I imagine the protagonist of Groundhog Day must feel when he wakes each morning. You know, when Sonny and Cher's "I Got You Babe" jars Bill Murray's character out of the oblivion of sleep and back into the consciousness that, though he feels like he may have moved into the future, he's right back where he was the day before. Now, obviously, I have made progress on my dissertation and I am clearly a bit farther along today than I was yesterday, but that feeling of waking up to a whole lot of the same is, nevertheless, a significant part of my writing days in the hours before I sit down at the computer.

For tomorrow: Since it's going to be a long day, full of meetings and other thoroughly non-dissertation obligations, I will say either reread a bit more of Elizabeth Costello or do a bit of planning for the next bit of writing. Of course, if I somehow find the time to write a bit more, that would be splendid.