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Wednesday, November 8th, 2006
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2:19a - The Love of Townsend Harris, The Ire of Napoleon I
Well, I was right...to get my essay to fit within 3000, let alone 2500, words, I had to often summarise entire paragraphs of prepared quotes down to one or two sentences. Overpreperation bites, and it's not a good thing, because it makes structuring a bit of a nightmare. I felt that with my Medieval Histiography essay last year, and I'm feeling it now. On the other hand, I'm bursting with enough knowledge about the Opening of Japan to present a lecture to you all, if not two. It's a shame I won't get to utilise all this information anywhere, except possibly in the exam in May...
Meanwhile, Napoleon I of the French Empire is glaring at me across the Channel and ordering me, in that Italian accent of his, to get to work or I shall be slaughtered. I fear I can already feel the bite of the Russian Winter. This will be blagged, for there is no other way I can manage it now. From what I've read of the Bonaparte, he'd be proud of that.
Here is my 1850s Japan essay. I've tried to make it interesting, I really have...
( There is an essay question, but it's not a fun one, so let's just say it's Japanese History c.1800-1860 )
Able was I 'ere I saw Elba...except I can't, due to the brain-fog.
current mood: historically saturated
current music: Video Games Live - Metal Gear Solid Theme (3 comments |comment on this)
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10:15a - It's like theft
I am not happy with the cleaning staff. I have to run home to get a bit of sleep and my laptop, so I leave my books and c.60 photocopies lying on the windowledge, out of everyone's way. I come back to find all the photocopies gone, and only my two books remaining. Thankfully, they were my Japan Essay photocopies, but I'm still not happy about losing so many pages, all with notes on, when I could have kept them for revision and other purposes. I could understand if it was just a sheet with a few notes on, but to bin 60 pages with notation when they are lying with two academic books? The only conclusion I can reach is that whoever binned it or took it away was either blind or malicious. Grrrrrrrr. That's just one more person I cannot trust, and I shall be sure to lug all my papers with my all the time from now on, as cumbersome as that is.
Not amused.
current mood:  annoyed (7 comments |comment on this)
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11:34p - Fall Apart to Bonaparte
If I get this essay completed in time, by 4pm. If I get this essay researched, planned, written and footnoted, I shall weep with joy and relief. Currently, I am stressed like I have rarely been before, and hating the passing of every minute.
Gah.
The essay is 'How far was Europe transformed by French conquest?' and the context is Napoleon. I have a plan, if you can call it that:
• Introduction: Napoleon’s Campaigns Italy-Waterloo
• Geographical & Geopolitical Changes 1792-1812 (The French Empire, European Leadership, A Taste of Statehood)
• War and Power (Bonapartian Warfare, Fear of a Great Power, Coaltion Diplomacy, Damage to the Spanish Empire)
• Liberalism & Repression (The French System, The Napoleonic Code, 'Francification', 'Spreading the Revolution'?, The Spanish Constitution)
• Popular Nationalism (Italy, Especially Germany, National Uprisings, United France)
• The Transformation within France (The Fall of the Directory, The Cult of Napoleon, The Imperial Legacy)
• Congress of Vienna: a New Europe to fit the Old (A Balancing Act, The Era of Reactionism, Constitutionalism, Shadows of 1848)
• Conclusion: The Wake-Up Call
In practise, however, I've got a few notes detailing the career of Napoleon. It makes a story akin to Shakespearian Tragedy on a huge scale, but it on the periphary of the main themes of my essay. What I plan to do between now and 6am is, not sleep, but gather sources to back up the various points of my plan.
If I fail to hand in the essay in time, I cannot sit the exam. It's all-or-nothing and I'm gambling on speed and my own ability. Napoleon would be proud!
current music: Gilbert & Sullivan - Iolanthe - When Britain Ruled the Waves (4 comments |comment on this)
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