To those of you reading this right now, I would like to start by saying welcome! Beyond referencing HBO's Enlightened in my first post (as well as using Laura Dern's Amy Jellicoe for the first image you see*), you must take my word for it when I say there is a method behind the madness. You may not know it now, but you have stumbled upon a new project of mine that has been a long run in the making.
At a surface glance, this may appear to be a simple blog of one guy's ramblings about television. Which, to be fair, it is... in a way. But please believe me when I say this is so much more to me than that.**
I'm getting ahead of myself, let me preface. I am a second year graduate student at Ball State University. I am currently studying Communication with a focus on Queer Media and HIV Rhetoric. It's taken me a long time, but I have finally found comfort in what I study, what read about on a daily basis. Research is daunting, putting myself out there into a more professional setting is even more so. The rewards from a culmination of the two, though, are priceless. Excuse me for maybe sounding like a freshman taking their first college course, but I love communication. I love reading about the numerous intricacies that are represented through the media. I love acknowledging the fact that our identities (individual and cultural) are created and cultivated through the media. I love examining texts that destabilize the foundation of our collective ideologies. It's all so queer and I just can't get enough.
I'll admit, I've never been much of a writer. I write like I talk- I am choppy, sometimes cyclical, and overly redundant. I am trying to come to terms with my flaws as a writer and critical thinker. I was finally presented with an opportunity to really work on that in depth. Going into the second year of my graduate studies, I have since decided on a focus for my thesis and and I am trying to wrap up my course schedule for the semester. I got lucky. One class is one that I can design myself, an independent study if you will. At first I was gung-ho "let's start right away" excitement, but then it quickly morphed into "Oh... right, I need to make a syllabus. For myself." It felt surreal, queer perhaps.
I had to think, "where do I even start?" I had to contemplate what I know, what I want to talk about, am I disciplined enough to keep writing constantly? It got so scary at a certain point that I began questioning who I was as a person.*** It is here that this will all be figured out, but I hope to do it non-traditionally. I do not want this to be a regurgitation of questions asked, answered, moving on. I won't be writing here just to get an A. I want this to be more than that, and I want to use this as a platform to explore how I view television, and in particular, how it latently affects the LGBTQ+ community.
To say I know immediately what it is that I will be doing in the coming months would be a total lie. I don't know. I'm still working on my syllabus. Whatever format I choose for the next post (and the next and the next) may change over time, and that's okay! In fact, I want it to! I don't know how this website works, I am not tech savvy. I would certainly hope I get the hang of everything on here more. All this considered, I am ready to go on this strange journey with you, potential readers. If you have any suggestions or questions, please just let me know what I can do to improve my website. Believe me when I say this is all a learning process. So come one, come all!
Let the watching commence.
*If you have not indulged in Enlightened's two-season glory, I don't even know how we can continue in tandem.
**Potentially
***That's a stretch, but you know what I mean
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