La Muselivre

AN OPEN LETTER TO MY DISSERTATION [le fantôme comme représentation de l'inconscient dans la littérature du 19ème siècle et début du 20ème] 

Dear Dissertation [...]

We've been working at this for [2] years now, and I think it's time we faced some facts. I have not invested in you as much as I should have; I let myself get distracted with other projects. I mocked up a few [fiction] but I never forget that you are my bread and butter. Still, this relationship is starting to really stress me out. You probably sense that I am a little frustrated, the way that I spend time with you every day but it's never quality time, the way you are always on my mind but we never seem to get anywhere. You're right about all that. But I am tired of people asking about you: they always ask about you, how you're doing, how far I've gone with you. To be honest, I want to see this through to the end, I want to go all the way with you, but then I want to put this relationship behind me.

I know what you're thinking, Dissertation [...]. You think that if I finish with you that you will just get thrown on some shelf in only one library in the world, never to be read again. OK, that part is basically true. But I think it's better if you think of yourself as a seed, or a caterpillar, even one of those ugly ducklings (not that I think you are ugly), any of those things that blossom into something better.

And even if I write something better—fingers crossed—you will always be the [2nd]. Nobody can take that away from you.

Sincerely

[Heileen]

Original via Maud Newton