Dissertation week continues...

So for a project that's done, it turns out that this dissertation is really more like "done." Meaning, there's done, and then there's done. Today I went to a little class held by the Dissertation Office that was on formatting and other troubling topics, to find that my title page is all wrong and my table of contents is similarly all wrong but that "there is still time." One helpful strategy for prospective Ph.D.'s who might be out of town during the potentially hazardous 10 day period preceeding commencement was to give "someone you trust" some of the official dissertation-printing paper ($35 for 500 sheets!) in case you need to make changes to the Official Offical copy (not to be confused with an of the ninety-seven preliminary copies.) This Trustworthy Soul then makes your changes, or prints from a document you email them, and toddles over to the Dissertation Office with the precious replacement pages.

I also had a fun conversation with my advisor today, who was worried that on page 37 and then again on page 242 I neglect to mention the difference between history understood in according to two particular German terms which both translate to "history" in English. She mentioned a specific book where this comes up, and I told her I didn't know of it, and she paused and said, "Oh. It's a classic." Which - so helpful six months ago, but today not quite as much. So I wrangled a copy and then while I was picking up the kids she called and left a cheery message that her concern had been a false alarm, that it's not Bultmann who makes this claim at all, it's Barth, so not to worry, although if I were to rewrite the dissertation and make a point of looking up in the German every time Bultmann uses the word "history" in English translations to see what he was talking about... well, but that would take a while. Yes, yes it would... so that's not on the table, but it was a brush with terror there for a few minutes. As it turns out, I did make a footnote about it, so it's all good.

Then I met with the person at the Div School who does the actual putting of paperwork in its proper place so as to assure timely graduation, and she was also cheerful and encouraging, and told me about one of my fellow prospective graduates who *has not finished writing* his dissertation yet, and somehow this made me feel much, much better. I also got the word that there's no hooding ceremony during the graduation, so while I need to own the hood, I can't wear it to the graduation, but I should have my husband carry it around until I've actually graduated, so I can wear it to the Dean's reception, and I won't feel left out when I see all the *other* graduates wandering around with their hoods.

She also warned me to make sure my printer prints pages perfectly level, and not in any way crooked, because the Dissertation Office cannot accept crookedness for reasons of microfilming. I investigated, and my printer does indeed print crookedly, so when the actual $35-for-500-sheets paper comes out, I'll have to print somewhere else, like Mike's office, to ensure that the print job is acceptable. This is all starting to feel a little Kafkaesque to me, which reminds me that I have a copy somewhere of a short lecture that Bultmann delivered to a group of French tourists, including Franz Kafka. One doesn't really picture Kafka as a tourist, or even as an acceptable traveling companion; it sounds like some kind of esoteric joke: where does Kafka go on vacation? Of course, since his idea of a good time was listening to theology lectures from Bultmann, maybe it would have worked out just fine.

I estimate that I will run out of paper (the ordinary kind) in about one more chapter, and it would be too, too sad for the whole project to come apart because I was too lazy to go to Office Max for more, so I'll stave off irony and get going.