So what the SPATULA actually is an ORCA project. I have no idea what ORCA stands for, aside from a smallish black and white whale. But what it means is money to do something you want to do. Yeah. An ORCA project is where a student goes to a professor that she likes and says "hey, so I've always wanted to write this ridiculously massive blog post that no one would ever take the time to read about comic book movies and Jane Austen characters and cartoon anti-heroes and how they are all examples of the conflict between duty and inclination in the heroic figure. But since nobody would read that as a blog post I thought maybe I should turn it into an official research paper instead. Do you want to help me with that?" and he says "That sounds like a great idea! Let's do it!" and then we sit in his office and talk a little bit more about my idea and he says "You have a lot of really good ideas here, but there are about 5,000 of them and you should probably limit them down to 1, or 5 at most so why don't you go home and try to do that."
So you go home and spend a week trying to figure out how to pick one idea out of all those ideas that is your favorite. And after a week of thinking you go back to talk to your professor and the only progress you've made is actually the exact opposite of progress in that you've actually thought of more ideas instead of weeding some out. So you tell your professor all the ideas you've added, and you talk for a little while and then somehow magically during your conversation you realize that you actually have found that one unified idea you want to discuss. So then you go back home and for another week you research whether or not anyone has already written the paper that you want to write. If they haven't, congratulations you get to tread brand new pointless academic soil. If they have, well, rethink your idea or do it again but better. Then, after you've done that research you take that beautiful nugget of an idea and write up a proposal that sounds really awesome. You mention how your idea is so fabulous that you actually need two professors to mentor you. And you really really want to write this paper. So much that you're volunteering to write a completely superfluous research paper in the midst of your semester of required papers and other homeworks. And then you take that proposal to a bunch of professors and try to inspire their enthusiasm with yours so that they say "Oh my gosh, we think that is a truly fantastic idea! So fantastic do we find this idea that we want to give you some moneys to put take this idea and write that research paper. Here, take this $1500 dollars that we have lying around and go and write your paper!"
So you go home and spend a week trying to figure out how to pick one idea out of all those ideas that is your favorite. And after a week of thinking you go back to talk to your professor and the only progress you've made is actually the exact opposite of progress in that you've actually thought of more ideas instead of weeding some out. So you tell your professor all the ideas you've added, and you talk for a little while and then somehow magically during your conversation you realize that you actually have found that one unified idea you want to discuss. So then you go back home and for another week you research whether or not anyone has already written the paper that you want to write. If they haven't, congratulations you get to tread brand new pointless academic soil. If they have, well, rethink your idea or do it again but better. Then, after you've done that research you take that beautiful nugget of an idea and write up a proposal that sounds really awesome. You mention how your idea is so fabulous that you actually need two professors to mentor you. And you really really want to write this paper. So much that you're volunteering to write a completely superfluous research paper in the midst of your semester of required papers and other homeworks. And then you take that proposal to a bunch of professors and try to inspire their enthusiasm with yours so that they say "Oh my gosh, we think that is a truly fantastic idea! So fantastic do we find this idea that we want to give you some moneys to put take this idea and write that research paper. Here, take this $1500 dollars that we have lying around and go and write your paper!"
And after they give you your $1500 dollars you...go and do your project. You do real research and really start digging into your ideas and write the research paper you've been wanting to write. I don't actually know how long you have to do this project, nor do I know how particular they are in the way you use your newly acquired funds in the pursuit of the final product. These are mysteries, however, that I assume I will penetrate very soon. Because I have officially embarked on my SPATULA. I have completed the first half of that paragraph up there. I've spoken to my professor and we've discussed my idea. And as of today, we somehow managed to find that core idea at the heart of it all that I really wanted to focus on. Are you ready for this? The core idea of my SPATULA will be the following:
Utilizing the exaggerated nature of the comic book superhero persona I will examine the definition of Heroism and the conflict between the heroic persona and the individual will.
Pretty cool, eh? Can you believe that I construct sentences like that for fun?
I'm going to be focusing on three main references for my project. Superman, Batman, and V (from V for Vendetta). I think that they represent three clear points on the spectrum of the hero. But that is all I'll say about them lest I start boring you all with the subject that was too boring to be a blog post (see, it was too boring to be a blog post, but writing about how it was too boring to be a blog post was not...huh).
And that, my friends, is my SPATULA (do you all still remember that SPATULA actually stands for Scholastic Project of Academic Ambition?). Sitting here on my bead trying to think of something to do on yet another plan-less Friday night, the best possible idea I could come up with was to write a blog post about it. Having done so, I shall endeavor to keep the world apprised of my progress. It's possible this will be an extremely short saga, if I either don't get my proposal completed by October 28 (the proposal deadline) or I do but the board decides that it isn't worth funding. Although, even if they don't, it isn't like this is a project that really requires all that much money. I could just continue on with it even if they don't approve it. I think that I shall. This idea has actually been fermenting in my brain for about three years and I figure, if it has that kind of staying power, then it deserves to finally come to maturation.
So, my friends, here I shall leave you. Here on the very brink of a SPATULA, as I endeavor to take my adolescent existence and force it into an adult one. We'll see how this works out...
