Tuesday, October 16, 2007

The stink of law school

One more thought for the day...

Several weeks ago, when I was first starting school, Kim asked me if there would be any content on this blog for people who think law is boring and if I thought I would alienate my non-legal readers.

Being me, I responded with something wiseass.

But her question has stuck with me.

When I was in high school, I read a series of books by Ferrol Sams about a kid coming of age as the second World War is beginning. In the third book, When all the world was young, he goes off to medical school.

The medical school Sams describes is much like one imagines medical school with really smart kids working really hard all the time. They dissect so much that the formaldehyde soaks into their skin. They can't smell it, but one night they go to the movies and the entire rest of the theater walks out because they can't take the smell.

I do get that in a metaphorical sense this is happening to me. When I got married, I thought about weddings constantly and everything I wrote about was related to pew bows and tulle. (New readers: I'm being a little facetious, my wedding had neither.)And now Kim's question is echoing in my head even as I write about politics and law, talk about law school at parties and generally act like it's the only thing in my life.

I know you know this, and I know it, too: I'm going to get over it. Probably not before the end of the semester, but I am. I will get balance back. I will write about religion again, I will have petty philosophical musings, I will tell amusing stories about my smartypants friends and post some new detective stories at Has CC mentioned she writes fiction?.

But for now, I appreciate those of you who are tolerating the stink of me starting to do the hardest thing I've ever done.

CC

13 comments:

fausto said...

Don't change yourself to please the crowd.

"This above all: to thine own self be true; and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man."

--William Shakespeare, Hamlet, I, iii.

Chalicechick said...

Talking/writing/thinking about law school all day doesn't please me either. It's just what I find myself doing as I adjust.

Seriously, I've read ONE non-law related book in the last month. That is fucked up.

CC

PG said...

:-) If you want a place for your legal thoughts, I've love to have a new contributor for De Novo. I'm on my way out of law school and into wedding planning, so less and less of what I'm talking and thinking about is legal.

Chalicechick said...

*Blush*

Wow, PG. I'm honored, sure. I'm not sure I can pass myself off as a serious law blogger, but I will give it a shot...

CC

Red Sphynx said...

Hey, I'm not a lawyer but the Volokh Conspiracy is a favorite blog. Keep writing about the law.

Red Sphynx said...

p.s. Fausto's quote from Shakepeare should be treated with caution.

* The words are spoken by Polonius.

* In that scene, Polonius says a whole string of tiresome cliches, showing that he's an old gasbag.

* Polonius is run through with a sword and rolled up in drapery shortly after saying these words.

So use caution

fausto said...

Yeah, you're right, sphinx.

Go ahead and betray yourself after all, CC. Polonius was a pinhead.

Chalicechick said...

Even if one doesn't like Polonius, recall that Fancy had those words in her locket.

Insult Polonius if you must, but you can't argue with Fancy...

CC

Anonymous said...

Have you read A Woman Called Fancy by Frank Yerby?

ogre said...

Best writing advice I know of...

Write about what you know about. It's hard to write about things you're not aware of, seeing, thinking about, and feeling.

So yeah, I'll be floored if you don't focus on the law student experience. I'll be writing more, I'm sure, about being a seminarian (which may be even more obscure and mind numbing for most folks, CC). I'll come by to lean over the fence to see and hear something different.

Chalicechick said...

No, Kim, I haven't. I was referring to the Reba McEntire song.

Anonymous said...

Yes, i read the words to the song. I wonder if the song has any relation to the book? It's from the 1950s I think. I liked it when I read it -- I was in high school I think. (No, I wasn't in high school in the fifties, the book belonged to my father....)

PG said...

CC,
I sent an email re: De Novo to your Gmail account for chalicechick. Let me know if you didn't get it -- my internet has been unpredictable.