I’m so tired of hearing this cliched, unthought observation percolating around legitimate publishing institutions:
“Even the most ardent academic must concede that there’s something darkly funny about devoting years of one’s life to a thesis question so abstruse that no one else had ever cared enough to ask it—and then answering it at such great length that few will ever care to read it.”
‘Abstruse’ thesis topics (and their realization) should worry little about their popularity. Writing is about exploring and realizing ideas, personal experiences and intuitions, connecting and combing them, following them to wherever they may lead. Writing is a deeply personal process that has social dimensions and implications, and the introspection involved can often have profound effects once we’ve followed the trail long enough.
But if we all just read this line, like so many that resemble it, we might be persuaded otherwise, because our individual actions ‘should’ be guided by a sense of immediate social validation that, if lacking, should correct us to return to the realm of what is considered ‘useful’ and ‘relevant’ by others for whom we might feel little obligation or regard. This, too, is what the market teaches erroneously teaches us as well.
Instead, we should be faithful to ourselves and explore our individual difference, which we then bring to the shared dining place of our social world.
Bearer of Pity 