wearing thin

Writing this thesis is such a drag. My advisor is giving me mega-edits that make me loathe my life. To make it a little more bearable, she writes in sarcastic comments. Not annoying sarcastic- they're kinda actually funny (knowing me, at least).

I'm writing about early modern art that traces the negative connotation that is now assigned to weasels. Yes, weasels: ferrets, ermine, stoats, etc. In the middle ages, they were associated with virtues like honor, purity, and chastity. My thesis traces the disintegration of these positive ideals by the visual association of weasels with nasty, merciless monarchs and usurpers. Dumbed-down, in a nut shell: some asshole king in the Renaissance would decide that he wanted to be viewed as a virtuous ruler, so he would stamp pictures of ferrets and ermine on his coinage, public banners, etc. A harmless animal was exploited by several vile human beings as a mechanism of political propaganda and a device for the generation of absolute power. (pictures of ferrets contributed to French absolutism- 'l'etat de moi!')

At any rate, in my paper I was a little timid to make an "absolute statement." We are taught our entire lives not to make those, because they are very rarely true. So, I hinted that there may have been a few dukes and princes in early modern Europe who might have had some integrity. My professor didn't like that idea at all. The entire page (including parts of my argument that are still useful) has been marked through, and out beside the shit-show of red pen, she wrote:

A virtuous leader in the Renaissance? Only in Shakespeare, Honey. They were all violent across the world at all times. The goals of honest modern leaders such as Ron Paul are aberrations in history.

fuuuuuuck.