Including How Not To Make An A$$ Of Yourself A La Kim Kardashian
Prince's passing caught me by surprise, not least because of the "swirling purple cloud of nostalgia and grief" (Elliott, 2016) of the past few days.
Back in the 80's, I got in some serious trouble for sneaking the Purple Rain tape into the VCR. (Growing up in my Boston neighbourhood meant that your family and mine were Puritan immigrants in modern disguise.) Since that episode of sneakiness and discovery, Prince has represented to me curiosity, creativity, and daring.
To that end, Prince's top 5 tips for academics:
Back in the 80's, I got in some serious trouble for sneaking the Purple Rain tape into the VCR. (Growing up in my Boston neighbourhood meant that your family and mine were Puritan immigrants in modern disguise.) Since that episode of sneakiness and discovery, Prince has represented to me curiosity, creativity, and daring.
To that end, Prince's top 5 tips for academics:
"That's what you want. Transcendence. When that happens... Oh, boy." Prince, in an interview with The Guardian, 2015
Prince was quiet, elusive, and nonconformist. So, too, are many academics (myself included). He described experiences of transcendence while he played his music alone, "in the zone," and lost track of time. That happens in academic terms, too. Maybe you write/go to the lab/grade papers early in the morning (Raul Pacheco-style) or at night (everyone-else-style), get in the zone, and realize that hours have passed. It's otherwise known as "flow," though I prefer Prince's "transcendence." As Prince said, "That's what you want."
And if the elevator tries to bring you down/ Go crazy, punch a higher floor" - Let's Go Crazy, 1984
When I was in grad school (also known as the place where one's soul is attempted to be obliterated) one horrible senior faculty member told me that another student would probably succeed as an academic and I wouldn't. What a wonderful mentor! I decided that this assessment was entirely uninformed. I am now a tenured professor... I punched the higher floor and what do you know, the elevator went there, and I gott off (pun and spelling intended).
"Cause I felt a little ill/ When I saw all the pictures/ Of the jockeys that were there before me" - Little Red Corvette, 1983
Okay, so Prince is talking about a sexual encounter with a much more experienced woman. Let's swiftly transfer this concept to the Ivory Tower, shall we? There will always be other academics/writers/artists before you. Goffman, Darwin, Hawking, Goodall. As our colleague Eric Grollman argues, not everyone is going to be the Lady Gaga of Academia. And that's ok. You're here in the academy, and you're further than you ever were. Bam!
"If you didn't come to party, don't bother knocking on my door" - 1999, 1983
So we have a 40/40/20 (or whatever it is at your university) split of academic time, which we all know ends up looking something like 60/70/30. The message: Keep your priorities. Finish the paper that's been languishing (ahem, #getyourmanuscriptout), enjoy your teaching, spend time with your family, friends, and/or pet. If that makes you an enigma and you don't answer the door, then awesome.
"Dance [your] life away" - 1999, 1983
Whatever you do, don't EVER pull a selfish Kim Kardashian and epically fail to dance (if only metaphorically). In this case, as Prince told Kimmy, "Get off the stage." Prince's message: when we have chances, take them. As Goffman (1959) debated with The Bard, "All the world is not, of course, a stage, but the crucial ways in which it isn't are not easy to specify."
RSS Feed