August 20, 2007
To Be or Not To Be?
A professor. Do you call yourself “Professor?” Should I? The New Media dept at UIUC are all known by their first names, but I think that some of the Music Dept at ISU use “Professor Lastname.” I always found it kind of a buzzkill that we could call the professors at UIUC by their first names. Almost like, “Hey, why the hell am I paying you so much money if you’re just a firstName like me?” Who knows. I don’t think I’ll be able to pull off the Professor thing except perhaps in the Music Business course. It’d be kinda neat though. This all reminds me of the book White Noise by Don Delillo.
I have a great quote from Lipstick Traces that I will fumble on if I start the class with it. I’ll have to save it for day 2.
I must speak to a boy named Elvis Presley,” said the headmistress of a London comprehensive academy in 1956, “because he has carved his name on every desk in the school.” - p 41, Lipstick Traces by Greil Marcus
And of course there is the greatest work of art ever, done for Web 2.0, Michael Wesch’s “The Machine is Us/ing Us.” www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g.
So, what did you end up deciding? Are you Ms. Marshack? Or professor Marshack? Or “yo!”?
I am now officially awake four hours before I need to be because the thunder woke me up, then my brain started moving. Please insert a favorite curse word here.
I think I entertained the idea of students calling me “Professor” but they decided they didn’t want to do it. It seemed like a compliment (from them) that they didn’t want to call me “Professor.” I guess.
I don’t think I could have pulled it off anyway..