THE SUMMARY TO END ALL SUMMARIES: THE FLOW CHART TO END ALL FLOW CHARTS
• Studying Latin
+ Possible at UVic.
- Not aware of anywhere BETTER THAN Uvic.
[Insert joke about Jordan Peterson University here.]
- Short term future difficult to endure.
- Long term future difficult to imagine.
- Professors would probably hate me; the other students, also, would
probably hate me.
+ Relatively meaningful in terms of "the meaning of life".
- Relatively dubious in terms of one's ability to make a positive
difference in the world.
• Studying Chinese
+ It's an excuse to live somewhere other than Victoria.
- Long term future difficult to imagine.
• Studying Spanish
+ It's an excuse to live somewhere other than Victoria.
- Long term future difficult to imagine.
• Studying French
+ It's an excuse to live somewhere other than Victoria.
- Long term future difficult to imagine.
• Studying Religion (i.e., critique of religion)
- Absolutely zero known options anywhere in the world.
• Studying Veganism (i.e., the politics of the vegan movement)
- Absolutely zero known options anywhere in the world.
NB: this was and still is my suggestion to Gail, if she's going to
talk to her contact at ________ or any other (English-speaking)
University, i.e., to ask under what department it would be possible to
make use of my expertise in the politics of the vegan movement (and
note that I already have a B.A. in politics, etc.). There are many
examples of other vegan demagogues doing this, either for an M.A. or a
PhD or both.
• Studying Cinematography a.k.a. filmmaking a.k.a film school.
- Absolutely zero known options anywhere in the world.
- This does not mean "zero options", but zero that we know of.
- Economically, the industry is currently in the process of contracting.
- The other students would probably hate me.
- Relatively meaningless in terms of "the meaning of life".
+ Very clearly useful in terms of one's ability to make a positive
difference in the world.
- However, very high cost, for even the most humble of film
projects: stand up comedy is cheap by contrast, writing a novel is
cheap by contrast, etc. etc.
• Studying something related to stand up comedy.
- We have found zero options related to talent management, being a
booking agent, etc., and there really should be many solid options
under this heading.
- We have, also, found zero options related to venue management.
- I am not aware of any options under the purely economic side of
the equation, but I think that would be a much worse preparation than
cinematography (already discussed above).
- Although comedy is cheap in many ways (writing itself costs
nothing, doing stand up costs little compared to filmmaking, etc.) the
indirect costs of the exercise are considerable: the center of the
English-speaking universe for comedy is (now) New York, and spending
five days on Manhattan Island is extremely expensive (even if you do
not include the cost of airplane tickets).
- The field still relies on entertainment lawyers (and contracts,
etc.), talent managers and venue managers that nobody can now afford:
the format of comedy has remained the same while the amount of money
to be paid has declined and declined. Splitting off 10% of a contract
for this role and that one has become impossible.
