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Welcome Scoplaw!
Venturpreneur's first poll* for his "Law Student Blog Honor Roll" seems to have spurred (or been a pivotal part of) a mini-boom of interest in law student blogs and pre-law blogs. Adding to this mini-boom, Venturpreneur's first poll has been followed by a second, and accompanied by Legal Underground's comments about those polls, including a little list of new pre-law blogs and a kind word about ai. (Thanks, Evan! No need to feel bad; I'm just that very rare beast: an anti-competitive law student. More on that later, perhaps.)
All of which is to say: If you're looking for a great new pre-law blog, say hello to Scoplaw. What could be more interesting than a poet going to law school? A poet who bikes to law school! Ok, I don't know if he's going to bike to law school, but he rides bikes, he has a garage full of bikes and bike parts, he refurbishes old bikes -- how can you not love this guy?
But yes, Scoplaw is also going to law school, and he's going to blog about it, which promises to be fascinating. How will a poet w/an MFA react to law school's demand that you replace creativity with regimented banality? Will he find a creative way to adapt, or will he feel like he's landed on an alien planet where nobody cares about the thoughts in your head except insofar as they mirror a blackletter law outline? ;-)
Ok, it's not that bad. But still, I can't wait to hear how things go for Scoplaw, because in some ways he and I may be a lot alike. Granted, a poet w/an MFA could be very different from a former candidate for a PhD in English, especially when that English PhD program was more cultural studies/critical theory than literature. For example, the English department I was in had a sort of invisible wall between the MFA program and the MA/PhD program, an oil and water type thing based on politics and petty power struggles, mostly, but also on what seemed to be a mutual disdain. The creative writers seemed to scoff at the seriousness with which the "Lit" people took their theory and cultural studies, while the "Lit" people scoffed at what they assumed was the creative writers' free-floating superficiality and lack of critical consciousness. The two groups did different things, and therefore had different goals, but that's exactly why Scoplaw's experience of law school should be so interesting. I imagine it's a lot easier to go from lawyer to poet/creative writer than the other way around, but I'd be very happy if Scoplaw proved me wrong.
At any rate, check him out, and wish him luck. We all need that.
* Note: Speaking of that Venterpreneur poll, if ai is going to lose any contest, it would be hard to think of a better blog/blogger to lose to than Mixtape Marathon. I'm not familiar with Sapere Aude, but I'll be checking out out in the future since it's so well loved.
Posted April 13, 2004 05:43 AM | law school
I contribute to Sapere Aude, and I will honestly declare that I think it is well-supported more than it is well-loved.
Posted by: Kelly at April 13, 2004 08:47 AM
This comment leads to a speech that law students will find extremely interesting, referring as it does to the Constitution.
I'd like you to consider reading the text for a "state of the union" address that I believe is imperative for this country of ours. To get to it, all you need do is click on the below enclosed U.R.L
http://www.bcvoice.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=205
By the way, the proprietors of the www.BCVoice.com website have provided a couple ways for you to leave your comments.
Posted by: A Alexander Stella at April 13, 2004 01:26 PM
But couldn't you find your passion ignited in Critical Legal Studies? I thought they spewed the same pablum as Lit Crit, n'est pas? (you know I am teasing)
Posted by: justin at April 13, 2004 11:38 PM
Let me speak up for beauty in law! I think there is beauty and creativity in law inasmuch as I find beauty and creativity in a well-written algorithm, a mathematical proof, a carefully crafted sculpture, or a delicate pencil sketch.
I know, you aren't serious. And I can't wait to read Scoplaw, because I agree, it will be fascinating.
While we're speaking about literature, maybe you could tell us a little more about what you love about it, what caught your passion. I was a literature major before I switched to history (graduated double major with computer science and history, hence the engineering), and I've always wondered what would have happened if I'd continued down the literature route. Do you ever consider returning to the Ph.D. program?
As for the poll, I am quite pleased to see AI recognized as the wonderful place it is!
Posted by: transmogriflaw at April 14, 2004 12:21 AM
Oh yeah, Crit. Legal Studies certainly ignited a certain passion, but lack of passion was never really the problem for me w/the English PhD thing. I loved the reading and the writing (mostly; sometimes the writing was a drag) and even the teaching (again, mostly). The problem was with the culture and the career and life opportunities for an English PhD. It's a sort of Catch-22: You have to have passion for the work in order to make the sacrifices necessary to do it, but those sacrifices are very likely to destroy the very passion that allowed you to make them in the first place.
I could go on for days about this, but instead I'll just say that most academics I got to know were bitter, disillusioned, cynical, somewhat miserable people. I figured if that's what I was going to be I might as well also be kicking some bad-guy ass along the way, and an English PhD mostly only provides figurative bad-guy-ass-kicking opportunities, so I switched to law. Good decision? Probably not. Am I going back? Almost certainly not. Professional English (BigLit) has lost its social mandate; the vast majority of U.S. citizens wouldn't complain if English PhD's disappeared from the face of the earth because the work of BigLit is neither understood nor really valued by American culture. We care about the price of gas and new gadgets and technology and who's screwing who in Hollywood and what the Tuesday night tv lineup is like. Books? Who reads books? Ideas? Who cares about ideas except insofar as you can make money from them? Besides, I was only OK at the English gig, and to be a success in a profession for which there is no social mandate, you have to be the rockstarriest rockstar.
What do I love about literature? The top two things that come to mind are:
1) The way it explains the world and indicts contemporary culture for its excesses and inhumanity.
2) Its ability to imagine and make possible alternatives to the morass that is the world we live in and the way we live.
So where's the beauty in law? Show me, please. Explain.
Posted by: ambimb at April 14, 2004 05:57 AM
AmbImb, I will write a post for you about my take on beauty and law. Will take a few days though.
Thanks for the background information about your decision. I seriously considered history graduate school when I graduated, instead of engineering graduate school. I really loved studying history.
However, when I looked at graduate programs I found that I liked the people in engineering more than the ones in the history departments. They were, as you say, often quite bitter, cynical, and disillusioned. I also found they were generally unaccepting of my interest in math and science. In contrast, the engineering professors and students I met were inspired, creative, and passionate about their work. Usually, instead of resenting my interest in the humanities, they asked me about what I'd learned. These are obviously generalities -- not everybody fell into these categories -- but I picked engineering.
Posted by: transmogriflaw at April 15, 2004 01:44 PM
Oh, and I think that one reason for the difference is exactly what you talked about: the limited opportunities for a History Ph.D. vs. the broader opportunities for an engineering Ph.D. It's easier to be creative, friendly, inspired, and passionate when you feel the world is open to you.
Posted by: transmogriflaw at April 15, 2004 01:48 PM
