A PhD thesis explained via Woody Allen’s “Sleeper”

So, you slave through archives and papers and interviews and more papers and hard hard work. And you come up with a 20 thousand word chapter, full of the very hard-won anecdotes and quotes and…
You have ten thousand words, TOPS.

Which means you have to kill your darlings, doing away with stuff that cost you days and sweat.

The best way I can explain it at present is fighting the evergrowing magic pudding, as in this scene from Woody Allen’s hilarious Sleeper (presumably riffing off Mickey Mouse and the multiplying brooms in Fantasia?)

The whole clip is hilarious, but I am talking about the period from about 3 mins 30 to 4 mins….

Back to thwacking…