I am cutting the whole thing into paragraphs, using my very sharp scissors. I will read a paragraph at the time. I will read it disjointed and jumbled, and see what I can do about the argument before me, without linking it to the devastating argument over or under on the page. Doing this I am asserting my power over the criticism, which, right now, does feel like an attack. — Torill Mortensen —Panic Attack (thinking with my fingers)

Torill is preparing for her dissertation defense, which involves responding in a very public venue to criticism written by three experts in her field.

I daresay that in the months since she completed her dissertation, Torill has been doing more blogging than grappling with the specific issues that formed her 400-page dissertation. So she is going to chop up her committee’s comments into blog-size chunks, defamiliarizing the old-media scholarly essay, forcing it into the realm of the trackback, the ironic quip, and the fisk — a realm where Torill feels she comfortable.

But you’ve already spent years preparing for this defense, Torill — you can draw on that, along with your mastery of connection-building weblogging, to pull through. Good luck!