ABSTRACT
In autumn 2007, the author attended a gathering of newly enrolled doctoral students at The Graduate Center, City University of New York. All the author remember is a strange feeling of irony and displacement when then-Chancellor William Kelly welcomed all those in attendance to the 'life of the mind'. This research could have been included in a dissertation focused on Polish theatre, but this would have missed point, which was the nature of journey itself and what it implied. The author's mentor in College of Letters was Hope Weissman. She was diminutive, visibly ill, and disabled by her sickness. After her course on pornography was picked up by newspapers, The American Enterprise wrote: Weissman, who helped found the women's studies program at Wesleyan, said no student submission would be considered over the line. The author's senior project had two parts: an hour-long original solo science fiction performance called The Dark Ages and a full-length written thesis called The Electronic Heart.
