i'm getting there
By diana on Mar 4, 2010 | In capricious bloviations
what does this mean?
I passed a couple of fellow English grad students outside the library today. They said, "Hi, Diana. How's it going?"
I said, "I'm getting there. I'm not quite sure where 'there' is yet, but I think I'm making progress."
Or something like that.
As I walked on toward the student center, I thought, what do we mean when we say we're "getting there"?
Sometimes we mean we're travelling spacially, exchanging one set of geographical coordinates for another. In this case, we're literally "getting there," whereever we've designated "there" to be.
Just as often, though, we will say this in reference to time. We might mean we're marking time until the weekend. In school, "I'm getting there" in this slang sense can mean "the weekend" or "the end of this semester." In this case, "there" isn't actually a physical location. It's a temporal one. So wouldn't it be more correct to say, "I'm getting then?"
Another interesting usage refers to completing papers. "How's the paper coming?" is often met with "it's coming," or "it's getting there."
What does it even mean to say a paper is "coming"? From where?*
* From that point where it was without form and void, and darkness moved upon the face of the deep, if you're anything like me. So we say, "Let there be light!" And...nothing happens. (And we see that it isn't good.) And then, at some point, Moses steps up, takes Aaron's rod, strikes it on the rock, and the waters part...but only halfway across, and we wade across in mucky silt with jellyfish clinging to our ankles, and we don't stop until we've mangled a perfectly good metaphor beyond recognition.
And when we reply, "It's getting there," we mean...where, exactly? Completed, which also isn't a "there." So how should we say this instead? It's getting done? Nah. To obvious and so...done. Besides, it isn't really true most of the time. I rarely turn in a paper I feel is done. I usually just get to a point where I'm not absolutely ashamed of it, which more often than not coincides almost exactly with its due date, and the teachers have mercy upon me.
"It's coming together" is also a misleading image. This phrase makes me picture the sorceror standing on a jutting rock in Fantasia and magically commanding the maddened mops and brooms to cease. I tell myself "It's coming together" only when I've got a few unrelated ideas banging around in my head, at which times I like to think that additional sleep will somehow coalesce them.
I'm looking for the perfect response because "My paper is stranded like a beached whale, is as ungainly, and has almost as much hope for the future" is too wordy and besides, it invites discussion about my paper. And when you're working on a paper, the last thing you want to think about, let along discuss, is that paper.
d
5 comments
Diana,
For a long time my stock response to “how’s it going?” was “I’m still breathing.” I quit saying that because at my age it’s too easy to contemplate the alternative, and I’m not ready to go there yet.
These days I say “I can’t complain.” Which of course isn’t exactly true, as Linda will confirm, but I realize that complaining doesn’t really accomplish anything so why bother? Besides, the people who ask me “how’s it going?” don’t really care anyway. It’s just a preemptive strike, or maybe a warning shot, a way to politely acknowledge my presence but direct potential conversation in a safe direction rather than risk allowing me to bring up an unpopular topic like work or Olympic hockey. (Grin)
A question for you: when you say “it’s coming” in response to a question about your paper, what mood do you use? Most people I know (and I myself) tend to be a bit surly with it when it applies to a work project. It’s just a half step more polite than “it’ll be done when it’s done.” In other words, quit asking. I’m curious if that’s a widespread usage or specific to my field.
Dave
P.S. I like your mangled metaphors. “Biblical Jellyfish” would be a great name for a band. D.
G’morn, Dave!
When I say, “It’s coming” in reference to a paper, I say it with an attitude of noncommittal resignation, usually. I never know how a paper is coming until I feel it “pull together,” so giving a timeline is invariably impossible, anyway.
d
Interesting question, Diana! I’ve never thought of it, but I don’t usually use that expression, either. (Of course, as you know, I’m close to being the “eternal optimist” when it comes to that question. So I’ll usually say fine, or something like that, regardless of whether it really is, or not.
Still enjoying your rants, and am disappointed when I log on, several days in a row, and you haven’t written anything new. But I also know that you are busy and will write when you have time—or when you’re trying to get out of doing something else! ;-))
Diana,
I’m probably way too late to offer any empathy or suggestions on how to deal with a stranded paper on a fast “decline deadline". In fact, knowing you, you’ve come up with your own solution in solving the late paper dilemma. I do know the feelings of dread in hearing the words “how is it going” to a project or in just how life is going in general.
Just offering my words of encouragement (and praise)…after all, sometimes that is all we need.
Linda
I turn in papers that I am proud of about half the time! But yeah I do turn in papers that suck but I’m tired of messing with them, too. Of course, “suck” is a relative term, so–luckily!–my teachers don’t realize how much they really do suck.
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