With the deadline for paper proposals for the Society of Biblical Literature hanging over me, I took a day out of burnishing the raw draft of the James commentary to gin up a proposals for a couple of sessions at the annual meeting in November. Each is the kernel of an essay I’ve been planning for a while, and both are related to the alt-hermeneutics I’ve been banging on about here for ages, so the proposals came moderately easily. Moreover, once I send off the James ms, they’re projects to which I had already planned to turn my attention — so writing them up should they be accepted) won’t take me away from other planned activities. I would post them here, except that sets in motion a risk that if the papers aren’t accepted, I’ll have waved my unsuccessful laundry out to public view; I’ll work out the arguments here beginning shortly, anyway.
Then, at the end of the day (over here), news came that the deadline had been extended by a week. I could have spent the day on James, after all, which I really should have. I need to go over the divisions of the letter, make sure they align with the format of the series, and check my initial translation against the analysis I give in the individual sections. On the other hand, I have my proposals done.