I'm getting quite excited about it

When I first did the keyword analysis, I was disappointed that all the words that came up were things like 'the' and 'and'. But now I see how important that is. Its not what he's saying but how he's saying it that's so important. And as far as I know no-one has ever analysed Cohen like this before. This really feels like research now.

But I'm still not happy about my writing up. I know S will be (politely) scathing again. I always thought I wrote well - at work in the old days everybody said I did. So is this so different? Or am I 'lostitat62'?

I've ordered two sleeveless tops for the summer. One blue, one pink. Lets hope we get good weather. But I can wear them under jackets and cardigans.

The analysis section

I decided today to try to put the analysis section of the dissertation together from all the bits and pieces I already have. I ended up with over 6,000 words. They won't all make it into the final version but that's well on the way to my 12,500, which will also include introduction, conclusion, data acquisition and the dreaded literature review.

I've merged the three manual analyses - Marianne, Manhattan and Going Home because there are common features and it saves word count. I have started looking at the keywords 'he' and 'his'. There is a lurking 'other man' in 'the stranger song', 'the master song' and 'one of us cannot be wrong'. These are all from Cohen's early period, so I have produced files of his early, middle and later lyrics and tomorrow I will do some analysis of whether there is a difference in the use of these pronouns over time.

The apple crumble was very good.

Always at the back of my mind

So we've shopped and cooked and served and eaten and cleared away and washed up and tidied. We've enjoyed the last few days whilst eating and drinking a lot and managing very little exercise.

And all the time at the back of my mind there's Cohen's keywords. What do they tell me? Do I need more analysis or am I nearly there? I've done some work on 'he' and 'his', which are key in his songs. There is a third party in there in a way which doesn't occur in my comparison lyrics. Sometimes its 'the other man' and sometimes a controlling being and sometimes he conflates the two. On close examination, these lyrics are even more complex than I thought they were.

Merry Christmas, everybody!!

A plan

I've decided to drop the first person narrator as the primary research, as I can't think of a way to do it electronically. So I'll look at keywords, like all the other researchers do. Keywords is a technical term. It means the words used in these lyrics which are more or less often used than in the comparison lyrics. In fact, the word Cohen uses in way which is key compared with the other popular lyrics is 'the'. Now that might not immediately impress, but it tells us he is using a lot of nouns. And closer inspection reveals that he is using 'the' like people do in conversation - 'the pillow', 'the window', so he 'assumes' you are there in the room with him and knows which pillow and window he is talking about. When he says 'the monkey and the plywood violin', the reader expects further explanation, but none comes. So then he is behaving like a poet, who can be mysterious. And he mixes all this up together, and I am beginning to have a technical understanding of the appeal.

Yesterday we went to Llandudno and had a bracing walk on the pier and along the prom. My hair is still not right from Old Faithful's last attempt. It is far too short. I need to talk to him properly next time.

I feel so much better now I am developing a plan.