I picked this sort of rock thing up on the beach a few weeks ago. I have seem similar things before but I don't know what they are called. I googled it and all I got were similar images of fossils - and this isn't a fossil. I know that much! It's basically a lump made up of small stones and pebbles held together by something like cement. I found it on a beach with a lot of bricks and other building materials.
Since I found it, I have it sitting beside the sofa and I often pick it up and enjoy the feel of it in my hand. It's lumpy and kinda ugly but it is very pleasing.
So it looks like how I think my thesis will finally look. Lots of different types of writing* all held together by some sort of cementing material - which will be more writing. Just different kind of writing.
And like this wee thing is, it will be pleasing. To me at least.
*poetry, quotes, self-indulgent reflections, tortuous** prose, big words and asides
**tortuous doesn't exactly mean torture but with excessive length - maybe that will be torture to read?
PS someone said something like "even my footnotes have footnotes" and this is true for most of my thinking. I love footnotes.