it's probably a bit of both i guess. she started off by buttering me up ("this could really be turned into a great journal article! you're really breaking new ground!") and then proceeded to tell me to do a zillion things except the one thing i want to do - look into the theoretical implications of what i've found. which is what she seems to do every. single. time.

she's all "historical context" and "rearrange your structure so it's chronological" and so on and so forth. these are good things to do, and i can see that what she wants me to do would all help make a better thesis (particularly one that's more in line with a pretty strict interpretation of what the discipline of history is all about).

but the thing is, she doesn't seem to support what i want to do with my thesis at all. she doesn't exactly oppose it, but she never gives me a chance to do any of that stuff, because she's always emphasising other stuff.

it's just depressing because i was starting to think, "yay! i've done heaps of the grunt work now, i can finally get to actually interpreting stuff in a new and useful way!" and it feels like she's pulling me away from that again.

it's possible she just trusts me to be able to do that stuff, because obviously i am pretty into it, and she feels that she needs to be reinforcing the bits that i tend to neglect. but i'd really appreciate a little encouragement to do what i enjoy :(

sorry. ranting. thanks for asking though.