talked to one of my exes who is experienced with specifically my corner of academia. she said she finds it quite likely that the faculty will accept my research proposal of shifting my PhD to focus on translating the poetry of Japanese anarcha-terrorist Kaneko Fumiko :>

she also said I should present a proposal in writing. given that the Ghost Professor doesn't really reply to emails (she's also aware of their legendary evasiveness), the plan remains as before to lie in wait and ambush them after class on a day where they give classes, but then I'll take a printout of a proposal, so he has a physical object to take home

dang it's been like a billion years since I fire up Emacs to do this.

ok now what do I write in there

level 1 proposal: describe what I want to do.

level 2 proposal: with a bibliography section, already set in bibtex, demonstrating a respectable commandment of the existing literature (and effort already sunk in, thereby proving commitment).

level 3 proposal: also a small literature review, for the same reason.

level 4 proposal: also a few sample translations, demonstrating sufficient commandment of Classical Japanese as well as translation ability. Footnote comments on translation choices.

now the question is how much effort and time I want to put in the proposal before even talking to the professor, vs. showing up earlier to start the year getting back to the department