The Conference Paper, Reconsidered.

This article presents the author's experience at a literary conference. Even with the paltry attendance at the conference, the author was quite serious. Five young scholars were hell bent on making their marks in the world. They read every word of the papers carefully and ponderously. At one time or another, the author recalls they have all been confronted with the empty room, the monotonous papers, the awful sincerity. And yet, they keep coming back, like the proverbial dog to its vomit. By the end of his many years in graduate school the author was still a conference greenhorn, though he had attended a number of lectures by some of the top scholars in his field.