8 pages too long?

At my last chapter meeting, I received back comments from all three of my committee members. I swear that going forward I am going to demand that I get these comments before the actual meeting, this way I don't have to fight back the tears when I see a HUGE RED X sprawled across the first 12 pages of my chapter. No, I am not being dramatic. Yes, I blinked back tears for the first 5 minutes. Yes, the X totally scarred me. Granted, the first 12 pages of my first chapter were a little extraneous. They didn't really need to be there and looking back I can see how they were just kind of distracting and annoying. All of the good stuff did come after page 12. But still, a read x? really? was that necessary? I have still yet to go back and look at all 120 pages of margin notes and comments, I fear that they will trigger some kind of PTSD. But what I did take away from the "X", that is when I managed to glance down at the page, was that I should have begun the chapter on page 12. Okay, not so bad. All I would have to do for chapter 2 was cut the intro. By this point I know what I should do in an intro: like I tell my students of academic writing the intro should tell the reader what you are arguing, how you are doing it, and why it is important. Okay, not so bad. I know what I am arguing, I know how I am doing it, and I think I know why it matters.

So why is my intro a whopping 8 pages? I kid you not, 8 pages. Should I be proud that I have managed to cut it down from 12? Should I try to revise? What's a girl to do?

For now I settle on pursuing my search for that perfect pink bookshelf.