I have begun to translate this long prose poem, a text I discovered by chance. I got a new Research Insight from it, which I think I should work on for other venues. But it was the first time in a long time I had had this type of Research Insight: a spontaneous one. Lately … More St. Lucy and St. Lazarus I
Even when it is actually wise, conventional wisdom is oppressive when misplaced, because on these occasions it interdicts further analysis and thought. Repeating it in such instances, is one of the main forms of bullying which exist in academia. Condescension is a principal attribute of this form of bullying. Some of the more famous pieces … More Bane of the Week
This conversation took place about five years ago, but I am still slightly amazed by it. WM: Whereas you are in my opinion very good-looking; whereas you are not Catholic and will therefore not have Catholic hangups; whereas you are from California and should therefore be very liberal; and whereas we are friends; I hereby … More Another Type of Whiteman
If the globalized labor market is as good for people as its advocates claim, then why must films about globalized workers be shot on the sly? Films I would like to see include H-2 Worker, on the Florida cane fields, Mardi Gras: Made in China, on the conditions in which Mardi Gras beads are fabricated, … More Films
Once upon a time there was public ecstasy; then capitalism and Calvinism conspired to rout it out. […] Ecstasy and Enlightenment failed to hit it off. In the eyes of an emergent middle-class order, popular festivity was that most scandalous and opaque of all activities, that which is done purely for its own sake. All … More On Festivity and Enlightenment
News I would like to be considering today includes the Padilla case and the Democracy Protection Act. The question I would like to be considering is: if the Democratic candidates are people like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, who have supported the Patriot Act and the war, should one vote just to oppose the Republicans, … More On Democracy in America
Reading for today is Jeremy Scahill’s work in The Nation on Blackwater USA, the mercenaries we hire, Nezua on the plight of immigrant children stranded after a March 6 raid, and Ellen Simon’s review of Robert I. Sutton’s book on workplace bullies. This was recommended by a friend, and it sounds to me good but … More Blackwater
One of the great pleasures of life near a university campus is falling into conversation by chance with a random intellect in another field. This almost never happens here. This afternoon, to enjoy the spring sunshine at the end of a difficult week in which, nevertheless, much of value has been accomplished, I went to … More L’hasard objectif
Today in one class we discussed La autenticidad de la mujer en el arte, the essay by Rosario Ferré on writing as a woman. I used to find this piece flat, but today I found it illuminating. I learned from the discussion that none of the students had been raised to believe women must make … More Rosario Ferré
“In a lonely cabin on the frontier, I, Clinton Rollins, attempting no literary style, pass the time by penning my memories. And as an old man my thoughts wander back: The things that happened fifty years ago… Spanish-Americans I have known — whom I have grown to like… And that warm, sweet, green odor of … More With Walker in Nicaragua
coldhearted scientist وداد 