One of my favorite academic articles, for the sake of literary style among other things, is Joan Dayan’s “Caribbean Cannibals and Whores” (Raritan 9:2 [Fall 1989]: 45-68). Here are a few passages from it: 1. In Haitian ceremonies of vodoun, the most spendid of the gods is Erzulie-Fréda. She is also known to be the … More Joan Dayan
PRINCIPAL I will be periodically reminding everyone that the United States has concentration camps, not only outside but also within our borders. Today’s featured post, Xicano Power’s Privatized Prisons for Immigrants, addresses this issue. Note also that there is a huge immigration sweep underway in Santa Fe. OTRAS In other news, my favorite quotation for … More Concentration Camps I / Sunday Paper
My favorite academic novel is Neal Stephenson’s Big U. Now Dissent alerts us to the fact that some of our alma mater has once again struck a deal worthy of this novel. We can read all about it in the San Francisco Chronicle, whose headline for the story is “BERKELEY – UC faculty critical of … More Neal Stephenson
Books I ought to read for recreational purposes include, but are not limited to: Bataille, Eroticism, which discusses the continuity and discontinuity of beings; Foucault, History of Sexuality, because I never have and because it might create an interesting combination with Bataille, and Kaysen, Girl, Interrupted, because if I am going to read some new-to-me … More William James
These are the Silencers. The video was shot in 1996, around Lochranza on the Isle of Arran. The song was written in 1947 by Frankie McPeak. Oh, the summer time is coming, And the trees are sweetly blooming; And the wild mountain thyme, Grows around the blooming heather. Will you go, lassie, go? And we’ll … More Wild Mountain Thyme
From Oxford University Press, on Jonathan Wolff, Why Read Marx Today? (OUP, 2003): Jonathan Wolff argues that if we detach Marx the critic of current society from Marx the prophet of some never-to-be-realized worker’s paradise, he remains the most impressive critic we have of liberal, capitalist, bourgeois society. The author shows how Marx’s main ideas … More Karl Marx V
I am writing an article on two new poets, who have been reviewed and discussed before, but who have not yet had research inflicted upon them. It is an interesting and for me, unusual experience to write about people on whom there is no critical tradition. I am also on a dissertation on a writer … More A Beginner’s Mind
It is the weekend, so we must sing. Here are Junior Wells, Mike Bloomfield, and Dr. John on Stop Breaking Down. I have seen Junior Wells and Dr. John in person, but never this young. Junior Wells says, “I don’t think you really love me, I think you just like the way my music sounds.” … More From the Top
A Macedonio Fernández En busca de la tarde fui apurando en vano las calles. Ya estaban los zaguanes entorpecidos de sombra. Con fino bruñimiento de caoba la tarde entera se había remansado en la plaza, serena y sazonada, bienhechora y sutil como una lámpara, clara como una frente, grave como un ademán de hombre enlutado. … More La Plaza San Martín
I am still snowed in with paperwork and this may continue for some time. I am also leaning into my current academic piece. At the studio, I have made a lidded porcelain jar. Meanwhile, a book worth reading is Guinier and Torres’ The Miner’s Canary (Harvard, 2002) on the limits of the “democratic” political system … More Porcelain Jar
coldhearted scientist وداد 