I was thinking of the beautiful light, the January sky, the clear winter days when you can have the windows open. I was thinking of some people I know who do not converse. People for whom every conversation is a battle, and whose sentences are pre-emptive strikes against an imagined enemy. How they defend unhappiness … More Ce matin
1/ Here is a good post on the Schuman-Potter argument. 2.1/ A low-level tenured person who feels in some ways like a contingent person trying to get a job and wondering if they can stay in the alleged “profession” (not everyone calls it that), I always wake up at first light, even if I then … More What I was thinking this morning
I like to get up and start writing down the interesting thoughts I have during the night, but this seems to depend upon being back home, or somewhere homelike. Here I like to see the light break but I am then always struggling against anxiety, pain, grief, how did I get here, how can I … More Le jour se lève
A friend writes, out of the blue: When you were younger you maybe didn’t need to adjust to being in the 99th+ percentile of IQ because you had genuine peers around you who were also smart. It’s tougher now because you don’t have the same access to smart people that you used to have. I … More Further reasons why it is not “the best profession in the world”
What I said to Bérubé: If it is unfair to ask people to spend $1200 to get to a 20-minute interview, and we are against elitism, then perhaps it is also unfair to ask people to spend $1200 in hopes of catching an editor’s attention. How do we make everything truly fair? How do we … More About conference interviews
This is the new computer. I am upset because I think I might have already destroyed its optical drive. I destroy things inadvertently due to anxiety, so this is possible, but as Undine would say, if it is destroyed, it can be repaired. I just don’t like doing violence to things, especially inadvertently. It is … More Mélancholique
My wing is ready to fly I would rather turn back For had I stayed mortal time I would have had little luck. – Gerhard Scholem, “Angelic Greetings” There is a painting by Klee called Angelus Novus. An angel is depicted there who looks as though he were about to distance himself from something which … More Afsnit ni
I am in Maringouin, from Houston, and would have liked to go straight through to New Orleans. Axé.
So, as I have announced elsewhere, my key word for 2014 is power, remembering that one does in fact have power. In Reeducation we were to be powerless, to succumb to the effects of our worst experiences, and to disbelieve our own perceptions because we were, it was alleged, born with permanent defects that meant … More Dolce anno nuovo
coldhearted scientist وداد 