I said by mail: Is the main cathedral Lutheran? It looks like it inside, but then again that might be because it is reconstructed, having been more or less destroyed by German bombs on 29 June, 1941. I went to the organ concert there and determined that this organ and these players are not actually … More An evening in Riga
THIS is why the people with their alarm clocks and hourglasses, upping their so-called productivity, seem so antithetical to the life of the mind. “The world of labor and wealth is armed against the idleness and utopia that it sometimes promises. Thinking and dreaming require unregulated time; intellectuals lingering over coffee and drink threaten solid … More On having time to yourself
I do not agree with everything in this Appiah article on primitivism but there are some very interesting references in it. ⇔⇔⇔⇔⇔ I have been in Utrecht for a week and it has changed me greatly. I want to live here. I looked at some notes I made the first day and I know so … More On primitivism and aristocracy
We have three translations of Moro coming out in Asymptote in January, 2018. I wonder how actually good this may be. They are: – Oh fury the dawn emerges from your lips – The scandalous life of César Moro – Various lions lick the rugose surface of the equestrian turtle at twilight Axé.
It was so anti-inspiring when I really need to be inspired and I already live in such an anti-inspiring place. Throwing away the chance at small amounts of inspiration for the sake of participating in socially acceptable oppression just felt terribly self-destructive, like so many things I have done in life because they were correct … More I spent an afternoon in Amsterdam
I have reason to be interested in this, and will explain later. Recommended Standards for Mandated Assessment American Association of University Professors Policy Reports & Documents, 11th Ed Our university’s current assessment policy states that faculty calls all the shots on assessment: When it occurs, where it occurs, how assessments are designed and deployed, and … More An AAUP critique
I am in Utrecht, which is in the low country of Utrecht. (This is a Low Country, but is not Holland.) It is Wednesday and my paper is not until Friday. That gives me the rest of today and most of tomorrow to finish — perhaps even to e-mail to myself and print. Perhaps create … More Mais c’est du progrès
Joan Didion, again. “Writing is an aggressive, hostile act.” Trysh Travis: [In] graduate teaching, this means helping students figure out what they are arguing about complex and multifaceted topics with which they tend to have, in clinical mental health terms, deeply codependent relationships. . . . . . . bell hooks calls the process “coming … More Writing is the act of saying I
I love to study, but it is hard to do when people don’t like you to. When you have no context or negative context, you have to become super-strong. The idea of defending your time leads to concentrating on your parapets, not your manuscript. I do not like the idea of shrinking. I think we … More Ideas from Arturo Arias’ article on Jean Franco in PMLA 131.3 (2016)
There are people in Canton, Mississippi today with the names of my mother and uncles: Elizabeth Lloyd, William Tilghman Lloyd. These are the descendants of that great-great-uncle who bought land for cotton in 1837, and my mother would be disturbed to discover they are still passing down these names. While Mary Ellen Lloyd (sister of … More On ancestors and immigrants
coldhearted scientist وداد 