…because it is one more obligation. I was always told I had to do this kind of thing because in our social class nothing else was acceptable. But I wanted to do so much more in life, and do things outside the arts. And I want to work at a high level. If I had … More Why it is so depressing to be told I should be an artist now
He says also subtly suggests it is not the beginning of something, but the end of something. This would explain why I feel pulled toward the 19th century. “Make it new,” said said Pound; but he could say that because it was still it, back then. That is to say: “it” was new or seemed … More On Nelson Osorio and the avant-garde
It is, or has been, this PTSD flashback-like event I have been experiencing all day. I have not had such an experience for a long time. It is as though I had self-harmed and were now berating myself for it. Seeing that is already an advance. How to stop the assault? Saying it is a … More Toute la journée
Is it something like this? Something in an apocalyptic landscape? My piece, which is “killing” me, begins and ends with Nelson Osorio and the avant-garde as a “reajuste cultural a nivel global.” The choice is a clear one. We can continue acting as if tomorrow will be just like yesterday, growing less and less prepared … More On death in Vallejo. On Pyncheon.
This is my meditation for the week and I will remain true to it even though it appears that my dear, rat-tat-tat little computer is not very badly harmed. (Only two keys are still stuck, and it flickered upon rebooting but then came up just fine.) My meditation will be about self-sabotage. I have spilled … More La méditation de cette semaine
This is a mestizo post because it starts with some famous jarana criolla with my old professor Pepe Durand! After that, it offers an article by Charles Hale on the future of Latin American Studies. Then, it just keeps on mixing. ¡Adentro! My Vallejo problem is and always has been a research problem and not … More “y siempre en el sepulcro estaré ardiendo”
When sound is translated into a blow on the nape of the neck, and light into a flash so bright that it actually scorches the skin, when feeling is lost in one disintegrating jar of every nerve and fibre […] the mind, at such moments, is like a compass when the needle has been jolted … More A new kind of synaesthesia
“Race into Culture,” from a 1992 Critical Inquiry was an important article and still is. Here are some key sentences for me, now; they are not a summary of the piece. The United States was also creating a cultural identity that was racial but hid race behind a curtain (so to speak) in the 1920s. … More Walter Benn Michaels
“You need not feel commanded to evaluate the course right now. Indeed, the faculty would much rather encourage you to reflect on the nature of this course, carefully considering things like: its design and execution, as well as the extent of your commitment to making the course and your education a success. Don’t forget too … More A dispatch from the neoliberal university
I just lost a lovely post on giving, that recounted my dream of the coffee pot, and I will not attempt to reconstruct it now. But the meditation of the week is on giving, giving too much, more than one has or should give if one wants to be in a position to keep on … More Giving
coldhearted scientist وداد 