“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
The True Born Englishman Thus from a mixture of all kinds began, That het’rogeneous thing, an Englishman: In eager rapes, and furious lust begot, Betwixt a painted Britain and a Scot. Whose gend’ring off-spring quickly learn’d to bow, And yoke their heifers to the Roman plough: From whence a mongrel half-bred race there came, With … More English mestizaje
True translation demands a return to the pre-verbal. One reads and rereads the words of the original text in order to penetrate through them to reach, to touch, the vision or experience that prompted them. One then gathers up what one has found there and takes this quivering almost wordless “thing” and places it behind … More John Berger on Translation
Here is a good, basic piece on the fantasy of the white race. The term Caucasian was created to trace the origin of “white” people to the Golden Age of Greece and the ancient Near East. These populations were not, of course, “white,” and this “Caucasian” race is an invention. Americans were strong and vital … More Hector de Crèvecoeur
When I have to give that pesky Spanish class again, I will have grades recorded all the time in a gradebook they can see electronically, with comments. Grade structure will be very easy to average at the end, because everything will be worth 10%. Four quizzes or tests taken online outside class time, that include … More Notes for next time
Vallejo first got to Paris in 1923, and I first got there in 1964. What we have in common is having seen it without the Montparnasse skyscraper. Now it is 2014 and I have celebrated the 50th anniversary of my transatlantic voyage, and more time separates me from it than does it from Vallejo’s arrival. … More
Another myth that you’ve identified in a recent piece of yours is the myth of the so-called “lazy mob.” We’ve heard numerous media refer to the Southern European peoples in particular as lazy, as unproductive and people who simply don’t work hard. What’s your response to these accusations? Well, first of all, what is this … More Sur la paresse
It was a beautiful winter day of the kind we can have here: weak sun, slight warmth, white sky. The night will be starry and cool. Axé.
La méditation de la semaine: trauma. You must not teach, you should not be research oriented; your choice of research field indicates that you are not qualified to be in any research field; you are unemployable and I am qualified to say that; you must do this project and only this project, our way and … More Cold vista
