I reiterate that if you feel sorry for someone or guilty about them, and especially if the reason you do is that they have told you or otherwise communicated to you that you should, they are probably being abusive to you. I have heard people say their “head freezes” — they go into emotional shock … More Coda
A fabulous post on the limits and pitfalls of “civil discourse.” Via Historiann. Axé.
This is iconoclastic, I know, and I have posted on this matter before, and in some of my posts, I link to other classic posts. Therefore I will not repeat anything that has said before (unless I really have it on my mind today), but making a few other points, from a less classic lens. … More Yet More Anti-Advice to Graduate Students and Assistant Professors
This post is being written in real time. There are posts coming up which actually predate it. Remember that this novel is modernist and follows no chronological order. I have declared independence at yet deeper levels and bringing more of myself out of the deep freeze where I have been keeping it, saved for later. … More Independence Day
This summer is the nineteenth anniversary of my last summer before Reeducation. That entire year was really wonderful and I do not remember the weather in Louisiana being as good again until this year, whose winter and spring were fresh and luminous. In honor of the repetition of that beautiful weather cycle I am learning … More An Unpatriotic, Unpatriarchal Post
I keep saying I have vanquished Reeducation but it is never quite true. Now, however, I think I have it by the gonads. (I hope to drive up my hit count by saying gonad.) If a degree and practicum were optional, if all that were absolutely required were to pass an exam, I would study … More How Was It for You? Terrible! And for You?
Much popular advice on handling emotional bullies is misguided, among other ways in that it replicates the bullying by placing the burden on victims and making them doubt themselves. That, I suspect, is partly because our culture sanctions bullying, and partly because it is really hard to understand if one is not familiar with it … More On Handling Emotional Bullies: Open Thread
I am on strike, so we will read this important book review, brought to my attention by my Facebook Friend, Mike. It is a good review of a book which is obviously good for my research, both academic and artistic, and even better for Clio Bluestocking’s research, as it concerns slavery and wage slavery in … More On Wage Slavery. On Early Republican Baltimore. Several Things Academics Should Realize. Mario Vargas Llosa.
I am still on strike, but I am announcing that the weather is still lovely and that it is going to be a good day. I keep forgetting that it is now safe to get up in the morning and just do things. Normally I only think this is safe in out of town, safer … More More on the Question of Invalidation
…so as to drive up my hit count while I am on strike. We are going to talk about sex but it is also Juneteenth, in celebration of which I am Twittering about one of my ancestral homes. As one of the anthropologists studying it says, “It wasn’t a romantic, nice place to live. . … More Let’s Talk About Sex … and the Levees
