This is the first of seven memoranda to seven groups, ranging loosely from the least irritating to the most. To all “non-denominational” “Christian” students: I understand very well that your home-schooling mother and your pastor may have given you to understand that you, like them, are members of a superior species, and that in this … More Memorandum 1
I I had always heard that being on the tenure track was a terrible thing, but I liked it. This is largely because before I got the idea of going to graduate school and discovered I was doing well there, I thought my destiny was to become a Receptionist or a Homemaker. I considered the … More On the Tenure Track
I There have been so many posts about the destructiveness of the tenure system that I would like to say something more about this. I, as people paying close attention to this blog may already know, did not get tenure. It was not at all traumatic, as I had seen it coming. After my mid … More On Not Getting Tenure
Over a year ago I had an argument with a blogger in which he accused me of insincerity. One of his blog friends looked at the exchange and said that actually, I was sincere “to a fault.” This was very interesting and I have thought about it since from time to time. I was first … More On Sincerity
I wrote the post below some time ago. I thought – and think – the student was being manipulative and out of line in general. I still do but I also wonder sometimes in these situations: who is behaving towards her as she is behaving towards me? * WM: I missed my oral presentation last … More E-mail from da Whiteman
Aside from the talk of abolishing it, tenure remains important for all of the usual reasons (primarily academic freedom), but for others perhaps more important, especially faculty governance. Without the job security of tenure, the professoriate is reduced to the role of a paid workforce serving at the whim of various bottom lines. More importantly, … More Open Thread on Tenure
On a quite different event from the one I am about to discuss, one “Mr. Eugene Debs” writes: You are the master of nothing! There is one master, and he is King Jay-sus! And there is no other!” …..And the audience rose to their feet and applauded. Laughing. Uproariously. As though the thought vastly delighted … More On Being Up to Date
Thanks to Momo I have discovered the blog Passive Aggressive Notes, and it is very useful. I did not realize how very many people I know fit the paradigm so perfectly. The site explains: As the New York Times wrote: “the classic description of the behavior captures a stubborn malcontent, someone who passively resists fulfilling … More Passive Aggressive Notes
Preface: some readers may know, but others may not, that I do not really write one post a day. Most posts on this blog are written on weekends, at Christmas, and in summer, and they are then scheduled to come up at the rate of about one a day. Some posts – like the recent … More Notes from the Underground
I I had not read Alejo Carpentier’s The Lost Steps in a long time, but now I am reading it to teach it and it is a brilliant riot. All doubting professors should read it, I decree, because its first section is about getting lost in a profession and a marriage. The character, a composer, … More Reading for Pleasure Wednesday: Alejo Carpentier and MORE
