Here is a good article on The Great Gatsby, the movie. Here is a fact from it that I did not know: “an ethnic-American man like Gatsby (born Gatz) would not have been considered “white.” Gatsby is German. I knew Norwegians, Swedes and Finns were ambiguously white, almost as ambiguously so as the southern Europeans, but … More How to read
I have to work on my NEH Letter of Intent this week. I am saying this because when I shut this computer down I will have to close the document, I am likely to forget about it. I have to remember IILI and LASA deadlines as well. Here is a lesson in logic by the … More La semaine
Warning! For the past four years I have not been invited to vote on tenure, fourth year review, or hiring. I am not the only one and I had decided not to take it personally. When I am on these committees they tend to vote my way, not because I have the power to force … More Symptoms of neoliberalization and complicity
It is not a great film but I liked it, perhaps because it was cathartic; that summer was traumatic for Nick Carraway and really, trauma and interpretation are the topics of this journalistic article I have been writing. I want to publish its two versions and a follow-up partly as revenge or payback for academic … More The Great Gatsby
Time time time: to some extent it is true, one is as harried as one wants to be. My overwhelmed friend teaches community college, 15 hours of class a week, 3 courses 5 days a week, plus meetings, office hours, planning, grading, and the exhaustion of working in a turbulent institution. That is of course plenty … More Fugue states
I do not like the conclusion of my piece — it is too incomplete. It makes it sound as though I am just going for quasi-unionization or something but that is not what I mean (I do *also* mean it but what I really mean is something else). I mean: get rid of the “employee” … More In need of revision
In 1869, Nietzsche was appointed professor of classical philology at Basel University. Like most junior faculty, he was bedeviled by meager wages and bore major responsibilities, such as teaching fourteen hours a week, Monday through Friday, beginning at 7 am. He also sat on multiple committees and covered for senior colleagues who couldn’t make their classes. … More Nietzche on the tenure track
Four out of five sections are finished and I just want to get this manuscript out. To that end I am (a) in a writing binge that could not sustain a book or even a different kind of article, but is good for this; and (b) “just writing,” in the way I understand this (like … More The notes for my piece, updating daily…
This post is a footnote to the Spanish Professor’s excellent discussion of the case of Rebecca Schuman, who has taken a certain amount of abuse lately and of whose situation I am now somewhat better apprised than I have been. I have a few non-Power points to make. 1. Schuman is in German. Do you … More Rebecca Schuman
I had two counterintuitive maxims in mind earlier today and I have forgotten one, I hope it returns to me. The other is that people who accuse others of “arrogance” are, generally speaking, envious of achievement and humility, that they know they are incapable of themselves. I think arrogant people exist but I do not … More Maxims, and a question
