Here are some things to think about. 1. Mireille’s article on appropriations of Aimé Césaire. I read it and thought of Vallejo appropriations, and I did not yet know about Jonathan’s book on Lorca appropriations. Now I find Mireille’s prose irritatingly unclear but I want to bring the piece up again since it is about … More Research never ends
Today I had a leisurely breakfast with my guest and took her to the station, after which I did some errands. I came home and started laundry, looked at e-mail and did some financial things, and then it was noon. I had lunch and sat down to write, taking short breaks to wrap packages, make … More Le lundi
I do not like to lose things, especially not things in which I have invested a piece of my identity, but I do it. This year so far I have lost two rings, a cell phone, and now a Mycra Pac raincoat, which is the worst loss. It was this cool nickel color and was … More Mycra Pac
The most memorable sentence in his (also favorable review) is about Latin America, of which he asks: “Where else, after all, has interracial sex been a more important source of national identities?” This 1992 review is in HAHR. As you can see, even while working a festival and spending the entire morning taking tourists around … More J. C. Chasteen on Sommer
A person with any kind of authority assumes it means dictatorial power and cannot believe it if anyone stands up to them. That is the South for you, although when there is opposition it is particularly valiant. I am passing my committee role on to someone else and the committee chair is requiring a meeting between … More The South really is different, and not in a good way…
This dictator of Spain from 1923 to 1930 was a count, a marquis and a knight. An interesting Hispanist said he came from “a hard-drinking, whoring, horse-loving aristocracy” that ruled “over the most starved and down-trodden race of agricultural labourers in Europe,” and I got that quotation from Wikipedia. I was reading about Primo de Rivera … More Miguel Primo de Rivera
I think I might be breaking up with Marc Bousquet. He is right about how the university works. The Los Angeles Times even quoted me making many of the same points, thirty years ago when we were founding what is now this union. But at the current crossroads it may be that adjuncts are not … More Further heresy
So I was reelected by a landslide to that position, and my candidate for co-chair lost by a 3% margin. This puts me in a toxic situation for the next two years given the counterpart with whom I have been saddled and given that a majority of the committee we serve voted for that person. … More The upshot
This is apparently the current meme. Meanwhile I railed against negativity in the writing group today. I have never been an adjunct so I speak from “privilege” but believe me when I tell you I have been through more kinds of academic hell than most people still left standing. In particular I know what it … More Life after tenure
This looks a little more modern than it does when you see it in person, but yes — we do have concentration camps with slave labor doing factory work for corporations. I still say work on this is the most important of the things I do, and I really wish I were empowered to work … More Angola bound
coldhearted scientist وداد 