1. On the idea that what is professional and also healthy is to act in individualistic, self protective ways: to what economic and other models does this supposition correspond? 2. It appears to me to be neither healthy nor supportive of the profession. 3. I say that, of course, because I’m a union man and … More Notes and Fragments (On Capitalism and Gender, Perhaps)
Axé.
“Si j’étais ruisseau, ou bien touriste, vous m’aimeriez tous, comme on aime les artistes,” dit Vincent par téléphone. “Writing is a foreign language,” he said. “The best way to spell is in Phrench.” That took place in the twentieth century but perhaps I am a nineteenth century man. I am clearly a petit bourgeois or … More Si j’étais ruisseau, ou bien touriste
He is excellent. Read his open letter to George M Philip, President of the State University of New York At Albany. • The best way for people to be prepared for the inevitable shock of change is to be as broadly educated as possible, because today’s backwater is often tomorrow’s hot field. And interdisciplinary research, … More Gregory Petsko
“We had you, but it was with doubts and then, misgivings.” “We cannot easily afford you, and we also know you are scheming to get our money.” “You are perfect.” “We do not believe you can be competent.” “You are the most intelligent person in the world.” “We love you because we have to, but … More Some of Their Themes in Those Days
It was a refusal of ventriloquism. One could say it was Didion’s “failure of nerves.” It also coincided, alas, with Reeducation’s distortions, Reeducation’s idea that nerves should fail. But far more fundamentally it was a refusal of ventriloquism. My attempt to interpret it as a “failure of nerves” in the sense of that senseless Reeducated … More Definitivamente
All literature is foreign somehow, and all foreign literature, or literature written in foreign languages, and literature from other eras, is more foreign. The feeling of being in a struggle with someone else for — you, over you. The feeling of having to explain yourself, again and again. The feeling of having to explain really … More And So
I have an advertiser at $200 per annum who reminds me that I cannot stop posting. This means each post, at one post a day, is worth approximately $0.55 USD. I feel like Virginia Woolf, commenting on the economy of a small college for women in Three Guineas, or like Thackeray and other writers who … More Bound to the Masthead, or, Honorarium Slavery
Are you aware of the trope in which people say they went to their exclusive graduate program because they did not know what else to do? It is true of many to some degree, especially if they started at a young age; saying “I did not know what else to do” often means something more … More On Boasting
I am teaching a class I first taught as a teaching assistant. It covers just as much material, but meets half as often. I do not have the same amount of time to grade the assignments as I had when I was a teaching assistant, nor do these students have the time to do the … More Academic Mondays: La realidad
