I am having an excellent semester despite certain problems I can see brewing in one class. Part of the reason for this semester’s excellence, however, is that I am again teaching Spanish literature, which works like a charm. By Spanish literature I mean the great, unknown literature of Spain, a country in southern Europe. This … More Spanish Literature II
I have more or less finished Barbara Ehrenreich’s Fear of Falling and as I say, despite being somewhat dated – it came out in the late 1980s – this book really is worth reading, as it explains a great deal. My early education was fraught with lessons about race and ethnicity. One needed fashions which … More Reading for Pleasure Wednesday: Barbara Ehrenreich
Esoteric reading for this week: Escrivania by Jesús Sepúlveda. Although I am not terribly impressed with this particular collection it is inspiring just by existing and by being complex. Someone had the ideas for it went so far as to polish them. And poetry is deep, and although classes have started I vow to make … More Reading for Pleasure Wednesday: Jesús Sepúlveda, Barbara Ehrenreich, James Lee Burke
Ehrenreich believes the rise of professionalism was, and remains, perhaps the greatest of all generators of middle-class insecurity. The creation of “the professions” was designed as much to keep people out as to let them in, with each generation forced to fight for admission to the club. Unlike the truly wealthy who could guarantee that … More Reading for Pleasure Wednesday: Barbara Ehrenreich, Mário de Andrade
I Another of my New Year’s resolutions is to join The Paper Chase in Reading for Pleasure Wednesdays. I voraciously read news, magazines, commentary, and book reviews for pleasure, but not nearly enough whole books or fiction since these are so closely associated with, and so easily construable as work. Having a book one is … More Reading for Pleasure Wednesday
For your consideration: Adam Smith was as acutely aware of issues of power and class as he was of the dynamics of competitive markets. However, the neoclassical economists and the neo-Marxist economists bifurcated his holistic perspective on the political economy, one taking those portions of the analysis that favored the owners of property, and the … More David C. Korten
I have my grandmother’s copy of Land of Little Rain, but I see that it is now a Google Book, a Virginia e-text, a part of the Berkeley SunSITE, and a Gutenberg e-book. This book describes things as they were in the nineteenth century when my various relatives arrived. At random: I like that name … More Mary Austin
Here is a small excerpt from one chapter of a book by Robert Jay Lifton. The language of the totalist environment is characterized by the thought-terminating cliché. The most far-reaching and complex of human problems are compressed into brief, highly reductive, definitive-sounding phrases, easily memorized and easily expressed. These become the start and finish of … More Robert Jay Lifton
James Baldwin died November 30, 1987, twenty years ago today. I was having a traumatic semester and I did not take note of his passing, but he has always been one of my favorite writers, so I will take note of it today. This post is intended as a James Baldwin Video Aggregator. CSPAN Baldwin … More James Baldwin
I am reading this book on the recommendation of Liz. It is smart. If I had not investigated its subject matter quite thoroughly before reading it, I might find it yet more epoch-making. On the other hand, I might not understand it so well. It has given me another insight on Reeducation. I have had … More Stalking the Soul
coldhearted scientist وداد 