I learned a number of the things one normally learns, about new work, ideas, books. I learned that I have to actually write the proto-article I presented on: it is time to write it, and the thinking will come in the writing. Here are some of the other things I learned. My projects are many … More Some things I learned at the conference
I do not agree with everything in this Appiah article on primitivism but there are some very interesting references in it. ⇔⇔⇔⇔⇔ I have been in Utrecht for a week and it has changed me greatly. I want to live here. I looked at some notes I made the first day and I know so … More On primitivism and aristocracy
It was so anti-inspiring when I really need to be inspired and I already live in such an anti-inspiring place. Throwing away the chance at small amounts of inspiration for the sake of participating in socially acceptable oppression just felt terribly self-destructive, like so many things I have done in life because they were correct … More I spent an afternoon in Amsterdam
Joan Didion, again. “Writing is an aggressive, hostile act.” Trysh Travis: [In] graduate teaching, this means helping students figure out what they are arguing about complex and multifaceted topics with which they tend to have, in clinical mental health terms, deeply codependent relationships. . . . . . . bell hooks calls the process “coming … More Writing is the act of saying I
Jonathan has a theory on procrastination which applies rather well but I have more ideas on it. My thoughts are not yet well formed but one is that there is a great difference between procrastination and block. I have been greatly frustrated by trying to use techniques designed to fight procrastination on block. I think … More On procrastination and block
Originally posted on The Precariat & The Professor:
Talking with Jill yesterday about disappointment and the post-ac hustle, I was reminded of Kate Ragon’s chapter for The Precariat & The Professor, “Pleasure & Paradoxes of Organizing in the Corporate University.” We come to academia for a variety of reasons, but so many of us arrived…
“Bien regarder, je crois que ça s’apprend.” –Emmanuelle Riva in Hiroshima mon amour. “Change comes first at the societal level, not at the level of the individual. You work to change society, change the relations of production, and this work changes you.” My Marxist boyfriend said this one day in Berkeley during Reagan’s second presidential … More On change
It is said you cannot psychoanalyze yourself but I am forced to do it as I have found it to be the best available option. That is why I have this weblog. There were two breakthroughs this week. It is a breakthrough when you find a simple answer. The first was actually one I had … More A terrible beauty
I know people say procrastination is perfectionism but I don’t know how in the world they came up with this idea. I know perfectionists and they don’t procrastinate, they’re just meticulous and over-critical, over-fussy. I first “procrastinated” twice in graduate school, when I had paper ideas that were not actually viable. Studying on quarters there … More A rough draft (response to Jonathan)
I did not know, and do not want to know, and my father was always kind to his workers, who did not need to unionize. This kind of statement, especially from an adult in this day and age, is not a sweet excuse but actually a refusal to look at reality and to change it. … More On defenses of the Confederacy and Jim Crow
coldhearted scientist وداد 