Your Alternate Majors

This has come up before, but it is time once again on this bright, academic Monday to talk about college and graduate majors we thought about, but have decided against, so far. My general thought for today is that students need more serious advising than they get. By advising, I do not mean direction, nor … More Your Alternate Majors

Notes toward the Spring 2013 Introduction to the Study of Hispanic Cultures

I need help with this. Anyone who would like to, please read and comment. You are also free to use any of my ideas in your own work. Note 1: All readings have to be short and fairly simple, since this particular student population does not have the same level of facility in Spanish that … More Notes toward the Spring 2013 Introduction to the Study of Hispanic Cultures

Definitivamente

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

And So

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

On Boasting

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

Three Guineas

The honorary treasurer of the Rebuilding Fund had her eyes fixed on that. ‘What is the use of thinking how a college can be different,’ she seemed to say, ‘when it must be a place where students are taught to obtain appointments?’ ‘Dream your dreams,’ she seemed to add, turning, rather wearily, to the table … More Three Guineas

A Question on Paranoia

Are paranoia and a marked taste for intrigue especially great in Spanish speaking cultures? Are these French and Italian characteristics as well? Mediterranean generally? Why is the Portuguese faculty the most reality based? I realize I am suggesting very broad generalizations but I have reason to ask these questions. I will be grateful for all … More A Question on Paranoia