Another unfinished paper I have is on Tropicalismo. I am reminded of it by this post. I do not know that it fits into what I am doing now but I should finish it. The text is quite interesting; it got out of my control and Tropicalismo began to look like the boom novel; that … More Tropicália
I like my classes this semester because I have programs for them I can believe in. We have current theory and criticism, and engaging, authentic materials; we are not classifying texts according to movements, nor authors according to generations. Memorable courses I took in college include: –Calculus with a Buddhist T.A. Theoretical and wiggy. –Denmark’s … More On college classes
I wrote most of my dissertation in São Paulo, Brazil, where people did not find it strange that one should make progress. There was something marvelous in this. Nobody sighed in the background, nobody suggested it should not be done. One of my friends did remark on my “strange capacity to keep working on things [I] do … More Things I learned in São Paulo
Once again, I like The Compleat Academic because it is realistic and does not condescend. It does not assume incompetence, and it does not recommend fear. If I were a linguist I would you go through what is mostly said to graduate students and assistant professors and study the vocabulary. It is about how you … More What I mean, #3
♦ This sketch does not justify my working title which refers to Villaverde’s “ojo conocedor” — the eye which sees race. The “discerning eye” in his text and in others is what makes one (Latin) American. Elite criollos need it so as to know with whom they are dealing; others do too, so as to know … More That Discerning Eye
Here is some of something I said on e-mail today: I am trying to understand how two circuits of signification, despite disarticulation at some levels, connect (and connect they do): (a) different definitions of race and the racial, different formations of racial meaning in different places, and (b) race and the world system, where things … More El público
I keep working, but everything takes longer than planned and I am behind. There is a lot to do still today and a long day tomorrow. THURSDAY Early: Write Charles and Chris; change cell phone service. 9-6: Meeting, then prepare and teach, half an hour for lunch. Late: Finish and distribute minutes from meeting; finally … More Thursday and Friday plans, and beyond
If your conscience tells you one thing, and the Holy Father through the authority of the Magisterium has determined something else, then it is not your conscience against the hierarchy; there is actually, beneath what you think is your conscience, your real conscience which must, because you’re made by God, understand already, that you’re wrong. … More The Grand Inquisitor
I could do a series of interesting, mostly modernist paintings on this. One about being invaded, run over, chased across a field, cut down with a shovel (although in some dreams I make it across the border). A Cézanne, perhaps. Another about being in the Reeducation camp, perhaps by Klee (I would like to go … More On physical space
Because they are terrified preachers: fire and brimstone, how bad the world is; because they are grand inquisitors. Because they are unrelenting torture victims; because they are lying in vats of burning oil, and stretching out their hands to pull us in. Because they will not be satisfied until we join them in death and … More I dislike professors…
coldhearted scientist وداد 