Before college: Anything you do that is your own or that is expressive of you causes your mother to suffer the greatest of tortures. Be still. Before graduate school: You cannot do anything and must get married so someone will support you, but you will not of course be able to marry anyone who loves … More All those threats
Vallejo read Baudelaire more assiduously than we even realize, and did this before getting to Paris although he refers to him most obviously there. “Anywhere out of the world” Cette vie est un hôpital où chaque malade est possédé du désir de changer de lit. Celui-ci voudrait souffrir en face du poêle, et celui-là croit … More Paris Spleen 48
“Our American system of diet is altogether bad. There is too great variety, the food is too rich, the cooking is often very bad, we eat too frequently, and we eat at the wrong times.” “One of my sincere regrets in life is, that I prepared about fifty young men for college.” “In this country … More A book from 1874
You say you are hiding your intellectual views to be discreet and not offend those you perceive to be in power, but you are quite free with personal insults to those you perceive not to be. It is in fact a good idea when you are new faculty to ask questions rather than make judgments, … More Dear graduate student…
I am running a marathon and I do not know when it will stop. I like all the things I am doing — although I could do without some of them. But I like them and I would like them more if I did not have to do each one so fast. If you have … More La fatigue
What the student said, regarding La Malinche and more: the crisis of modernity is a crisis of gender … and the crises of Latin American national identities (especially the Mexican one, with the things Paz says, for example) are also crises of gender. People have written about this and it is a smart perception. ♦ … More The crisis of modernity and of nation are crises of gender
Early in the morning it is almost like a walk through the forest. Axé.
I woke up in cool sunlight thinking what it would be to be in California or New Orleans with a research day rather than Maringouin with a low-level teaching day ahead. Yes, it is different, very different, and it is false that all academic jobs are the same or that all are inspiring. Before coming … More Milan Kundera
“I really feel I learned in your class. You are a great teacher.” I tend to think I am not, or should not be, yet that if I am not, I am in danger; or if I am it is because I have put in effort that should have been placed elsewhere. I am clearly … More What a student said
…the first day I came to work here. “You radiate confidence and self-respect and it is though the wind had blown in with another kind of air, startling, disconcerting.” Now years later a graduate student said: “It is important I not be critical as I am at the beginning of my career, whereas you are … More What a colleague said
coldhearted scientist وداد 