The next paper

It is soon, and I do not have time to write it, but I must do it right, and it is designed as a way to start in on my LASA paper. I think I will use my ERIP paper and write a cover letter for it, essentially, that moves it ahead. What I am … More The next paper

The United States

Here is a State of the Union checklist I received from CREDO. Reject the Keystone XL pipeline. President Obama has said that action on climate change will be a centerpiece of his second term agenda. But he simply cannot make the necessary progress on climate changes as long as he allows tar sands production to expand. Sign … More The United States

Au matin

It is possible to live yet better. Still — I am now in a position to say I love my job. This is because I am able, this semester, to teach as I see fit. Perhaps this can last. Someone reminded me of the most devastating of the sentences we had to absorb in Reeducation: … More Au matin

On Philology

Philology was, however, also understood in very different terms, not as an empirical study of a limited field, but as a speculative undertaking oriented toward deep time and distant things. In “We Philologists,” written in 1874, Nietzsche registered his contempt for most philologists, whose work impressed him as an absurd combination of inconsequentiality and hubris. … More On Philology