Since we started I have written and submitted a 5600 word article but it is not the article I will write for this group. I will write that article next and I will do it right. To write the present article I did not apply Boycean reason. I went into a complete binge, and I … More Writing group post
Warning! For the past four years I have not been invited to vote on tenure, fourth year review, or hiring. I am not the only one and I had decided not to take it personally. When I am on these committees they tend to vote my way, not because I have the power to force … More Symptoms of neoliberalization and complicity
Liberalism’s original sin lies in its lack of a dynamic theory of power. Much of its discourse is still fixated on an eighteenth-century Enlightenment fantasy of the “Republic of Letters,” which paints politics as a salon discussion between polite people with competing ideas. The best program, when well argued by the wise and well-intentioned, is … More Jolt from the left
It is not a great film but I liked it, perhaps because it was cathartic; that summer was traumatic for Nick Carraway and really, trauma and interpretation are the topics of this journalistic article I have been writing. I want to publish its two versions and a follow-up partly as revenge or payback for academic … More The Great Gatsby
Section 5 of my journalistic article. How can I strengthen it still further? A New Curriculum Around the time my piece was distributed in Louisiana, British political scientist Tarak Barkawi published a closely related analysis in Al Jazeera. In it he notes the use of euphemism to justify the purchase of commercial educational products over … More The latest revision — stronger, but not marvelous
Time time time: to some extent it is true, one is as harried as one wants to be. My overwhelmed friend teaches community college, 15 hours of class a week, 3 courses 5 days a week, plus meetings, office hours, planning, grading, and the exhaustion of working in a turbulent institution. That is of course plenty … More Fugue states
I do not like the conclusion of my piece — it is too incomplete. It makes it sound as though I am just going for quasi-unionization or something but that is not what I mean (I do *also* mean it but what I really mean is something else). I mean: get rid of the “employee” … More In need of revision
In 1869, Nietzsche was appointed professor of classical philology at Basel University. Like most junior faculty, he was bedeviled by meager wages and bore major responsibilities, such as teaching fourteen hours a week, Monday through Friday, beginning at 7 am. He also sat on multiple committees and covered for senior colleagues who couldn’t make their classes. … More Nietzche on the tenure track
For 16 days I have written a page a day. Now I have 16 pages, a full draft, and I am exhausted. I accomplished very little else in this time beyond creating a new, very beautiful page on Facebook. On Facebook, I went and friended a few people I have been hiding from for years, … More J’ai fini
Meu rio, meu Tietê, onde me levas? Sarcástico rio que contradizes o curso das águas E te afastas do mar e te adentras na terra dos homens, Onde me queres levar?… My river, my Tietê, where are you taking me? Sarcastic river, you contradict the waters’ course And distance yourself [flow away from] the sea … More A Meditação sobre o Tietê
