This new series of posts on voice is intended in part to work out some more ideas for my article on writing and “procrastination.” I believe one piece of that text has died on an editor’s desk, and my ideas have moved beyond what I sent out in any case. But if I get a … More Voice One
I reiterate that if you feel sorry for someone or guilty about them, and especially if the reason you do is that they have told you or otherwise communicated to you that you should, they are probably being abusive to you. I have heard people say their “head freezes” — they go into emotional shock … More Coda
A fabulous post on the limits and pitfalls of “civil discourse.” Via Historiann. Axé.
This is iconoclastic, I know, and I have posted on this matter before, and in some of my posts, I link to other classic posts. Therefore I will not repeat anything that has said before (unless I really have it on my mind today), but making a few other points, from a less classic lens. … More Yet More Anti-Advice to Graduate Students and Assistant Professors
It was the weekend, and I was so hard at work that I forgot to have us sing. We will sing soon! I was not doing what I ought to have been doing. Something that had come up and had to be taken care of. I had to do a kind of psychological operation upon … More Popol Vuh
This post is being written in real time. There are posts coming up which actually predate it. Remember that this novel is modernist and follows no chronological order. I have declared independence at yet deeper levels and bringing more of myself out of the deep freeze where I have been keeping it, saved for later. … More Independence Day
This summer is the nineteenth anniversary of my last summer before Reeducation. That entire year was really wonderful and I do not remember the weather in Louisiana being as good again until this year, whose winter and spring were fresh and luminous. In honor of the repetition of that beautiful weather cycle I am learning … More An Unpatriotic, Unpatriarchal Post
…[W]hites in the postwar era did lose much of their animosity toward blacks–in a 2007 survey, 87 percent of whites claimed to have black friends–but that transformation of the white psyche has paid many fewer dividends than expected. It may have helped to elect a mixed-race African-American to the presidency, but black babies still die … More Reading for Pleasure Wednesday: Civil Rights in the North
I keep saying I have vanquished Reeducation but it is never quite true. Now, however, I think I have it by the gonads. (I hope to drive up my hit count by saying gonad.) If a degree and practicum were optional, if all that were absolutely required were to pass an exam, I would study … More How Was It for You? Terrible! And for You?
Much popular advice on handling emotional bullies is misguided, among other ways in that it replicates the bullying by placing the burden on victims and making them doubt themselves. That, I suspect, is partly because our culture sanctions bullying, and partly because it is really hard to understand if one is not familiar with it … More On Handling Emotional Bullies: Open Thread
coldhearted scientist وداد 