He’s a Dutchman. He was my Frisian conversation partner in El Salvador. He lives in Japan. Recently he said: “My students say Obama is not Black, but mixed, and they are trying to come up with the right English term for his color. The closest English term to the equivalent Japanese word is ‘Negroid.’ I … More What I Told the Dutchman, Who Asked
I This is a fresh post. I am re-starting this blog after two months (it has been primarily canned all this time). I wanted to direct all writing effort elsewhere but without the active blog I get blown off course too often. I do not promise to write a new post daily, but I am … More Centering (Para-InAdWRiMo), or, Discrete Notes (on) Centering
It is the weekend, so we are singing the calypso Progress, by King Austin. Via One Day for the Watchman, a great new blog. Axé.
In ceramics, you have to aim for a perfect piece from the beginning, or you will not get one that is good enough. Good enough means that it holds together. If you only aim for good enough at the beginning, you will lower standards too far and the piece will fly apart before the end. … More On Perfection
This comes from a very interesting thread including a conversation on race and racism with Human. I realized that what I could have continued to say in the comments thread merited a post of its own. Now I am writing notes toward that post. I am too tired after four hours of faculty meetings to … More Talking Race With the Emeritus Professor in the Days of Malcolm and Martin
*POOF.* This post was related to my just having been informed by one who should know better that GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ was a “Mexican” writer. Please, everybody, realize that Latin America has many countries. Not every Latin American who has lived in Mexico is Mexican. Not every Latin American whose work has been translated to … More Another Question for English Professors
Calling all English professors! Calling all professors of Comparative Literature! I have various graduate students who want to study “world literature” but only read English. They want to cover many texts from many centuries, continents and countries. What is “world literature” and how does it differ from Comparative Literature? How much should we expect someone … More What Is World Literature?
I am in late night grading jail. Students who have not studied verb forms fully, but who have understood concepts, are deriving from what they do know the ways in which things would in fact have been said in Old Spanish or in the Renaissance. How did they figure out when the future subjunctive would … More In Which Grammar Makes Sense
A commentator said in part: “[When I was younger] racism was something I was terrified I would be accused of. To be racist was maybe the worst thing you could be, but it was (I thought) very easy to accidentally do something that would result in some black person calling you racist, and as a … More On Race and Racism
FANTASIES OF CASUALNESS – DISORDER – AND CONTROL So a new person in town complains because he wants a relationship leading to marriage and dates nice women he meets at Mass, but none is interested in any arrangement except “friends with benefits.” He is horrified and asked me about it. I said I was also … More Please Translate These Fragments
coldhearted scientist وداد 