Garden Wall

Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, … More Garden Wall

Joan Dayan

One of my favorite academic articles, for the sake of literary style among other things, is Joan Dayan’s “Caribbean Cannibals and Whores” (Raritan 9:2 [Fall 1989]: 45-68). Here are a few passages from it: 1. In Haitian ceremonies of vodoun, the most spendid of the gods is Erzulie-Fréda. She is also known to be the … More Joan Dayan

Concentration Camps I / Sunday Paper

PRINCIPAL I will be periodically reminding everyone that the United States has concentration camps, not only outside but also within our borders. Today’s featured post, Xicano Power’s Privatized Prisons for Immigrants, addresses this issue. Note also that there is a huge immigration sweep underway in Santa Fe. OTRAS In other news, my favorite quotation for … More Concentration Camps I / Sunday Paper

Neal Stephenson

My favorite academic novel is Neal Stephenson’s Big U. Now Dissent alerts us to the fact that some of our alma mater has once again struck a deal worthy of this novel. We can read all about it in the San Francisco Chronicle, whose headline for the story is “BERKELEY – UC faculty critical of … More Neal Stephenson

William James

Books I ought to read for recreational purposes include, but are not limited to: Bataille, Eroticism, which discusses the continuity and discontinuity of beings; Foucault, History of Sexuality, because I never have and because it might create an interesting combination with Bataille, and Kaysen, Girl, Interrupted, because if I am going to read some new-to-me … More William James

Wild Mountain Thyme

These are the Silencers. The video was shot in 1996, around Lochranza on the Isle of Arran. The song was written in 1947 by Frankie McPeak. Oh, the summer time is coming, And the trees are sweetly blooming; And the wild mountain thyme, Grows around the blooming heather. Will you go, lassie, go? And we’ll … More Wild Mountain Thyme

Karl Marx V

From Oxford University Press, on Jonathan Wolff, Why Read Marx Today? (OUP, 2003): Jonathan Wolff argues that if we detach Marx the critic of current society from Marx the prophet of some never-to-be-realized worker’s paradise, he remains the most impressive critic we have of liberal, capitalist, bourgeois society. The author shows how Marx’s main ideas … More Karl Marx V