Hurry!
Professor of English at Mississippi State University. I've published on narrative theory, contemporary US (mostly) literature, and computing. Currently working on infrastructure as a narrative issue. Also sometimes makes pottery.
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Hurry!
You all. I have assembled a cheeseboard so attractive that I might now officially be an influencer. Don’t know who the university will get to teach my classes.
Finished a first pass through in proofing. Now just like a million quotes and references to check
Do you really feel like the birds are fooled by those fake flowers on the hummingbird feeders? Ask yourself, who are those flowers really there for? Wake up, people!
We don't have to worry about accidentally dropping our PC in the bathtub or pool. Completely unworkable in the real world.
So true!
Made some pan au chocolat yesterday and it came out great. But food writers seem to lose their minds about croissant recipes. It's not that complicated: dough with a layer of butter, then you fold it a lot of times. The NY Times recipe has 24 steps and recommends starting 24 hours early. Get a grip!
I will also offer this bit of personal perspective: I served as a dept. head for a long time, and had to make the case for research support; it was always Excel docs of pubs and such. It's unfair, but finding ways to show "productivity" was just a constant battle. Any moment it could disappear.
Ok. I don't know that I quite got that from your post, but who knows: maybe I just need another cup of coffee.
Ok, it seems like this exchange isn't productive anymore, so I'm bowing out. But I do want you to note that the post I responded to was "It’s a long term comment about not contributing to the reproduction of intellectuals. That’s the vision." I'm kinda pro intellectual.
I apologize if I came off as combative. But I'd also like you to consider the flip side of your take here: downplaying the importance of participating in research. Faculty are hanging on by a thread to research support. I've taught in 4/4 jobs (and know people with 5/5), and that's a tough gig.
What a crazy ass thing to say. What’s your vision then to teach at a university? Surely I’m missing something that must be obvious to others.
This is a weird take. Presumably, PhD students are not serving as peer reviewers. More broadly, do we want a university system where faculty don't publish? So, we're just hired to teach, and everyone is on a 4/4, or 5/5? I don't get the vision you're implying. Community college?
Congratulations on somehow sneaking on to Bluesky in Mississippi.
This is a message I wish we could get out to non-academic friends: every time people talk about more "accountability" or tracking "learning outcomes" in higher ed all it means is hiring more associate deans and/or taking faculty out of the classroom to pound numbers into spreadsheets no one reads.
Holy smokes, I did not understand the implication of getting involved in the @tedunderwood.me Bluesky universe. My phone shows 60 notifications, which is like the total notifications I've ever had cumulatively before this morning.
Oh, my. I didn't remember this.
Fair enough. And I'm convinced by AI use in things like programming (which smart people seem to really believe works) and things like possible drug research. Great! But the valuation of these companies rests (I think) on the belief in AI application to all parts of our work life.
I'm a luddite on this point (I know, there's a whole history of the term) but I believe that people are for thinking. That using AI to summarize email, or draft reports is a sign of failure in work culture. I write my emails, I write my articles and rec letters, I read essays and take my own notes.
I get that. But the reliability issue strikes me as a real barrier. I never trust Google's AI summary. Microsoft is warning people not to rely on Copilot for real stuff. AI is great for writing fake term papers, but can you really rely on this for real work, when the standard is just seeming right?
I dunno, man. We've invented a "make shit up" technology, which is sometimes kinda right because it's scraping the internet. We're pretending it's intelligence, but it's just predictive text generation. Is it crazy to think that three years from now we wake up and say, "well, that was nuts."
We have started buying old-school travel books (like Rick Steves's Italy) again, after many years of just relying on online stuff. It feels like the equivalent of going back to vinyl.
Crazy exchange. @radiofreetom.bsky.social posts a pro-genocide story, I reply with a Bari-Weiss-would-approve comment (obviously), and he replies in a snarky way, then shuts down comments. Hey, @theatlantic.com is this pro-genocide stuff what you're publishing now? I'm anti-genocide. Maybe not you?
Surely, I'm just getting my wires crossed. You didn't reply to my comment and then shut down replies, right? That would be crazy.
Seriously, this is your take? Maybe you can bet Bari Weiss your publish your stuff. You seem birds of a feather.
Alas, I was trained in grad school to diligently proofread and check every quote, reference, and fact. So I’m crawling my way through this 300 page ms. I’d resent it except I always find at least a dozen mistakes in seemingly fine quotes.
I'm entirely in favor of this. A little work every day is so much better (for me, at least) than trying to block out like a whole day to write. Just rereading what you wrote yesterday over coffee and making some small tweaks before the day starts can make such a difference.
I was an undergraduate in the late 80s and it was considered socially responsible to only allow smoking in the hallway between classes, rather than during class itself.
Hey, want to see me swimming with manta rays in Hawaii? Seems scary, but they've got no teeth. Every time the camera jerks, its because they ran into me.
You know, people sometimes complain about Bluesky, then an absolute killer post appears and renews your hope.
That kid is deep in Levi-Strauss.
"The community’s two architects — a classically trained French horn player who has livestreamed his own sex videos, and a former jazz pianist arrested but not charged for attempted murder in Ecuador — say they must personally confirm that applicants are white before they can be welcomed in."
I guess. I feel like I'm a good teacher of writing, and that's kinda been vacated in this current model. Call me naive, but I don't think that's transactional: it's just one person helping another person write good stuff. I really feel like this is a loss for higher education.
Really liked *The South*, which I only picked up after it was longlisted for the Booker. My favorite read in the last couple of months has been *The Death of the Author* by @nnedi.bsky.social , and I'll admit I didn't see the twist coming. Just saying.
Yeah, we had a friend who taught at Eastern Illinois U and we'd go down to visit a couple of times a year, so I have somewhat fond memories. But southern Illinois is pretty bleak. Shocking how quickly things change the moment you get out of the Chicago area.
We used to live not far from Effingham, and every time we drove past it we couldn't help but think that this was a polite way to avoid saying Fuckingham.
Ah, the old "it's the first day of class and I haven't even started on my syllabus" anxiety dream. Welcome back, my old friend.
Phone cameras are amazing. I’m on vacation away from most light pollution (in Hawaii) and just took this pic of the night sky. You can see so much stuff in the photo you can’t with your eyes.
As if authors and reviewers don't have enough material to work through. Now we need to sift through robot junk?
“American Academy of Arts&Sciences reports 96.3% of humanities grads age 23-32 fully employed. Earnings in humanitiess comparable to social/life sciences, job satisfaction levels too. A serious mismatch bw actual employment for hum grads +general perception." www.mellon.org/voices/human...
Polishing up a long piece of writing that (I hope) I'm almost done with, and 90% of my edits now are removing "indeed" from the beginning of sentences.
Ran a conference in New Orleans in the weeks before the pandemic, and our only give-away was stickers, trying to cut down on waste. Just realized we had stacks of them left, so this week back in the city I've put them up in bars all over town.
Only in New Orleans can you get away with running a bookstore that has a maximum of 6 customers.
I always respect (mostly) European academics who do this. Nothing matters until September.
Present yourself in class in an intriguing way that implies an attitude towards today's reading.
I'm that last person to give advice on video calls--I'm terrible at them. I don't know how people manage to be looking in the camera all the time on a call. I want to look at the person talking.
Apple has a feature called "continuity camera" where you can use and iphone as the camera for your mac: support.apple.com/en-us/102546
Visiting with family on vacation last week and they were incredulous that I had to buy a parking pass for campus. You have to pay to park at work?
It's literally the next book on my summer reading stack. Looks great.
I love academic conferences. I guess it's in vogue to dump on them, but they completely energize my work for months after.
My doctor has nothing but cooking shows and late-80s goofy gameshows. Perfect.
Monsters.
I cannot express how much I love a niche post like this.
Today to Kroger: “Free, Take One” One the one hand, why? On the other, why not?
Alas, everything is a fight.
A very smart, interesting piece on large language model prose from the perspective of a distinguished Shakespeare scholar: Robert N. Watson, “The Odd Over the Obvious.” Slate, June 26, 2025. slate.com/life/2025/06....
My opinion is that Palgrave killed the place of publication. Who can even understand where that press is based?
Online conferences are miserable. Everyone is distracted, can't disconnect from real-world responsibilities. I was in a session in the spring where one of the online presenters admitted that she wasn't paying attention to the Q&A because she was checking her messages.
Wanna see a scuba video?
After the latest round of grading papers, I wrote about AI, ChatGPT, the death of the student essay, and what it means for the future of human cognition.
So excited about this article in *Poetics Today* on Charles Yu’s *How to Live Safely in a Science Fiction Universe*. Contemporary lit, obviously, but lots on fictionality and infrastructure for the 18th/19th century folks: Siskin, Baucom, Gallagher and Greenblatt read.dukeupress.edu/poetics-toda...
I am half-convinced that Steven Johnson, an extremely experienced historian, can make productive use of NotebookLM, but the article illustrates how using this technology requires a ton of experience working without it. This thread shows how even that experience may not be enough to avoid pitfalls.
Mine just about to bloom.
Sometimes I'll look at the upper right corner of a book to see what time it is.
I'll go further: everyone supporting AI as productive has already gone through an education where they've been taught to read and write without it, so they have context. I can't imagine a generation that from middle-school on depends on AI for basic thinking.
I spend too much time around books. Every time I got to Lowes and check the clearance shelf, I think to myself "let me see what plants have been remaindered."
When will they give up on the fantasy of knowing without thinking
If you have a foot in Asian studies, and feel able, please consider signing this petition generated by the Association for Asian Studies "against the recently announced U.S. visa restrictions on Chinese students." It's wisely worded and a meaningful show of dissent. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Chicken walks into a bar.
I assume you’re just goofing here, but you know the iPhone was completely different from every cell phone before. The idea of not having buttons was shocking. That it seems inevitable now, even “undesigned,” is the essence of great design.
Main character energy is OUT, this summer we’re bringing NPC energy. We’re posted up at the bar dropping lore and suggesting side quests. We’re leaning casually near a locked door and saying “I don’t think you have the key for that” when someone tries the handle. We’re staring at a tree.
Pro tip: the frozen crab legs that you get from the grocery store are great. I suspect that all of them are farmed the same way, so restaurants are cooking the same thing. They cook in 5 minutes, so it's like the easiest fancy dinner ever.
Ah, that makes so much sense. Thanks!
Can I ask, and this is such a newbie question, but how do you manage the threads for the plastic dispenser? Obviously, you can use the plastic as a guide, but things shrink so much during drying and then during the bisque firing. How does the pottery not come out way too small?
Love this combo. I've never tried rainforest.
That looks great!
Ok, pretty good.
That looks so great! I'm always tempted by planting in those galvanized containers, but I've got plenty of space right in the ground and can't justify it. But they look so fun.
If Dems tack right in pursuit of some imaginary perfect policy position, Repubs will simply invent a new panic, like Critical Race Theory. You cannot win that fight because there's always a new grievance.
Beautiful! Alas, in Mississippi my peonies came and went two weeks ago. First time I could get them to bloom down here; fellow gardener thought that it was simply too warm for them to bloom, but wasn't the case this year.
You are just so fundamentally wrong. Dem policies much more closely align with voters than Repubs, economic stuff voters say they care about. There's a tiny number of matters (trans rights) where that might be the exception. But Repubs drive the narrative about dumb stuff. It's 99% messaging.
For some reason, my wife and I have gotten into the habit of saying that "you're crushing it" about the most trivial things (getting out of bed, drinking coffee) and you know, I think it's kinda good for our mental health. You're killing it!
Brains and sharks, equally scary.
Took up scuba a couple of years ago. I can only dive once or twice a year, so I'm still a novice. Went on a dive a month or so ago, and we got to the site and the other divers like, "Wow, this place is full of sharks! How great!" I'm like, have you never seen a movie?
Our water is off because of a main break and apparently won't be fixed for 6 hours (!). I keep going into the kitchen and thinking, don't open the fridge too many times. Brains are weird.
I still live by the R-in-the-month rule on oysters. Is that not a thing?
History folks: I am exploring the possibility of a history conference panel about / of historical projects are being reduced, cancelled, etc in this current moment. Can you DM me if you have a project like that, and/or connect me to others? kthx
I'm infuriated by the reference to their "values and vision." Technology that steals people's work for training, and then puts artists and writers of work. Yeah, fuck that.
Absolutely. Gives you something to do when you're driving.
Favorite new plant this year: a “great” coneflower. It’s 7 feet tall. Got it last summer at our campus’s horticulture club sale, but it’s blooming for the first time this year. Going to collect seeds and plant them all over.
Jesus, man. You're becoming a parody. I enjoyed the Yglesias of The Weeds a few years ago, but this version of constantly scolding "the left" is exhausting. Seriously, take a step back and get some perspective. Are you still in Harper's Letter mode? Look around.
What is the point in being a person?
My long-running position is that by far the most important this is for students to simply graduate. Period. That's the most important predictor of lifetime earnings. If they find a major that interests them (can I suggest English?) and keeps them in school, that's what matters.
Ah, violent femmes.
This is the kind of commentary I signed up for on Bluesky.
Most folks grades are in, the weather is getting nice, and the days are long. Can we agree to hit pause and just spend the rest of the year this way?
I'm not the best person to speak to this, but just imagine the shit that black and brown folks endure every day. I know that we all apparently have decided to throw *White Fragility* under the bus, but it sure seems to apply.
Trying to limit myself on political posts, so here's mine for the day. The Biden-was-old stuff is exhausting and none of us want to rehash it. But by all means, get it out of your system now. Do a million interviews until everyone talks themselves out. So much better now than the summer of 2026.
This is such an interesting/terrible dynamic. All the ed tech has come to eat higher ed, but the corporate structure of the large university is addicted to Canvas, Concur, Banner, etc. AI is just the natural extension of that.