Still can’t dress herself
Books, films, politics. American literature professor.
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Still can’t dress herself
His point is about the rhetorical weight of the terms themselves in the current political environment, but one of these things is not like the others. Critical theory is an intellectual tradition going back a century.
When it’s gone in general, writing will not be missed by most people, but it’s return to being the rarified skill of a special few will be a total loss for those capable of real writing but left out of the First Estate, or whatever we will be calling ourselves in the new order.
It’s cultivation in the general public has been an idealistic goal, but never fully achieved. In other words, for most people most of the time, writing is a functional tool for performing necessary tasks but nothing else.
“What we stand to lose is not just a skill but a mode of being: the pleasure of invention, the felt life of the mind at work.” Writing as a technology for externalizing thought and consciousness is relatively new in human history. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/18/o...
Great weekend in Connecticut with old friends to celebrate and remember Fred with his family. I was reminded of one of his great lessons that an intellectual life is itself an ethical choice, and it must be chosen every day.
Balzac, I think
allpoetry.com/poem/8498445...
I explained to family that people would lose their jobs overnight and they wouldn’t be tenured professors. Then the small businesses in the area supporting them would go under.
Nope
No. Even positive ones can contain criticism, and I’ve seen at least three straight up recommendations to deny. This is in English Literature.
Ditto for Google’s Backdraft chromewebstore.google.com/detail/draft...
My favorite version of this story is that she played the writer like a fiddle and The Atlantic bought it
Like watching a hostage video
x.com/dukepress/st...
“goof troop of aggro freaks”
It’s ears, I think
Hacks
I reread Down and Out in Paris and London and it’s still on point
This morning, NYT fretted about this likelihood of disappointing numbers
