thanks for not being a zombie

1. ...author?
2. ...publisher?
3. ...distributor?
4. ...vandal?
5. ...all of the above?

I met Nick Montfort in Philadelphia and became a participant in Implementation, leaving portions of this novel stuck on a bus, an airport shuttle, ATMs, soda machines, and hotel elevators. One of Nick's other collaborative works is 2002: a Palindrome Story, which features illustrations by Shelley Jackson, an author/artist who has left her mark on me.

Posted by at 3:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Home safe after travels to NY and Philly. Soon I hope to write about who I met and what I did over the last week.

However, I am currently thinking that the best way to end 2004 and start 2005 is to brainstorm about ways we (bloggers and academics, everyday folks) might help alleviate some of the suffering taking place on the other side of our planet as the death toll passes 120,000.

Certainly we should not hesitate to donate to aid organizations. I'm also thinking, though, that we might initiate something involving people getting together in their local communities for events that raise money, supplies, and awareness...something that would set in motion long-term efforts to help because the necessary recovery is going to take a long, long time.

I don't have a solid suggestion to make right now, but on the flight home last night I was thinking:

• Musical performances in small clubs around the country involving local bands, proceeds to benefit relief efforts. Pick one night (or four, or more) in January and get bands in Kansas City, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Chicago, Seattle, Boston, and Philadelphia (to name just a few places) to put on a simultaneous benefit show.
• Readings in student centers, coffeehouses, bars, and clubs of the poetry, fiction, essays, or drama of writers from the countries affected by the earthquake and tsunamis. Charging money for admission or asking for donations.
• Showing the work of filmmakers from these countries. Charging money for admission or asking for donations.

Click on those links that allow you to donate online, certainly, but let's do more that involves getting people together in person at the grass roots level. I don't have all the answers, obviously, and I encourage further suggestions from you. Do you know someone in a working band, someone who owns a coffee shop, someone who manages a movie theater, someone who owns a club or a bar? Let's make something happen.

Posted by at 9:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

We're heading home today, and I'll post more when I get there. For now, dear reader, you might like to read this article, by Scott Jaschik of the new Inside Higher Ed, on last night's blogger meetup.

Posted by at 11:00 AM | Permalink

Four or five of us plan to meet at 4:00 today (December 29) at the entrance to the book exhibit here at the annual meeting of the Modern Language Association. Be there or be square.

By the way, weird comment spam problems continue here on Wordherders. I have temporarily changed the settings on this blog's comments so that you need to sign in to TypeKey in order to leave a comment. I anticipate being able to change back to open but moderated comments in the very near future.

Posted by at 9:30 AM | Permalink

Courtesy of the New York Times:

Every year more than 10,000 literature scholars gather at the end of December for the convention of the Modern Language Association, the 120th of which begins today in Philadelphia.

Past conventions have yielded papers with titles that were rife with bad puns, cute pop-culture references and an adolescent preoccupation with sex, from "Victorian Buggery" to "Bambi on Top" and the tragically hip "Judith Butler Got Me Tenure (but I Owe My Job to K. D. Lang): High Theory, Pop Culture, and Some Thoughts About the Role of Literature in Contemporary Queer Studies."

The convention has become a holiday ritual for journalists, as routine as articles on the banning of Christmas crèches in public places, and every year a goodly number of those scholars tempt journalists to write articles, like this one, noting some of the wackier-sounding papers presented.

...What any of it has to do with teaching literature to America's college students remains as vexing a question to some today as it was a decade ago. There is, in fact, something achingly 90's about the whole affair. The association has come to resemble a hyperactive child who, having interrupted the grownups' conversation by dancing on the coffee table, can't be made to stop.

As I've written before, articles like this are fundamentally dishonest.

[Update: comments taking place at Crooked Timber]

Posted by at 8:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Unbelievable tragedy on the other side of the world as an earthquake creates tidal waves that kill over 19,000 people. Here are links to the American Red Cross and the British Red Cross.

[Via Crooked Timber]

Posted by at 5:43 AM | Permalink

• My mp3 collection is growing by leaps and bounds.
• The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou: awesome.
• Delicious south Indian cuisine.
• American whiskey and conversation at a bar on Franklin Street in Brooklyn.

Tomorrow I hope to be able to meet up with Vika and Deb.

Posted by at 12:01 AM | Permalink

Yesterday we had lunch at the Thai place in the Polish Brooklyn neighborhood where we're staying. Then we went to the newly expanded Museum of Modern Art (see this piece in the New Yorker), where I got to spend some time with a few of my favorite artists:

• Robert Rauschenberg
• Jasper Johns
• Mark Rothko
• Francis Bacon
• Jackson Pollack

I also made the acquaintance of the work of a few new (to me) artists:

• Alighiero e Boetti
• William Kentridge
• Jeff Wall
• Eve Sussman
• Michael Weseley

Weseley's photographs, the result of exposures lasting up to three years, are amazing. Longstanding structures are portrayed as solid, but people, cars, and buildings under construction appear as ghosts at best.

Around 6:00 we had a couple of drinks at Union Square, then headed to a restaurant named Bruxelles for a meal of mussels and pommes frites accompanied by some delicious Belgian beer.

Today? I have no idea what we're doing today.

Posted by at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Love don't play any games with me Anymore like she did before. The world won't wait, so I better shake That thing right out there through the door. Hell, I still love you, New York. -Ryan Adams, "New York, New York"

I am blue-state bound.

Posted by at 5:15 AM | Permalink

The sublime "Candles and Miracles" (mp3, 5M), performed by Hetch Hetchy. I don't know much about the band, other than the fact that members included Lynda Stipe (Michael's sister), who had been in an earlier group named Oh Ok. See also this entry on Oh Ok, which has a bit more detail about Hetch Hetchy.

MP3 files are posted for evaluation purposes only. Through this site, I'm trying to share and promote good music with others, who will also hopefully continue to support these artists. Everyone is encouraged to purchase music and concert tickets for the artists you feel merit your hard earned dollars. If you hold copyright to one of these songs and would like the file removed, please let me know. Availability is limited.

Posted by at 10:30 PM | Permalink

Don't forget about the proposed blogger meetup at MLA. Email me (ghw {at} wordherders {dot} net) if you want to participate.

If you happen to be wandering around New York or Philadelphia over the next few days and see someone who looks like this, be sure to say hello.

Posted by at 10:00 PM | Permalink

Rare Book School:

With one possible exception, the roster of courses offered by Rare Book School in 2005 on our Web site is now complete.

Regional SHARP in India:

SHARP Regional Conference IV : "New Word Order: Emerging Histories of the Book" January 30, 31, February 1 2006 at Jadavpur University, Kolkata Organized by Centre for Advanced Studies in English AND School for Cultural Texts and Records, Jadavpur University . More details here.

2005 Book History at A&M Workshop:

The fourth annual Book History at A&M Workshop will take place May 22-27, 2005, in the Cushing Memorial Library and Archives at Texas A&M University. This five-day workshop provides an intensive, hands-on introduction to the history of books and printing with an emphasis on hand press era printing and its allied technologies--typecasting, papermaking, bookbinding, illustration, and ink-making. Students will have the opportunity to cast type in a hand mould, set lines of type, impose formes, make paper, produce relief and intaglio illustrations and print on a replica common press. The workshop is intended for librarians, archivists, students, teachers, book collectors and private individuals who work in areas related to or who have an interest in the subject. The workshop also includes a series of evening lectures by scholars active in the field of book history. To register, find out more, or see photographs from previous workshops, go to: http://library.tamu.edu/bookhistory

AAS Summer Seminar in the History of the Book:

The American Antiquarian Society is pleased to announce plans for the 2005 Summer Seminar in the History of the Book to be held in Worcester, Mass. June 12 to June 17, 2005.

Michael Warner, Board of Governors Professor of English at Rutgers University, and Peter Stallybrass, Walter H. and Leonore C. Annenberg Professor in the Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania will co-lead the seminar. James N. Green, Librarian at the Library Company of Philadelphia, will be guest faculty.

The seminar is entitled "Publishing God: Printing, Preaching, and Reading in Eighteenth-Century America." It will focus on the eighteenth-century colonies to track the interplay between religious cultures and the circulation of print.

Please consult our website for the description of the seminar, biographical information about the faculty, application instructions, the seminar fee, and other details: http://www.americanantiquarian.org/sumsem05.htm

The priority deadline for applications is Thursday, March 10, 2005.

The seminar will follow the first of a series of conferences sponsored by the Program in the History of the Book at the American Antiquarian Society. For more information about "Histories of Print, Manuscript, and Performance in America", to be held June 10 to June 12, 2005, go to http://www.americanantiquarian.org/phbac.htm

2005 Conference, American Printing History Association:

The American Printing History Association is pleased to announce that its 2005 annual conference, hosted by Mills College, will take place in the San Francisco Bay Area on September 22nd & 23rd, 2005. Save the date! The conference, titled [r]Evolution in Print: New Work in Printing History & Practice, will combine academic papers with hands-on workshops and demonstrations that focus on the history, current status, and future of print. Watch for the Call for Papers & Workshops in early January. Topics of interest include the current letterpress revival; the history of typography and graphic design; printing along the Pacific Rim; histories of comics, zines, graphic novels and street literature; contemporary commercial print technologies; the end of ink on paper; radical printing and the counterculture; and of course any new work in printing history. Workshop possibilities include alternative printing methods on the Vandercook, contemporary handpress use, techniques for photopolymer, digital applications for use with paper and cuts, traditional tooling for bookbinding, and other traditional and experimental studio techniques. The conference will include optional weekend activities, along with opportunities to connect with the unique constellation of places and people that constitute print culture in the Bay Area. September is an ideal time to take advantage of the glorious late summer weather and active cultural calendar of San Francisco and environs. Please plan to join us at this exciting event! If you have questions prior to the Call for Papers, please contact Janice Braun, Conference Chair, at jbraun@mills.edu or 510-430-2047.

Posted by at 11:09 AM | Permalink

"White Christmas" (mp3, 4.8M), by Vic Chesnutt.

If you like this track and want to hear more by the same artist, look for these albums, and consider buying them from Athens, GA music store Wuxtry Records:

• Little
• West of Rome
• Drunk
• Is the Actor Happy?
• About to Choke
• The Salesman and Bernadette
• Merriment
• Left to His Own Devices
• Silver Lake

You could also download mp3s from the relevant section of the official website. Read more about him here.

(And no, he doesn't always sing in a fake Cajun accent.)

MP3 files are posted for evaluation purposes only. Through this site, I'm trying to share and promote good music with others, who will also hopefully continue to support these artists. Everyone is encouraged to purchase music and concert tickets for the artists you feel merit your hard earned dollars. If you hold copyright to one of these songs and would like the file removed, please let me know. Availability is limited.

Posted by at 9:00 AM | Permalink

This track is James Brown's "Santa Claus Go Straight To The Ghetto" (mp3, 3.9M) by Seersucker, taken from the same CD as the previous track.

I'm afraid I don't remember much about Seersucker, but they were a continuation of Dirt.

MP3 files are posted for evaluation purposes only. Through this site, I'm trying to share and promote good music with others, who will also hopefully continue to support these artists. Everyone is encouraged to purchase music and concert tickets for the artists you feel merit your hard earned dollars. If you hold copyright to one of these songs and would like the file removed, please let me know. Availability is limited.

Posted by at 8:45 PM | Permalink

"On Christmas Day" (mp3, 5M), by the Opal Foxx Quartet.

If you like this and want to hear more, check out their 1992 CD entitled The Love That Won't Shut Up, or get something by Smoke, the band formed after OFQ broke up. See, for example, Another Reason To Fast or Heaven On A Popsicle Stick.

You might also seek out the 2002 documentary Benjamin Smoke.

The above mp3 comes from a Christmas CD, put out in the mid-'90s by the Athens 'zine Flagpole, featuring indie Georgia musicians.

To crib from Bob Mould's site: MP3 files are posted for evaluation purposes only. Through this site, I'm trying to share and promote good music with others, who will also hopefully continue to support these artists. Everyone is encouraged to purchase music and concert tickets for the artists you feel merit your hard earned dollars. If you hold copyright to one of these songs and would like the file removed, please let me know. Availability is limited.

Posted by at 1:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

...2004 is over.

I don't care what the calendar says. Today (=yesterday) was winter solstice, the first day of the coldest season of the year, the day with the least amount of light. We can only look forward to more and more sun from now on.

I am thankful for my friends and family, my health, and the smart and generous people I work with. But I'd be lying if I didn't admit that some frustrating shit happened this year. In fact, I could have done without a lot of things that have happened over the last five years or more.

It looks already like 2005 has a chance to be a much better year. I'll be teaching two interesting classes (English 225 and English 550) during the first semester; the courses meet in the afternoon and evening, and I very much prefer to teach later in the day, rather than the morning. Whether or not I get any of the grants I've applied for, I've decided to spend several weeks in England this summer, with any luck knocking out all of the remaining research to be done. In the fall I'll be on leave from teaching, during which time I will be able to focus on finishing my book.

But if 2005 sucks, I will be asking for my money back.

Posted by at 1:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Maybe it's silly to get so upset over the death of a cat. But this one was around for eighteen years, which is very close to half my life. He had a good last day today.

Posted by at 9:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (20)

Like Chuck, my blog is listed on Amazon.

Posted by at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

While at MLA 2004, I'll meet with two of my professors from grad school (not at the blogger meet-up, mind you), people whose approach to their subject matter has had an important influence on my approach to my subject matter. They are, I would venture to say, my mentors. Saying that, however, causes me to feel a bit of embarrassment, like a grown-up who still sleeps with a security blanket: "Do you still need a mentor? Don't you have your PhD, now? Aren't you a professor, yourself?" Well, yes. But I still have my doubts and uncertainties, and I'm still not entirely sure how best to accomplish certain things in my career, like getting my book published.

On the one hand, we all develop into mostly self-sufficient individuals, but on the other hand, it's still helpful to have someone say, "Yes, I went through what you're going through, and here's what I did." On the third hand, I am not always comfortable admitting to my senior colleagues when I am having trouble with something because it sounds, in my own ears, like whining.

My questions for you, dear reader, are these (answer anonymously, if you like):

If you're in academia...

1. Are you still in grad school or are you finished, now?
2. Do you have a mentor?
3. What role does your mentor play?
4. What role do you wish your mentor played?
5. Are you a mentor to someone else? In what way?

If you're not in academia...

1. Do you have a mentor?
2. What role does your mentor play?
3. What role do you wish your mentor played?
4. Are you a mentor to someone else? In what way?

Posted by at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

...gender and blogging, part 3. (See part 1 and part 2.)

Much gnashing of teeth is taking place in the comments section of this Crooked Timber entry.

The Little Professor asks, "[I]sn't putting abstract speculation before data collection sort of like, oh, putting the cart before the horse?" My thoughts exactly. To put it another way, we cannot have a debate about the causes for X until we have established that X exists.

Some of the comments to this entry suggest that a drug is needed for the irony impaired.

Posted by at 7:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I haven't won the lottery or anything, but it is with a great deal of shock that I realize more than twenty years have passed since I purchased non-portable equipment for playing music. Needless to say, that equipment has since gone on to the electronics hereafter. When, over the past few months, I have made forays into stores that I thought would sell decent stereos, I did not have much success.

I therefore call upon the wisdom of the blogosphere to recommend particular models of stereo equipment, including (but not limited to)

1. Receivers
2. Record Players
3. CD players
4. DVD players
5. VCRs
6. Any combination of 3, 4, & 5
7. Speakers

Clap! Clap!

Let the advising begin!

Posted by at 9:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Among the things I'd like to do while on our brief trip to New York next week is see a play. Peter Marks and Mel Gussow review Caryl Churchill's latest in today's Washington Post and New York Times, respectively.

Hey! A revival of Sheridan's 1775 comedy The Rivals is reviewed in the Times.

Posted by at 8:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

For Rana, and the rest of us who fight this particular fight:

And I have lived that kind of day When none of your sorrows will go away. It goes down and down and hit the floor, Down and down and down some more. Depression! But I know there'll be some way, When I can swing everything back my way, Like skyscrapers rising up. Floor by floor, I'm not giving up. I've been beat up. I've been thrown out, But I'm not down. I'm not down. I've been shown up, but I've grown up. And I'm not down. I'm not down.

Posted by at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

...and the disinterested pursuit of knowledge.

This is truly outrageous news from The Chronicle of Higher Education:

The Education Department has canceled its annual grant competition for the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education because Congress has earmarked the bulk of the program's $163.6-million budget for pork-barrel projects.

The program's budget, set in the spending bill for the 2005 fiscal year that Congress approved last month, contains more than 400 pork-barrel projects ranging in size from $25,000 to $5-million and costing a total of $146.2-million. That leaves only $17.4-million to continue support for existing grants, which means that Fipse program managers will not be able to finance any of the 1,530 preliminary proposals that have already been peer-reviewed.

What kinds of things has FIPSE paid for in the past? Well, for one thing, The Classroom Electric: Dickinson, Whitman, and American Culture. But now, instead of paying a few thousand dollars for an educational resource (and perhaps a few dozen others every year), built by world-class scholars, that can be used the world over for free, Congress has decided to support projects like the $5 millon Strom Thurmond Fitness and Wellness Center at the University of South Carolina? (Is that a joke? What's next? The Jayson Blair Center for Journalistic Integrity or maybe the Charles Manson Center for Peace Studies?)

Apparently Congress is getting its porky fingers on the FIPSE money because the tax cuts and the war in Iraq have drained the budget of a good bit of discretionary money.

See, and y'all thought I was just being sarcastic when I made fun of Bush during the debates.

"Congressional Earmarks Crowd Out Merit-Based Grants for Innovation in Higher Education"
By KELLY FIELD

The Chronicle of Higher Education
Wednesday, December 15
http://chronicle.com/daily/2004/12/2004121501n.htm

Washington

The Education Department has canceled its annual grant competition for the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education because Congress has earmarked the bulk of the program's $163.6-million budget for pork-barrel projects.

The program's budget, set in the spending bill for the 2005 fiscal year that Congress approved last month, contains more than 400 pork-barrel projects ranging in size from $25,000 to $5-million and costing a total of $146.2-million. That leaves only $17.4-million to continue support for existing grants, which means that Fipse program managers will not be able to finance any of the 1,530 preliminary proposals that have already been peer-reviewed.

Fipse supporters said they fear that the cancellation signals the demise of the merit-based program, which was established in 1972 to support innovation and reform in higher education. They say many of the large-scale capital projects included in the appropriations bill -- like the $5-million Strom Thurmond Fitness and Wellness Center at the University of South Carolina at Columbia -- would not have qualified under the competitive program, which typically provides campuses with seed money for projects that could foster educational change nationwide. Last year, Fipse awarded 50 grants averaging $194,000 for the first year and $446,000 over three years.

"We're always looking to have ideas disseminated so other campuses can benefit," said Augusta S. Kappner, the former chairman of Fipse's board and the president of the Bank Street College of Education, in New York City. "That generally doesn't happen with earmarks." Fipse has financed some of the seminal studies on student assessment and supported groundbreaking research on learning communities and cluster courses.

But the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee that sets Fipse's budget defended the earmarks, arguing that members of Congress are more in tune with the needs of colleges and universities in their districts than the fund's program managers. The chairman, Rep. Ralph Regula, Republican of Ohio, said lawmakers vet all potential earmarks using a series of eight questions to ensure that they meet program goals and requirements.

"Fipse doesn't have all the knowledge in the world," Mr. Regula said. "The bureaucracy in Washington doesn't always have the last word on what is valuable to society."

Since 1998, the number of earmarks in the Fipse budget has grown exponentially, from two in the 1998 fiscal year to 16 in 1999, 51 in 2000, 136 in 2001, 272 in 2002, 306 in 2003, 328 in 2004, and 419 in the current fiscal year. Earmarks now represent 89 percent of the program's budget, an increase of 71 percent over 1998.

As a result of this shift, more universities are pursuing pork than in the past, said Clara M. Lovett, president of the American Association for Higher Education. "In past decades, they went after large grants through the competitive process," she said. "Now, the pork-barrel approach seems to be more productive."

The first hint that the competitive program was in jeopardy came in 1999, when Congress directed Fipse to give grants in 14 subjects and suggested recipients for most of them. The Education Department initially announced that it would cancel its annual competition (The Chronicle, January 22, 1999), but then it decided instead to conduct a new competition centered on the Congressionally mandated categories. In the end, external reviewers bypassed four of the categories and all but one of the 11 colleges that federal lawmakers named.

This time, though, the Education Department does not have that flexibility. That's because the spending bill for the 1999 fiscal year "encouraged" and "urged" Fipse to award specific grants, it did not order the program to do so, as the current appropriations bill does. However, Congress could choose to add more money to Fipse's budget.

While Fipse is not the only federal program that has become pork-heavy, it has been particularly vulnerable to earmarking because it is so small, said Debra Humphreys, vice president for communications and public affairs for the Association of American Colleges and Universities. "It is easy for lawmakers to not pay attention, or to think they're not having much of an impact," she said.

But some higher-education lobbyists say the real culprit isn't the earmarks, but the tax cuts and the war in Iraq, which are squeezing domestic discretionary spending across the board.

"Everybody loves a line item when it's for your own project," said Christie A. Dawson, director of federal relations for the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. "But the problem really is that education in general is not receiving nearly enough money. These are the cracks that are beginning to show."

While the cancellation applies only to the current fiscal year, some Fipse supporters fear it could discourage colleges from applying for grants through the program in the future. Richard Harpel, director of federal relations at the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, urged institutions not to abandon the competitive process.

Earmarking is "so based on connections," he said. "There are 3,500 regionally granted accredited institutions and they aren't all best friends of the chairman of the committee."

Posted by at 10:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Dear MovableType,

The 'herders recently dropped $100 on getting the latest version of you (and I paid another $40 to get my own higher education version to use on CHLT), and now we're starting to think that what we have now is actually worse than what we had before.

Your comment function doesn't seem to work right. The TypeKey authentication system, which ought to be easy peasy, is confusing and apparently buggy. You encourage people to download and install MT-Blacklist, but when it doesn't work (and trust me, there are lots of problems), you respond to questions with "We don't support 3rd-party plugins." Note that this particular plug-in is only available on your site. Why would you tell people to download and install something from your site and then refuse to help them when it doesn't work?

If I were just starting out blogging, I'd be dropping you like a hot potato right now and asking for my money back (and perhaps going with Expression Engine or WordPress) because your software looks like it sucks: it's not working right, the instructions are inadequate, and your customer support abdicates responsibility. Back when you were free, I was understanding, but we paid money for you. What happened? I have hundreds of blog entries stored in MT format, so I'm hesitant to switching to something else.

However, I'm not completely opposed to the idea, either. So are you gonna help us out or what?

Sincerely,

GHW

P.S. Here's the email I received in response to my query about errors in MT functions:

From: Movable Type Support Date: 03 Dec 2004, 09:59:17 PM Subject: Response to Movable Type support ticket 'problems when commenting'

Movable Type Customer Support has responded to your ticket
'problems when commenting'. This email notification has been
automatically sent by Movable Type Customer Support.

DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL. Instead, please click the link below
to view and respond to your ticket.

Hi, George. We are unable to provide support for MT
Blacklist errors since it is a third-party plugin. Please
post for assistance at the MT Blacklist forum:

http://www.jayallen.org/comment_spam/forums/index.php?

You may also be able to seek a solution through our
community forum:

http://www.movabletype.org/support/

Regards,

Shelley

Here's what Jay Allen has to say about this same error (note that this is only one of many errors I'm encountering):

"Use of uninitialized value in concatenation (.) or string at /some/path/to/extlib/File/Spec/Unix.pm line 78"

Many people are reporting the "error" above. In fact, this a superfluous perl warning. It should affect absolutely nothing, and is in fact a bug (probably in MT) related to finding the plugin template files. Essentially MT tries several places to find the template files and if it doesn't find them, the warning from that attempt is written out to the browser. Eventually though, the MT-Blacklist templates are found as evidenced by the fact that you have a full working page in front of you.

You should completely ignore this warning. I will attempt to suppress it in the next version.

You say it's Jay Allen's fault; he says it's your fault. Have we paid $140 for the honor of getting the runaround?

Posted by at 2:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (20)

Small Books and Pleasant Histories: Popular Fiction and Its Readership in Seventeenth-Century England, by Margaret Spufford (ISBN 0416741509):

The case of William Johnson of Lincoln, who was born in Scotland where his father died insolvent and became a pedlar in England, is an instructive one. He carried a pack of linen as a pedlar and by 1718 was able to take up a small shop in Lincoln where he at first sold hardware, caps, handkerchiefs and other ready-made wear in linen. He became a wholesale linen draper and a freeman of the city and eventually left a fortune of between 8000 and 9000 [pounds]. William Johnson's successful career from pedlar to freeman and shopkeeper suggests that the nineteenth-century Scottish model of a successful chapman's career may well hold true for earlier periods.

[meme via Words' End]

Posted by at 2:00 PM | Permalink

Those of us grumbling about our students as the semester ends might want to read this.

Posted by at 10:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Well, sort of. In a manner of speaking.

Posted by at 6:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Consider this post a sequel to my earlier one.

Observing that "Maryland has just become the first state in the nation to institute a statewide comics curriculum," Erin O'Connor questions the wisdom of this move, arguing that we need to make

sure kids get the analytical and reasoning skills they need, and that they begin learning those skills at an appropriate age. There are things you learn to do mentally when you read a long novel alone in several sittings; or when you puzzle over a poem to grasp its metaphors, its meter, and the way the form and content necessitate one another. Those things are subtle, but they are very real. They are also highly transferable. I'm just not convinced that comic books are good material for teachers who want to ensure that their students acquire more than the most elementary reading skills.

One of her commenters says, "I don't think presenting 10 year olds with comic books is a way to prepare them for the real world."

Three initial thoughts spring to mind:

1. Why do we continue to privilege the image over the word, as if the meaning of the former is always self-evident, requiring no critical thought whatsoever? Sitting for long periods of time with complex images might provide the exact same benefits that sitting with a novel does.
2. I have to agree with Matt, who writes that "contemporary cognitive science needs to be part of any serious conversation about attention and imagination." Novels do a better job than comic books do of lengthening attention spans and teaching kids critical thinking skills? It's an interesting reseach question. Where's the research? If it exists, let's bring it into the conversation.
3. Is the value of the study of literature in elementary school confined to how well it prepares ten year olds for "the real world"? As my colleague Bob Stewart said at the Kansas City "Reading at Risk" forum, sometimes the only thing a good book does is take you further inside yourself. Reading can be an activity that's personally rewarding but that carries no social or civic benefit.

Bonus Link! F. Scott Fitzgerald and Charles Schulz duke it out.

Posted by at 1:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Last year, I posted the titles of all the papers on British Literature that were presented at MLA 2003.

This year, I'm doing it again. Why? Because people in the press and in the blogosphere tend to pull out a few paper titles, argue that they're silly or worthless, and then imply first that most of the papers at MLA are silly or worthless and second that contemporary scholarship in language and literature is.

It makes for amusing commentary.

But not only is such commentary intellectually shallow (mocking paper titles? please); it's demonstrably wrong. As I wrote last year, the majority of papers presented at MLA are "the kind of interesting work one would expect scholars of language and literature to be doing."

British Literature: General

61. Class and Clan in Early Modernism
Program arranged by the Division on Late-Nineteenth- and Early-Twentieth-Century English Literature
Presiding: Andrew Enda Duffy, Univ. of California, Santa Barbara
1. “Stationed in the Elsewhere: Colonial Spectrality in British Fiction, 1880–1920,” Bishnupriya Ghosh, Univ. of California, Davis
2. “Downsizing ‘The Great Divide’: Reconsidering Class in the Modernist Movement,” Lois Cucullu, Univ. of Minnesota, Twin Cities
3. “Clan, Class, and the Rise of the Modern,” Vincent P. Pecora, Univ. of California, Los Angeles
4. “Migration Aesthetics: The Celtic Revival, Immigration, and the Atlantic Turbine,” Andrew Enda Duffy

385. Women Theorizing Notoriety: England, 1558-1830
A special session
Session leader: Mihoko Suzuki, Univ. of Miami
1. “‘The Passion’d Mind’: Criminal and Pious Desires in Anne Lock’s Sonnets,” Mary E. Trull, Saint Olaf Coll.
2. “Aphra Behn’s Heroism,” Carol Lea Howard, Warren Wilson Coll.
3. “The Muff Affair: Fashioning Celebrity in the Portraits of Sarah Siddons and Mary Wells,” Laura T. Engel, Duquesne Univ.
4. “Authorship and Libertine Celebrity: Harriette Wilson’s Regency Memoirs,” Lisa M. O’Connell, Univ. of Queensland
For copies of abstracts, write to Mary Trull by 20 Dec. 2004 or visit www.stolaf.edu/people/trull.

461. The Nineties and the Decadents
Program arranged by the Division on Late-Nineteenth- and Early-Twentieth-Century English Literature
Presiding: Marjorie Howes, Boston Coll.
1. “The Picture That Failed; or, The Light of Dorian Gray,” David Faulkner, State Univ. of New York, Cortland
2. “Out of Stays: Kate Chopin and American Local Fiction in the 1890s,” Bradley W. Evans, Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick
3. “Decadence, Cosmopolitanism, and Globalization,” Regenia Gagnier, Univ. of Exeter

544. Mind the Gap: Body, Brain, or Between?
Program arranged by the Division on Late-Nineteenth- and Early-Twentieth-Century English Literature
Presiding: Jessica Burstein, Univ. of Washington, Seattle
1. “‘Sandow the Magnificent’: The Machine-Body at the Turn of the Century,” Jacqueline E. Brady, Kingsborough Community Coll., City Univ. of New York
2. “Analysis as Obsession; or, Thinking Too Much about One Thing,” Lennard J. Davis, Univ. of Illinois, Chicago
3. “Wireless,” Richard Menke, Univ. of Georgia
Respondent: Pamela Thurschwell, Univ. Coll. London

British Literature: Old and Middle English

43. Moral Chaucer
Program arranged by the Division on Chaucer
Presiding: Eve Salisbury, Western Michigan Univ.
1. “The Parson’s Predilection for Pleasure,” Nicole D. Smith, Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick
2. “Curiosity’s Fall: The Miller’s Tale and Anti-Intellectualism,” Richard Newhauser, Trinity Univ.
3. “‘Ypokrephum’ and the Morality of Divine Wrath,” Mary Dzon, Univ. of British Columbia

132. Arthurian Audiences
Program arranged by the Discussion Group on Arthurian Literature
Presiding: Rupert T. Pickens, Univ. of Kentucky
1. “The In-Text Audience in Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur,” Kelly E. Nutter, Univ. of Delaware, Newark
2. “A Woman’s Castle Is Her Home: Matthew Arnold’s Iseut of Brittany and the End of the Domestic Fairy Tale,” Ingrid K. Ranum, Concordia Univ., IL
3. “Will the Real/Reel King Arthur Please Stand Up?” Roslyn Blyn-LaDrew, Univ. of Pennsylvania

183. Finding the Words: Old English Texts and Contexts
Program arranged by the Division on Old English Language and Literature
Presiding: John D. Niles, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison
1. “Scribes’ and Booksmiths’ Verses: ‘New’ Old English Poetic Texts and Scribal Wisdom,” Thomas A. Bredehoft, Univ. of Northern Colorado
2. “Metod: An Anglo-Saxon Death Deity,” Lawrence P. Morris, Univ. of Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Coll.
3. “Attending to Dialect: A Rationale for A Handbook of Old English Dialects,” Christopher M. Cain, Towson Univ.

255. What Does a Doctoral Student Want?
Program arranged by the Division on Middle English Language and Literature, Excluding Chaucer
Presiding: Christina Marie Fitzgerald, Univ. of Toledo
Speakers: George Thomas Edmondson, Dartmouth Coll.
Cara M. Hersh, Duke Univ.
Dorothy Kim, Univ. of California, Los Angeles
Rebekah Long, Duke Univ.
Pearl S. Ratunil, Univ. of Illinois, Chicago

352. Sight and Spectacle in Anglo-Saxon England
Session leader: Roy M. Liuzza, Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville
1. “Experiencing the World through the Word: Ekphrasis and Aldhelm’s Latin Riddles,” Susan L. Crane, State Univ. of New York, Stony Brook
2. “Body Politics: Saints, Spectacle, and the Cult of Relics in Anglo-Saxon England,” Shari L. Horner, Shippensburg Univ.
3. “Scene and the Seen in Juliana,” Allen J. Frantzen, Loyola Univ., Chicago

388. Outlaws and Out-of-Law
Program arranged by the Division on Middle English Language and Literature, Excluding Chaucer
Presiding: Geraldine G. N. Heng, Univ. of Texas, Austin
1. “Robin Hood, Performing Criminality, and the Economic Politics of Late Medieval England,” Kimberly A. Thompson, Ohio State Univ., Columbus
2. “Alternative Chivalry in Froissart’s Account of the Free Companies,” Gerald R. Nachtwey, Loyola Univ., Chicago
3. “True Labor, Bad Bodies,” Kellie Paige Robertson, Univ. of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh

471. Church, State, and History
Program arranged by the Division on Old English Language and Literature
Presiding: Allen J. Frantzen, Loyola Univ., Chicago
1. “Editing the Law and the Rationale of Memory: Alfred to Today,” Kathleen McFadden Davis, Princeton Univ.
2. “Fashioning History in Anglo-Saxon England: Abraham and the Northmen in Genesis,” Heide R. Estes, Monmouth Univ.
3. “Reading Repetition in Beowulf,” Jacqueline Ann Stodnick, Univ. of Texas, Arlington

487. Old Age
Program arranged by the Division on Middle English Language and Literature, Excluding Chaucer
Presiding: Susannah Mary Chewning, Union County Coll., NJ
1. “‘I Might Not Play No Play’: The Old Joseph, Performance Anxiety, and Masculinity in Medieval Drama,” Christina Marie Fitzgerald, Univ. of Toledo
2. “Gower in Winter: Last Poems,” R. F. Yeager, Univ. of West Florida
3. “‘A Woman in Great Age’: Margery Kempe, Book II,” David John Wallace, Univ. of Pennsylvania

533. Chaucer and the Politics of Literary Form
Program arranged by the Division on Chaucer
Presiding: H. Marshall Leicester, Jr., Univ. of California, Santa Cruz
1. “Unhomely Chaucer,” Gerald O. Egan, California State Univ., Long Beach
2. “Counsel, Confession, and Inquisition in the Tale of Melibee,” Jamie Taylor, Univ. of Pennsylvania
3. “Aristocratic Formalism and Self-Ravishment in the Knight’s Tale,” Mark Miller, Univ. of Chicago

585. Chaucer and the Lyric
Program arranged by the Division on Chaucer
Presiding: Larry Scanlon, Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick
1. “Poems Unwritten: Chaucer’s Lyric Abnegations,” Bruce Wood Holsinger, Univ. of Colorado, Boulder
2. “‘Truth,’ Twice: Chaucer’s Boethian Lyrics and John Shirley,” Maura B. Nolan, Univ. of Notre Dame
3. “Chaucer as the Father of Free Verse,” William A. Quinn, Univ. of Arkansas, Fayetteville

631. Creating Community
Program arranged by the Division on Old English Language and Literature
Presiding: Lisa M. C. Weston, California State Univ., Fresno
1. “Community in Place: Region, Relics, and Reading the Landscape,” Gillian R. Overing, Wake Forest Univ.
2. “Aggression, Frustrated Eroticism, and the Warband in Beowulf,” Frank Battaglia, Coll. of Staten Island, City Univ. of New York
3. “Heavenly Bodies and Earthly Communities,” Renée R. Trilling, Univ. of Illinois, Urbana

British Literature: Renaissance and Elizabethan

41. The Politics of Genre in Renaissance Drama
A special session
Session leader: Zachary Lesser, Univ. of Illinois, Urbana
1. “Marketplace Miracle Plays,” Adam Zucker, Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst
2. “The Masque of Docile Readers, Danced by New-Historicist Critics and Revisionist Historians, upon Sundry Occasions, 1975–2005,” Lauren Shohet, Villanova Univ.
3. “Tragical-Comical-Pastoral-Colonial,” Zachary Lesser

50. The Index of Tudor Verse: An Introduction
Program arranged by the Division on Literature of the English Renaissance, Excluding Shakespeare
Presiding: John N. King, Ohio State Univ., Columbus
1. “The Index of Tudor Verse: A User’s Guide,” Steven William May, Georgetown Coll.
2. “Reading May and Ringler,” Douglas S. Bruster, Univ. of Texas, Austin

72. Medievalism in English Renaissance Literature
A special session
Session leader: Kent Cartwright, Univ. of Maryland, College Park
1. “Chaucer Centos in the ‘Wyatt’ Corpus,” David Richard Carlson, Univ. of Ottawa
2. “‘Brutus Albion’ and the Afterlife of Saints,” Catherine A. Sanok, Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor
3. “The New World and the Old Religion,” Nancy Warren, Florida State Univ.
Respondent: Deanne Williams, York Univ., Keele

151. The Josephine A. Roberts Forum: English Renaissance Manuscript Miscellanies
Program arranged by the Renaissance English Text Society
Presiding: Carolyn Cassady Kent, Renaissance English Text Soc.
1. “Editing the Early Modern Miscellany: Examples from the Henry VIII Manuscript and the Devonshire Manuscript,” Raymond G. Siemens, Univ. of Victoria
2. “Humphrey Coningsby and the Personal Anthologizing of Verse in Elizabethan England,” Arthur F. Marotti, Wayne State Univ.
3. “The Holgate Miscellany and Some Related Collections,” Michael Roy Denbo, Bronx Community Coll., City Univ. of New York
Respondent: Steven William May, Georgetown Coll.

302. Spenser and His Irish Contemporaries
Program arranged by the International Spenser Society
Presiding: David J. Baker, Univ. of Hawai‘i, Manoa
1. “‘One of Their Bards Will Say’: Beyond Spenserian Ventriloquy,” Patricia Palmer, Univ. of York
2. “‘Rime and Reason’: The Politics of Patronage in Spenser’s Ireland,” Richard A. McCabe, Univ. of Oxford, Merton Coll.
3. “‘Little but Numbersome Burnings and Bitings’: Spenser’s Irish Afterlife, 1633–79,” Deana Rankin, Univ. of Cambridge, Girton Coll.

357. Ten Years since Queering the Renaissance
A special session
Session leader: Jonathan Goldberg, Johns Hopkins Univ.
Speakers: Jonathan Goldberg
Richard Rambuss, Emory Univ.
Madhavi Menon, American Univ.
Laurie Shannon, Duke Univ.
Jeffrey A. Masten, Northwestern Univ.

380. Religio-political Imagery in Marlowe: Rome, Babel, and Islam
Program arranged by the Marlowe Society of America
Presiding: Roslyn L. Knutson, Univ. of Arkansas, Little Rock
1. “Vatican-on-Thames: Marlovian Romes and Their Dramatic Uses,” Brett C. Foster, Yale Univ.
2. “‘As Many Several Languages As I Have Conquered Kingdoms’: Tamburlaine 2 and the Babel Topos,” Per Sivefors, Blekinge Inst. of Tech.
3. “‘Seek Out Another Godhead’: Religious Epistemology and Representations of Islam in Tamburlaine,” Joel E. Slotkin, Stanford Univ.

528. Contemporary Poets and English Renaissance Verse
Program arranged by the Division on Literature of the English Renaissance, Excluding Shakespeare
Presiding: Joseph Foster Loewenstein, Washington Univ.
1. “‘Lest . . . the Staffe Should Falle Asunder’: Stanzaic Practices in Early Modern and Modern Poetry,” Heather Dubrow, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison
2. “Mechanical Failures: Vaughan, Herbert, Oppen, and the Matter of Metaphysics,” Joseph Anthony Campana, Kenyon Coll.
3. “Courting God: Donne’s Holy Sonnets and Phillips’s ‘The Blue Castrato,’” Christina Anne Pugh, Northwestern Univ.

590. Reading and Writing British Literature in a Transnational Context
Program arranged by the Division on Literature of the English Renaissance, Excluding Shakespeare
Presiding: Susanne Lindgren Wofford, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison
1. “Gender, Political Writing, and the French Connection,” Mihoko Suzuki, Univ. of Miami
2. “The New Globalism: Transcultural Commerce, Global Systems Theory, and British Sixteenth-Century Literature,” Daniel James Vitkus, Florida State Univ.
3. “La Araucana in Ireland,” Barbara Fuchs, Univ. of Pennsylvania
For copies of abstracts, write to Susanne Lindgren Wofford (wofford@wisc.edu) after 15 Nov. 2004.

623. Reading the Fifteenth Century, Writing Literary History
A special session
Session leader: William Kuskin, Univ. of Southern Mississippi
1. “Caxton, Lydgate, and the Chaucer Canon,” Sarah A. Kelen, Nebraska Wesleyan Univ.
2. “Recursive Origins: The Development of Literary Authority,” William Kuskin
3. “Shakespeare’s Henry VI and the Tragedy of Renaissance Diplomacy,” John Watkins, Univ. of Minnesota, Twin Cities

700. Open Business Meeting of the Renaissance English Text Society
Presiding: Arthur F. Kinney, Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst
“The Commonplace Book of Sir John Strangways: An Editor’s View,” Thomas George Olsen, State Univ. of New York, New Paltz
Respondents: John N. King, Ohio State Univ., Columbus; George W. Williams, Duke Univ.

702. Issues of Literacy and Narrative Strategy in Marlowe
Program arranged by the Marlowe Society of America
Presiding: Bruce Edwin Brandt, South Dakota State Univ.
1. “‘Meanwhile, Peruse This Book’: Marlowe, Literacy, and the Gutenberg Father,” Douglas A. Brooks, Texas A&M Univ., College Station
2. “‘Profit and Delight’: Locations and Politics of Literacy in Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus,” Katheryn M. Giglio, Syracuse Univ.
3. “Desunt Nonnulla: Same-Sex Intimacy and Narrative Outcomes in Hero and Leander,” James M. Bromley, Loyola Univ., Chicago

732. Spenser and the Gods
Program arranged by the International Spenser Society
Presiding: Jeffrey Knapp, Univ. of California, Berkeley
1. “Thinking and the Classical Gods,” Gordon Lloyd Teskey, Harvard Univ.
2. “Damaged Gods: Spenser’s Disarmed Divinities,” Joseph Anthony Campana, Boston Univ.
3. “‘And Is There Care in Heaven?’: The Question of the Pagan Gods in The Faerie Queene,” Heather James, Univ. of Southern California

British Literature: Shakespeare

110. The Shakespeare Variorum: From Furness to Cyberspace
Program arranged by the Committee on the New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare
Presiding: Georgianna Ziegler, Folger Shakespeare Library
1. “The Philadelphia Variorum,” Richard Alan John Knowles, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison
2. “Book into Data: The Electronic NVS,” Julia H. Flanders, Brown Univ.

215. Presentism and the End of History in Shakespeare Studies
A special session
Session leader: Hugh Grady, Arcadia Univ.
1. “Bringing Home the Bard,” Terence Frederick Hawkes, Univ. of Wales
2. “Shakespeare and the Prospect of Presentism,” Ewan Fernie, Univ. of London, Royal Holloway Coll.
3. “Presentist Materialist Shakespeare,” Hugh Grady

236. Philosophical Shakespeares: Encounters between Shakespeare and Contemporary Philosophy
Program arranged by the Division on Shakespeare
Presiding: Lowell Gallagher, Univ. of California, Los Angeles
1. “‘To Close Impossibilities’: Circumventing and Saying Not-Knowing,” Ned Lukacher, Univ. of Illinois, Chicago
2. “Playing the Cook with Titus: Shakespeare in Cascade,” Julian D. Yates, Univ. of Delaware, Newark

465. Thinking with Shakespeare
Program arranged by the Division on Shakespeare
Presiding: Susan Zimmerman, Queens Coll., City Univ. of New York
1. “Shakespeare and Freud,” Christopher Pye, Williams Coll.
2. “Shakespeare contra Benjamin,” Richard Louis Halpern, Johns Hopkins Univ.
3. “Shakespeare with Arendt,” Julia Reinhard Lupton, Univ. of California, Irvine

496. Shakespeare in China
A special session
Session leader: Douglas A. Brooks, Texas A&M Univ., College Station
Speakers: Bi-qi Beatrice Lei, Natl. Tsing Hua Univ.
Timothy Billings, Middlebury Coll.
Andrew D. Schonebaum, Barnard Coll.
Alexander C. Y. Huang, Penn State Univ., University Park
Lingui Yang, Texas A&M Univ., College Station
Respondent: Murray J. Levith, Skidmore Coll.

632. Shakespeare and Humanist Education
Program arranged by the Division on Shakespeare
Presiding: Lynne Magnusson, Univ. of Toronto
1. “‘Petty to [Their] Ends’? Humanist Elementary Pedagogy and Shakespeare’s English Lessons,” Gwynn A. Dujardin, Northwestern Univ.
2. “Copia and Controversia: Rhetorics of Rule and Misrule in The Merchant of Venice,” Linda Suzanne Shenk, Rochester Inst. of Tech.
3. “Prospero’s Rage: The Failure of Humanism in The Tempest,” Richard A. Strier, Univ. of Chicago

British Literature: Seventeenth Century

6. Marvell for the Twenty-First Century
Program arranged by the Division on Seventeenth-Century English Literature
Presiding: Annabel M. Patterson, Yale Univ.
1. “Andrew Marvell, Samuel Parker, and the Rabbis on Proselytes,” Jason Philip Rosenblatt, Georgetown Univ.
2. “Marvell’s Poems after the New Criticism,” Paul J. Alpers, Univ. of California, Berkeley
3. “Marvell’s Horatian Ode and the End of Historicist Criticism,” Gregory G. Machacek, Marist Coll.

221. John Milton: A General Session
Program arranged by the Milton Society of America
Presiding: Charles Wilson Durham, Middle Tennessee State Univ.
1. “Tradition and the Individual Talent: Phillip Pullman’s Paradise Lost,” Lauren Shohet, Villanova Univ.
2. “Incertitude, Authority, and Milton’s God; or, Was Empson Right after All?” Peter C. Herman, San Diego State Univ.
3. “Heroic Solitude in Paradise Regain’d,” Thomas H. Luxon, Dartmouth Coll.

260. Seventeenth-Century Women
Program arranged by the Division on Seventeenth-Century English Literature
Presiding: Katharine M. Gillespie, American Univ.
1. “Strange Bedfellows: Arbella Stuart, the King of Scots, and the ‘Most Pardonable Presumption’ of Prose,” Elizabeth A. Mazzola, City Coll., City Univ. of New York
2. “Polluted Palaces: Gender, Sexuality, and Property in Lucy Hutchinson’s Elegies,” Pamela Susanne Hammons, Univ. of Miami
3. “The Letters of the Commonwealth: Sarah Wight, Deborah Huish, and the Epistolary Counterpublic,” Catharine Gray, Univ. of Illinois, Urbana
4. “‘All Science Lyes as Open to a Lady as to a Man’: Damaris Masham’s Egalitarian Philosophy,” Michal Michelson, Bar Ilan Univ.

296. Cash Bar and Dinner Arranged by the Milton Society of America
Program arranged by the Division on Seventeenth-Century English Literature
Presiding: John D. Rogers, Yale Univ.
1. “Lord Herbert of Cherbury and the Ancient Heresy,” Sarah Ellenzweig, Rice Univ.
2. “Blurred Distinctions about Blasphemy in Mid-Seventeenth-Century England,” Noam Flinker, Univ. of Haifa
3. “The War against Heresy in Milton’s England,” David Loewenstein, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison

362. Heresy in Seventeenth-Century England
Program arranged by the Division on Seventeenth-Century English Literature
Presiding: John D. Rogers, Yale Univ.
1. “Lord Herbert of Cherbury and the Ancient Heresy,” Sarah Ellenzweig, Rice Univ.
2. “Blurred Distinctions about Blasphemy in Mid-Seventeenth-Century England,” Noam Flinker, Univ. of Haifa
3. “The War against Heresy in Milton’s England,” David Loewenstein, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison

392. Donne and Sincerity
Program arranged by the John Donne Society
Presiding: Raymond Jean Frontain, Univ. of Central Arkansas
1. “‘Feigned Devotion’: A True Map of Misreading,” John Thomas Shawcross, Univ. of Kentucky
2. “Donne’s Christian Sophistry,” Gregory Kneidel, Univ. of Connecticut, Hartford
3. “To Biathanatos or Not to Biathanatos? John Donne Thinks It Over,” Ernest Walter Sullivan II, Virginia Polytechnic Inst. and State Univ.

529. Sites of Early Quaker Identity: Places, Histories, Texts
A special session
Session leader: Michele Lise Tarter, Coll. of New Jersey
1. “Publicizing the First Publishers of Truth: The Quakers’ London ‘Tavern Chapel,’ circa 1650–70,” Patricia Crouch, Temple Univ.
2. “‘All Dissenters Were in Part Partakers’: Quakers and the Politics of New England Memory,” Anne G. Myles, Univ. of Northern Iowa
3. “West New Jersey’s Dying Indian: Ockanickon’s Deathbed Speech and Transatlantic Quaker Promotional Literature,” Laura M. Stevens, Univ. of Tulsa

710. John Donne Society Open Session
Program arranged by the John Donne Society
Presiding: Jeffrey Johnson, Northern Illinois Univ.
1. “The Politics of Courtly and Anticourtly Love Poetry under Elizabeth,” Joshua Eckhardt, Univ. of Illinois, Urbana
2. “The Ghost of Conciliarism in Jonn Donne’s Ignatius His Conclave,” Anita Gilman Sherman, American Univ.
3. “‘Oh My Blacke Soule!’ and ‘Wilt Thou Love God?’: The Charlatan as Foil,” Roberta Albrecht, Bronx, NY

734. Milton and Toleration, Then and Now
Program arranged by the Milton Society of America
Presiding: Elizabeth Mary Sauer, Brock Univ.
1. “Before Independency? John Milton in 1641,” Sharon Achinstein, Univ. of Oxford, Saint Edmund Hall
2. “Milton and the Irish,” Linda K. Gregerson, Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor
3. “Milton and the Deists: Charles Blount’s Successful Defense of Areopagitican Toleration,” Catherine Gimelli Martin, Univ. of Memphis

British Literature: Restoration and Early Eighteenth Century

330. The World in the Eighteenth-Century City
Presiding: Paula J. McDowell, Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick
1. “Women in Excess: Convents and Colonies in Early-Eighteenth-Century Writing,” Laura Jean Rosenthal, Univ. of Maryland, College Park
2. “‘Like a World in Miniature’: Representing the World in Eighteenth-Century London,” Alison F. O’Byrne, Univ. of York
3. “Mercantile Accumulation and the East India Factory,” Betty Joseph, Rice Univ.
4. “Down and Out in Indostan: The British in South Asia and the Development of English Literature, 1658–1716,” Robert Moss Markley, Univ. of Illinois, Urbana

409. Sex in the Eighteenth-Century City
Program arranged by the Division on Restoration and Early-Eighteenth-Century English Literature
Presiding: Lisa A. Freeman, Univ. of Illinois, Chicago
1. “Suing for Rape: Complicity and the Uses of Seduction in Old Bailey Rape Trials, 1700–60,” Toni Bowers, Univ. of Pennsylvania
2. “Working-Class Sex,” Sally E. O’Driscoll, Fairfield Univ.
3. “The Bawdy House Riots and Performative Sexuality,” Katherine M. Romack, Stanford Univ.
4. “Men about Town: The London Theater’s Footmen,” Kristina Marie Straub, Carnegie Mellon Univ.

655. Sounds in the Eighteenth-Century City
Program arranged by the Division on Restoration and Early-Eighteenth-Century English Literature
Presiding: Jonathan Brody Kramnick, Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick
1. “Mother Shipton Speaks: Sounding Oracles in Eighteenth-Century Print Culture,” Laura E. McGrane, Haverford Coll.
2. “Pope, Print, and the ‘Wond’rous Pow’r of Noise,’” Paula J. McDowell, Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick
3. “Sounds in the Theater,” Paula R. Backscheider, Auburn Univ., Auburn

British Literature: Late Eighteenth Century

94. War and Peace: War and National Identity in the Late Eighteenth Century
Program arranged by the Division on Late-Eighteenth-Century English Literature
Presiding: Elizabeth A. Bohls, Univ. of Oregon
1. “Africans in the British Colonies: Soldiers in War, Slaves in Peace,” Kari J. Winter, State Univ. of New York, Buffalo
2. “The Meantime of War,” Mary A. Favret, Indiana Univ., Bloomington
3. “The Veteran’s Tale: War, Mobility, and National Identity,” Charlotte Sacks Sussman, Univ. of Colorado, Boulder

270. Desire and Devotion: Clarissa, Secularism, and Psychoanalysis
A special session
Session leader: Lori Ann Branch, Univ. of Iowa
1. “Religious Enthusiasm and Libidinal Sociability in Richardson’s Clarissa,” Ioana Patuleanu, Indiana Univ., Bloomington
2. “Clarissa: Sacred Text and Universal Subject,” Kevin Seidel, Univ. of Virginia
3. “Violating God: Secular Contours of Sentimental Fantasy in Clarissa,” Lori Ann Branch

382. Devolving English Racism: Progress, Race, and Four-Stages Theory in the Transatlantic Long Eighteenth Century
A special session
Session leader: Jennifer Thorn, Colby Coll.
1. “Difference, Distinction, and the Meanings of Race: Monboddo’s Antient Metaphysics,” Jenny M. Davidson, Columbia Univ.
2. “Reading Race from the Margins of Empire: Mohawks and Highlanders in Anne Grant’s Memoirs and Essays,” Juliet D. Shields, Univ. of Pennsylvania
3. “Eating Indians: Benjamin Rush, the Circularity of Stagism, and a Pharmacy of Race,” Julie Chun Kim, Duke Univ.

593. Traveling "Nature" in the Late Eighteenth Century
Program arranged by the Division on Late-Eighteenth Century English Literature
Presiding: Charlotte Sacks Sussman, Univ. of Colorado, Boulder
1. “Stedman’s Tropics,” Elizabeth A. Bohls, Univ. of Oregon
2. “Nature, Human Nature, and the Nursery: Early Illustrations of Africa in Mungo Park’s Travels,” Catherine F. Marsters, Gannon Univ.
3. “Johnson in Scotland, Scotland in Johnson,” Rivka Swenson, Univ. of Virginia

661. Epistolary Affection
Program arranged by the Division on Late-Eighteenth-Century English Literature
1. “Out of Hand: Letter Writing, Solitary Pleasures, and Female Desire in Samuel Richardson’s Clarissa,” Christine Crockett, Univ. of California, Riverside
2. “Exciting Language: Sexual Content and Epistolary Form in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure,” Kathleen M. Lubey, Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick
3. “Julia de Roubigné’s Epistolary Echo Chamber,” Emily Rebecca Woomer, Univ. of California, Santa Cruz
4. “Austen’s Waning Epistolary Affections,” Laura E. Rotunno, Penn State Univ., Altoona

British Literature: Nineteenth Century

219. The International Morris
Program arranged by the William Morris Society
Presiding: Hartley Steven Spatt, State Univ. of New York, Maritime Coll.
1. “Iceland and the Topography of Wonder in the Late Romances of William Morris,” Phillippa Bennett, Univ. of London, Birkbeck Coll.
2. “Morris, the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, and Italy,” Frank Sharp, William Morris Soc.
3. “Empire and Survival: The Nibelung Saga in Morris and Wagner,” Gregory Kershner, Hofstra Univ.
4. “William Morris: The International Artist,” John Lang, York Univ., Keele

393. Dickens Life Stories
Program arranged by the Dickens Society
Presiding: Robert Lowry Patten, Rice Univ.
1. “‘If I Could Have Married Little Red Riding Hood’: Dickens’s ‘First Love’ and Other Waterside Characters,” Molly Hillard, Univ. of California, Davis
2. “Paterfamilias,” Eileen Gillooly, Columbia Univ.
3. “The Violated Self: Reading Public Image in Great Expectations,” Renee Fox, Princeton Univ.

460. Romantic Literature and the Sciences I
Program arranged by the Wordsworth-Coleridge Association
Presiding: James C. McKusick, Univ. of Maryland Baltimore County
1. “Radical Romanticism and the Science of Life,” Sharon Ruston, Univ. of Wales, Bangor
2. “Dissent and Ontological Space in Literature and Science,” Stuart Samuel Peterfreund, Northeastern Univ.
3. “Wordsworthian Science in the 1870s,” Robert M. Ryan, Rutgers Univ., Camden
4. “Berkeley, Blake, Bohr, and Beyond,” Mark Stephen Lussier, Arizona State Univ., Tempe

506. Romancing the Colonies: Australia and New Zealand as Utopia and Wasteland
A special session
Session leader: Mark A. Kipperman, Northern Illinois Univ.
1. “‘In the Wilderness’: Antipodean Apocalyptic Fiction at the Fin de Siècle,” Kelly K. Hurley, Univ. of Colorado, Boulder
2. “The Repressed Returns Down Under: Romancing the Colony in Hume’s The Mystery of a Hansome Cab,” Mark A. Kipperman
3. “‘Where a People Primeval Is Vanishing Fast’: Alfred Domett’s Ranolf and Amohia and the Dream of Empire,” Hugh J. Roberts, Univ. of California, Irvine
Respondent: Brian May, Northern Illinois Univ.

706. Byron in the East: Research Resources on the Atlantic Coast
Program arranged by the Byron Society of America
Presiding: Charles E. Robinson, Univ. of Delaware, Newark
1. “Institutional Collections in New England and New York: Where Money Reigned,” Donald H. Reiman, Univ. of Delaware, Newark
2. “The Byron Society Collection at the University of Delaware: ‘Many Things Most New to Ear and Eye,’” Marsha M. Manns, Byron Soc. of America
3. “Byron in Philadelphia,” Stuart Curran, Univ. of Pennsylvania

718. Taking Liberties with the Pre-Raphaelites
Program arranged by the William Morris Society
Presiding: Margaret Diane Stetz, Univ. of Delaware, Newark
1. “Fashioning Loose Women: The Uncorseted Pre-Raphaelite Body,” Mary Ann Tobin, Duquesne Univ.
2. “Pre-Raphaelite Spiritualism and Suicide in HD’s ‘White Rose and the Red,’” Alison Halsall, York Univ., Keele
3. “His Carpets Flowered: William Morris and Lorine Niedecker,” Elizabeth Willis, Wesleyan Univ.
4. “How They Met (and Made) Themselves: Caricature and the Pre-Raphaelites,” Thad Logan, Rice Univ.

737. Dickens and Accounting: Numbers, Realism, and the Keeping of the Books
Program arranged by the Dickens Society
Presiding: Janice Carlisle, Yale Univ.
1. “The Books of Love: Dickens and Matrimonial Accounting,” Thad Logan, Rice Univ.
2. “A Comprehensive Etcetera: How to Count People in Dickens,” Hilary Schor, Univ. of Southern California
3. “Minute and Intricate Calculations: Dickens’s Ages of Consent,” Helena Michie, Rice Univ.

750. Romantic Literature and the Sciences II
Program arranged by the Wordsworth-Coleridge Association
Presiding: Alan Richardson, Boston Coll.
1. “Romanticism and the Sciences of Perversion,” Richard C. Sha, American Univ.
2. “The Romantic Cow: Animals as Technology,” Ron Broglio, Georgia Inst. of Tech.
3. “Shelley and the Poetics of Glaciers,” Eric Glenn Wilson, Wake Forest Univ.
Respondent: Marilyn S. Gaull, New York Univ.

British Literature: Twentieth Century
28. Contemporary British Writing: B(l)ack in the Center
A special session
Session leader: Maria Helena Lima, State Univ. Coll. of New York, Geneseo
1. “‘Marketing the Margins’: Rereading the ‘Struggle for Recognition’ in Black British Literature,” Mark Stein, Univ. of Potsdam
2. “The Black British Fiction ‘Boom’: The Second Generation,” Tracey Walters, State Univ. of New York, Stony Brook
3. “Black Cosmopolitanism in United Kingdom Poetry: Traditions and Individual Talents,” R. Victoria Arana, Howard Univ.
Respondent: Maria Helena Lima
For copies of abstracts and papers, visit http://www.geneseo.edu/~lima.

169. Philo-Semitism and Anti-Semitism: New Challenges to Modern English Cultural Production
Program arranged by the Division on Twentieth-Century English Literature
Presiding: Phyllis Lassner, Northwestern Univ.
1. “Educating for a Jewish Gaze: Sandra Goldbacher’s ‘The Governess,’” Helene Meyers, Southwestern Univ.
2. “Jew Consciousness in Forster and Orwell: Hellenism and Hebraism in the Twentieth Century,” Beth C. Rosenberg, Univ. of Nevada, Las Vegas
3. “In Britain’s Court: ‘Civil Anti-Semitism,’ Immigration, and the Public Jew, 1902–05,” Lara A. Trubowitz, Univ. of Iowa
Respondent: Phyllis Lassner

205. Nostromo at One Hundred
Program arranged by the Joseph Conrad Society of America
Presiding: Peter Mallios, Univ. of Maryland, College Park
1. “‘For Life to Be Large and Full . . .’: Epic Nostromo,” Terence Collits, La Trobe Univ.
2. “Nostromo’s Latin American Legacy,” Jennifer L. French, Williams Coll.
3. “Suspended Judgments: Skepticism and the Body in Nostromo,” Scott Warren Klein, Wake Forest Univ.
4. “An Unrecognized Polish Nobleman in Nostromo,” Jean M. Szczypien, Fashion Inst. of Tech., State Univ. of New York
5. “Anticipating a Scorcese Nostromo: The Lean, Bolt, Hampton, and BBC Treatments,” Wallace Steadman Watson, Duquesne Univ.
6. “Nostromo’s Narrative Confusion and Clarity: A Reassessment,” John G. Peters, Univ. of North Texas
For copies of papers, write to Peter Mallios by 10 Dec. 2004 or visit www.engl.unt.edu/~jgpeters/Conrad/conferences.html.

265. Reassessing Lessing: Prescience and Prejudice in The Golden Notebook
Program arranged by the Doris Lessing Society
1. “The Challenges of Teaching Lessing’s Golden Notebook after 9/11/01,” Suzette Ann Henke, Univ. of Louisville
2. “Freedom as Effacement in The Golden Notebook: Theorizing Pleasure, Subjectivity, and Authority,” Tonya Krouse, Northern Kentucky Univ.
3. “History as Emotion and Emotion as History in The Golden Notebook,” Judith Kegan Gardiner, Univ. of Illinois, Chicago

325. Neo-Darwinism and Contemporary British Fiction
A special session
Session leader: Jonathan D. Greenberg, Montclair State Univ.
1. “David Lodge and Consciousness Studies,” Michael John Sinding, Wilfrid Laurier Univ.
2. “Evolutionary Sparks: Darwin, Noah, and Liz Jensen’s Ark Baby,” Ann-Barbara Graff, Nipissing Univ.
3. “The Evolution of Unreliability: Ian McEwan’s Enduring Love,” Jonathan D. Greenberg

403. Virginia Woolf's Essays
Program arranged by the International Virginia Woolf Society
Presiding: Beth Rigel Daugherty, Otterbein Coll.
1. “Relatives and Reviewing: Fitzjames, Leslie, and Virginia,” Eleanor J. McNees, Univ. of Denver
2. “Performing the Notion of the Tourist in Woolf’s Essays,” Jeanne Dubino, Southeastern Louisiana Univ.
3. “Virginia Woolf and First-Year Composition: ‘Words Do Not Live in Dictionaries, They Live in the Mind,’” Leslie A. Werden, Univ. of North Dakota
4. “‘She Does Not Work with Her Brain Only’: Woolf’s Ellen Terry,” Andrea E. Adolph, Kent State Univ., Stark Campus

434. Lawrence and America: Crosscurrents
Program arranged by the D. H. Lawrence Society of North America
Presiding: Virginia Hyde, Washington State Univ., Pullman
1. “Ambiguous Crossing: Melvillean Katabasis in ‘The Woman Who Rode Away,’” Marijane Osborn, Univ. of California, Davis
2. “Locating the Future Native: Lawrence’s American Neonativism,” Julianne Newmark, Wayne State Univ.
3. “The Authority of Phantasy in Studies in Classic American Literature and The Plumed Serpent,” Robin Nilon, Temple Univ.

478. Sebald in England
Program arranged by the Division on Twentieth-Century English Literature
Presiding: Bruce W. Robbins, Columbia Univ.
1. “Sebald after Conrad,” Rebecca L. Walkowitz, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison
2. “Sebald on Aerial Bombardment,” Bruce W. Robbins

609. England in Europe
Program arranged by the Division on Twentieth-Century English Literature
Presiding: Rebecca L. Walkowitz, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison
1. “Shaw’s Geography of Ideas,” Martin Puchner, Cornell Univ.
2. “‘The Thrill of the Impersonal’: Ian McEwan and the European Union,” Lisa Jeanne Fluet, Trinity Univ.
3. “Caryl Phillips’s The Nature of Blood and the Modalities of European Racism,” Ashley James Dawson, Coll. of Staten Island, City Univ. of New York
4. “Ken Loach and the European Turn in British Realism,” James F. English, Univ. of Pennsylvania

695. Doris Lessing: Prophet or Maverick?
Program arranged by the Doris Lessing Society
Presiding: Debrah K. Raschke, Southeast Missouri State Univ.
1. “Extraplanetary Perspectives in Doris Lessing’s Canopus in Argos: Archives Series,” Lauren J. Lacey, Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick
2. “Four Levels of Detachment in Shikasta,” Phyllis Sternberg Perrakis, Univ. of Ottawa
3. “Trauma, Nature, and the Divine: An Environmentalist Perspective on the Works of Doris Lessing,” Jeanie E. Warnock, Univ. of Ottawa

724. Apart from The Hours: Virginia Woolf's Continuing Presence on the Intellectual Scene
Program arranged by the International Virginia Woolf Society
Presiding: Mark F. Hussey, Pace Univ., NY
1. “Reading Woolf in Africa: Aidoo, El-Sadaawi, and Lessing,” Anne Elizabeth Fernald, Fordham Univ., Lincoln Center
2. “The Legacy of the ‘Outsider’s Society’: Woolf, Brand, and Postcolonial Nationhood,” Erica L. Johnson, Chatham Coll.
3. “Situating the Pain of Others: Pictures, Arguments, and Empathy,” Madelyn Detloff, Miami Univ., Oxford

747. Tolkien Our Contemporary
Program arranged by the Conference on Christianity and Literature
Presiding: Ralph C. Wood, Baylor Univ.
1. “Tolkien and the Other: Gender and Race in Middle-Earth,” Jane Chance, Rice Univ.
2. “Tolkien as Preservationist,” Charles A. Huttar, Hope Coll.
3. “Tolkien’s Postmodernism,” Ralph C. Wood

759. D. H. Lawrence and America: New Perspectives
Program arranged by the D. H. Lawrence Society of North America
Presiding: Eleanor Hewson Green, Coll. of Mount Saint Vincent
1. “Lawrence’s American Audience in Vanity Fair,” Hannah Crawforth, Univ. of Cambridge, Christ Coll.
2. “Lawrence’s Modern Myth of Return in The Plumed Serpent,” Christopher Schedler, Central Washington Univ.
Respondent: Virginia Hyde, Washington State Univ., Pullman

764. Conrad in the Twenty-First Century
Program arranged by the Joseph Conrad Society of America
Presiding: Andrea White, California State Univ., Dominguez Hills
1. “Terror, Terrorism, and Horror in Heart of Darkness,” Frances Singh, Hostos Community Coll., City Univ. of New York
2. “Homeland Insecurity: Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent,” Cristina M. Mathews, Bloomsburg Univ.
3. “‘The Ends of the Earth’: Globalization and Its Discontents in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness,” John D. McIntyre, Trent Univ.
4. “The Voice of Comedy in Joseph Conrad and Primo Levi,” Debra Romanick Baldwin, Univ. of Dallas
5. “Of Trifles and Trade: Conrad and Globalization,” Deborah L. Shapple, Univ. of Pennsylvania
6. “‘Whirr’ Is King: International Capital and the Paradox of Consciousness in Typhoon,” Nels Christian Pearson, Tennessee State Univ.
Respondent: Carola M. Kaplan, California State Polytechnic Univ., Pomona

Posted by at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The 2004 meeting of the Modern Language Association will take place in Philadelphia, 27-30 December. I would like to repeat my suggestion that academic bloggers who will be at the conference get together at some point.

Interested? Let me know.

Please also consider putting a notice on your own blog.

Update: Participants so far

• Matt Kirschenbaum
• Chuck Tryon
• Amardeep Singh
• Ryan Claycomb
• The Other Miriam

Posted by at 7:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

After staying up late, working on this and that, this morning I am going to attempt some cardiovascular exercise. It's extremely cold, so I'll eschew running and head down to the fitness room to which we have access, hoping that no one is on the one machine I actually like to use. Goals:

• Significant yoga-related program activities
• 30 minutes of cardio
• Push ups
• Crunches

I have not done any of this in months and months, and no matter how uncomfortable this might be, my philosophy is that doing something is better than doing nothing.

Update: Mission accomplished.

• 30 minutes of yoga-like contortions (with assistance from our blind, geriatric cat)
• 417 calories in 30 minutes on the elliptical trainer
• 10 crunches
• 10 push ups

Yes, I know those last two are nothing to get excited about, but today is a start.

Posted by at 9:30 AM | Permalink

In response to an emailed question about foundational texts on the history of the book, I wrote the following response, and I would be glad to hear other suggestions readers might have:

I would recommend that you start with Robert Darnton's "What Is The History of Books?" in his collection of essays entitled The Kiss of Lamourette. (There is a reply to Darnton in the first essay of A Potencie of Life: Books in Society.) If you're the journal browsing type, take a look at Book History, an annual that has been produced by the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing for the last several years.

As the starting point with foundational texts, go with Elizabeth Eisenstein's The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe, which is an abridgement (accessible, but with the footnotes removed!) of her much longer work, The Printing Press As An Agent of Change. If you have time and/or are a fast reader, go with the longer work.

Appearing earlier than Eisenstein's work, Marshall McLuhan's Gutenberg Galaxy was influential for a time, but I have found his work unsatisfying. Walter Ong's Orality and Literacy is a good synthesis of the extant work on a topic tangential to book history proper; the study of orality and literacy is a different field, although there are significant intersections.

D. F. McKenzie's Bibliography and the Sociology of Texts is an important set of essays arguing for the importance of considering not only the material nature of texts themselves but also the environment in which they are produced, circulated, and received.

Most recently, Adrian Johns' The Nature of the Book is seen as, in part, a reconsideration of many of Eistenstein's assertions. Not everyone agrees, however, that he has really successfully refuted what she has to say. A relatively recent issue of American Historical Review has an interchange between the two scholars.

You might also check out The Book History Reader (ed. by Finkelstein and McCleery) and A Dictionary of Book History by John Feather.

The field has tended to take slightly different directions depending on the area of specialization, but the above are pretty important texts. If you were to tell me that 19th-century America is what you're most interested in, for example, I might make a different (or additional) set of recommendations.

Posted by at 11:00 PM | Permalink

So the blog is now called "Thanks for not being a Zombie," and my name is no longer so prominently displayed. Please, dear reader, change your links so they say something like "Thanks...Zombie," instead of my name. I'm not going to be overly concerned about concealing who I am, but I'm going to be harder to google. I have an inclination to talk about some things that, while not scandalous, are perhaps a bit impolite.

It remains to be seen if I will act upon those inclinations. Don't worry: if I know you, the chances are very slim that I plan to write about you.

We're running the latest version of MovableType, now. If you run into any problems, please let me know.

Posted by at 2:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)

Some time around the start of the new year, this blog will be remade as semi-pseudonymous. I had been planning on doing this for some time now, even before the discussion in the previous two entries.

There are just some cans of worms that need opening.

The first time I lose I drink whiskey.
The second time I lose I drink gin.
The third time I lose I'll drink anything
'Cause I think I'm gonna win
--Gram Parsons, "Ooh, Las Vegas"

Then again, maybe those cans have whupass in them. I can't tell from the outside.

And there's only one way to find out

Posted by at 3:00 PM | Permalink

In the comments section of Profgrrrrl's entry on gender and blogging, Rana writes

I don't blog on personal things that involve the personal lives of other people. One of my hard-and-fast rules is that none of my friends should have to learn something about our relationship from the blog -- either we talk about it first, or I don't blog it.

My thoughts, exactly. I've always thought of one of my rules as I don't blog other people's lives. This means that many of my most important interactions, past and present, do not get blogged, although I do talk about them with friends and family.

It's tempting for many to apply essentialist stereotypes about gender to blogging, but I don't think the stereotypes hold up. For example, if I'm talking through "intimate" issues (Profgrrrrl's second definition of the term) in venues other than the blog, it would seem to follow that I'm less likely to talk about them through my blog: why would I need to? But the essentialist stereotype says that, as a man, I shouldn't want to talk about them at all. Conversely, a woman writing about "intimate" issues on her pseudonymous blog could be doing so because she is not comfortable doing so with her friends and family. An observer might look at these blogs and say, "Aha, those stereotypes are true," when the behaviors from the whole of a person's life point to the exact oppposite conclusion.

Frankly, I don't know why I'm reacting so strongly to the assertion that there are fundamental differences in the way men and women blog, and that men are less likely to be "intimate" in their blogs. I remain unpersuaded that such a difference exists:

1. Something other than our impressionistic sense of the blogs we like to read is needed.
2. How "intimate" can a blog written under a pseudonym really be?
3. How can we be certain that pseudonymous blogs written by people who claim to be women are written by people who are, in fact, women?

Posted by at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I held my last regular day of classes today. Soon, final papers will be turned in, and I'll be grading like a fiend to get them done. During the break we'll be traveling to New York (perhaps I'll get to meet Deb) and then Philadelphia. The last time I was in New York, Chuck bought me a martini the size of my head, which rendered me incapable of being aware of the time --