Signs of the Times: An Open Letter to Orlando Soria

Dear readers (gay or not), How much do symbolic protests — such as protests native to Facebook — matter? *** I think it’s fair to say that I have a robust immune system.… Read More →

R.I.P. “proto-modernism”

If you’ve ever taken a college-level English course on literature written before 1900, the odds are pretty good that you’ve encountered a strange beast known as “the proto-modernist text.” Very often, this is… Read More →

tomemos talks plagiarism

It’s Saturday, which, as you know, is the day we here at The Kugelmass Episodes answer your letters. In case you missed it, here’s tomemo’s insightful comment on my Jonah Lehrer post: Joe,… Read More →

The Terrible Ten: Modern Self-Help And A Lehrer Follow-Up

It’s extremely helpful when readers offer corrections; I can and do get the facts wrong sometimes, and I’m always happy to follow-up when there’s a reason to do so. My friend FM had… Read More →

The Jonah Lehrer News Hour: Intellectual Property in the New Economy

a no uncertain quantity of obscene matter not protected by copriright in the United Stars of Ourania or bedeed and bedood and bedang and bedung to him, with this double dye, brought to… Read More →

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner: Side Jobs and the Internet Economy

Such a muddy line between The things you want And the things you have to do -Sheryl Crow, “Leaving Las Vegas” Over eighty thousand pounds! I knew, didn’t I know I knew? Malabar… Read More →

Look Back In Anger: The Death of Literary Studies

(x-posted to The Valve) Amardeep Singh at The Valve drew my attention to this article by William Deresiewicz, writing for The Nation, and also to the outstanding response written by CR and posted… Read More →

LarvalSubjects on Pedagogy

Dear readers, I highly recommend that you check out Sinthome’s response to my tag about teaching. He teaches philosophy, and this remarkable post synthesizes the Socratic value of provocation, alienating others from their… Read More →

Teaching Literature

(x-posted to The Valve) Look, I realize that there is a serious danger inherent in only writing posts about teaching literature. It’s not all I do, it’s not something I want to do… Read More →

In Response To Stanley Fish’s “Will The Humanities Save Us?”

(x-posted to The Valve) Bill Benzon calls our attention to a new blog entry by Stanley Fish, posted by The New York Times here. It is easy to imagine how, after a lifetime… Read More →