About
My writing is primarily concerned with karaoke, television shows, dark omens, dietary monotony, and shame spirals. I started this blog in order to write like Lester Bangs, but ended up sounding more like Martha Nussbaum.
I have a Ph.D. from the University of California, Irvine. In addition to literature, my official sub-field is “Ethics,” because I wanted to pick something that would make my friends laugh uncontrollably.
This blog is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons living or dead, including and especially Dr. Joseph Kugelmass, is purely coincidental.
Comments, e-mails, distracting pets, and small holdings all become the legal property of The Kugelmass Episodes, an entity that the Supreme Court has given the same Constitutional rights as a human being.
Dear Joseph,
Thanks so much for your thoughtful comments on my blog! Please keep in touch. I am linking back to your blog from Jane Awake.
J
Interesting.
lol on the boring legal stuff :) What strange things one finds while looking for something completaly different!
i don’t know if it’s the californian rays or something but your blog is a comforting place. fuzzy and warm like a kitten or tofu. it’s sharp without hurting. it’s challenging without saying “you’re stupid”. and other things. i’m outtie.
PS i refuse to believe your diet is monotonic. you have nothing on me.
Dear Miso,
Nobody has ever called my blog a kitten before, and I’m walking on air. Thank you!
As for the diet question: Do you have a re-warmable burrito section in your fridge? Do you have an assembly line of Cheerios (well, the Trader Joe’s kind)?
“My writing is primarily concerned with karaoke, television shows, the problems with highway driving, games of chance, and dietary monotony.”
WOW. Is this really true? I mean – it could be a parody but if it is for real it must be very, very interesting.
Profacero,
Thanks! Not my academic writing, though — my jottings here.
Hey Joe– Give us a new post! We’re all waiting on tenterhooks here. How about your thoughts on DFW, his suicide, his work, how he’ll be remembered (incorrectly by most, I’d say). Have you tackled Infinite Jest? His essays are the best place to start.
hey and p.s., i was just admitted to UC Irvine. I’ll be in the Creative Writing program next year. cheers.
I’d like to read your blog, especially the more recent post on ‘free will’ but the gray background and dark-gray text are too hard on the eyes.
Shame you missed out on the earlier version of my blog, which was white text on black pages. I heard from a few people that it actually had the power to create migraines. Of course I’m not going to change my graphic design, but here’s what you can do: read the blog on mobile, or read it via Pocket or Readability or an RSS aggregator (such as Feedly or Flipboard). Have fun, and thanks for stopping by!
Kugelmass? There is of course the Kugelmass story by Woody Allen. Then there is the Kuglemass Engish teacher I once knew who told me that he had applied for a teaching job in a college in upstate NY. K. had heavy Brooklyn/Jewish accent, and the Dept Chair, the guy interviewing him said: “You would be better off with your own kind in the City.”
I stumbled upon your site. I stumbled into my marriage too. I do not equate the two.
Joseph, I have started reading a biography on Goethe, Life as a work of art. He seems like an interesting fellow. Any thoughts on him?
Have you written any thing on Goethe?
Victor! Long time, buddy. How ya doin’?
The short answer is no. I’ve long contemplated translating Faust as a future project, but actually that’s become less urgent as a spate of good new translations have appeared.
The longer answer is that here at The Kugelmass Episodes, we take your requests. Which text(s)? I’ll work something up for you.