On Protocol

If during graduate school you lost a TAship at your institution; if you have now tried everyone’s patience here; if you are now being allowed to take certain classes so you can earn a professional qualification in another field; please do not address the professor who is kindly but painedly showing you how to register [...]

That Job Market: Suggestions for Interviewees

It is October 15, the traditional opening day of the job search season. I have a few suggestions for people going on campus visits — suggestions others may not have covered yet.
1. Good facilities are rare. Take note of the schools that have these.
2. Think of yourself as a colleague, not as an aspirant or [...]

Reading for Pleasure Wednesday: Mercè Rodoreda

Any time is a good time to read Mercè Rodoreda. The Nation’s review article on her is worth reading, too. I have never really studied Rodoreda’s life and I have not read all of her books. Having read the review, however, I am re-fascinated. At one point the writer says:
It’s curious that Rodoreda is so [...]

Research Hours

Tnis is one of those old-old posts.
ON CERTAIN FALSITIES
Perhaps it is for no reason related to me that people have always gone on at me how to be and work. So this is another piece of my counterargument against those who threw so much unnecessary time management advice at me — at me, a veritable [...]

“I Said the Wrong Thing”

“I am sorry I said the wrong thing. I am sorry to have upset you. I hope you can get over it.”
Meaning:
“I refuse to apply normal standards of behavior when dealing with you. I will say abusive and dismissive things, I will ask inappropriate questions, and I will make inappropriate remarks.
“I am unable to see [...]

Labor Day II, Some Very Old Notes

I
As we know, I was always told not to be a professor. It was hard to make tenure because you had to publish. A girl, I would teach and not publish, so I would never make tenure. I heard this again and again. I would be on the street and have to get used to [...]

Gabo

It appears that the eternal foodstuffs of artistic achievement are “discipline, fortitude, ambition and self-belief.” These were not allowed in Re/Education, and that explains my problems with it.
It has been an entire weekend of rather boring work, frustrating in part because all of it must be done rather superficially, uninterestingly. I was tired [...]

Le Temps

I work all the time now, basically, but I have so many different things to do that working all the time just keeps me ahead of some really basic things. I am quite fast, and I am only slow insofar as since academic work is a space of abuse for me it is sometimes hard [...]

Le Travail

I now do nothing but work, and I still need to step it up further. I understand at last those people who say they do not care where they live or how they dress because all they do is work. I am not convinced the lack of recreation will be good for work on a [...]

Le vendredi

It is Friday, and yes, I am wearing white. It being the weekend, I am deciding what to sing. All afternoon I have listened to WWOZ, 90.7 on your FM dial or www.wwoz.org to listen on the Net. It was very helpful. If I were doing this work for the sake of a check upon [...]