Reading Foucault makes me feel happy. I've had to struggle all weekend through a most difficult book (in terms of keeping my interest) about a recently retired doctor who is spending his retirement studying Flaubert. And to boot, I have to give a presentation and write a mini-paper on it. Until about 5 minutes ago, I was completely ambivalent ( Read more... )

Work is coming along somewhat nicely. This is going to be a very busy weekend though, especially because the roommate that I usually drink with on Saturday nights won't be in town. So it looks like I'll be beginning my full-scale assault on my research projects this weekend ( Read more... )

I've felt lost for so long, I don't even remember what it was like to know my place in this world ( Read more... )

One of the reasons I particularly love reading modernist texts is because I can see the origins of certain words, practices, behaviors, etc. that continue in our contemporary culture. And today's reading of Nathanael West proves to be no exception ( Read more... )

John Dos Passos is quickly becoming my new favorite American author. I suppose that he an Faulkner both offer similar takes on the narrative, on language...but Dos Passos' early work is centered around the labor movement while Faulkner's work in general all focuses on rural, Southern life ( Read more... )

While reading over Stephen Crane's meditations on the meaning of glory during wartime, I find myself suddenly overcome by the need to take a shit.

Coincidence?

Seriously though, realism sucks. Modernism and beyond is the way to go.

(That's right, Lukacs: fuck you!)

Applying Zizek to Faulkner is completely blowing my mind. His theories on ideology just seem to fit so well! I'm absolutely amazed that no one else has done this. I am definitely going to submit this paper for publication in a graduate student journal after I develop it a bit more beyond the scope of this seminar assignment ( Read more... )

Ah, coffee, you are my one, true friend during such trying times. Now that I've purchased a French Press, you're an even better friend to me. Well, a more delicious friend, anyway ( Read more... )

Between wrestling with Kant and trying to piece together a view of ideology that adequately explains the symbolism of Joe Christmas' death at the end of Light in August, I'm definitely feeling quite "fagged out ( Read more... )

In my literary theory class today I explored Marxism on an entirely new level ( Read more... )