• Visual Culture

    After a relatively short run-through of the DMA this afternoon, I came up with the following six contenders for my project in Visual Culture. I’m really not ecstatic about any of them: I would much rather write about the work… more ›

  • Bullet-Point Friday

    I’m enjoying my trek through Daniel Weissbort’s From Russian with Love, a book about his friendship(s) and (professional) relationship(s) with Joseph Brodsky, translation theory, Russian, literature, and death. It is everything that John Felstiner falls short of. Throughout Felstiner’s work… more ›

  • Satellites

    I’ve been meaning to write something on this tired, old, useless blog (or perhaps I’m describing myself) for several days now, but nothing seems to come to mind. Today, though, is a special day: the fiftieth anniversary of the launch… more ›

  • Bullet-Point Friday

    Conversation over breakfast of Swiss oatmeal this morning included Alan Watts’ lecture over the coincidence of opposites, Huston Smith’s Zen training, and the metaphysics of becoming (as opposed to the Heideggerean notion of Gellasenheit, a letting be). All this before… more ›

  • What there is to learn

    If nirvana is reached only after the extinguishing of desire, which, of course, includes the desire not to desire, because desire causes suffering, which defines the life of samsara, yet Buddhist monks can march toward a greater freedom from suffering… more ›

  • Scivias

    I remainTogether:t(w)o-gatheredA union w/o unityIdentity w/ differenceSingable yet always (yet) unsung remainderTwinned coils twining throughHere & (t)here & no(w)here:now/hereWo ist der Mensch?W(h)er(e) ist der Mensch?Here- her- he- achAnd a thou-Sand hands to hold at nightAnd an eyeT(w)o-wardHath an earNear- ‘ear… more ›

  • Il y a / n’est plus

    A hundred years of his undying death articulating as if the singular unsaid, unsaying, unsayable, in its fully exteriorized impossibility against the homogenized totalization of a text, an other. He always already (yet) exceeds his own excessive supplementarity. I hereby… more ›

  • Bullet-Point Friday

    Stop having those miniature emotional outbursts (read: breakdowns) when you translate sentences like, “The baby with the head like a balloon died in the hospital while she held his hand,” or you’re never going to finish this translation assignment by… more ›

  • Bullet-Point Friday

    Stop having those miniature emotional outbursts (read: breakdowns) when you translate sentences like, “The baby with the head like a balloon died in the hospital while she held his hand,” or you’re never going to finish this translation assignment by… more ›

  • Rugged Ascent

    This afternoon I had my students do a close reading of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave for the entire class period, and I have to say that they did an amazing job. I remember being wowed by Plato when I… more ›