Shaviro ends Without Criteria by discussing the consequences of the Whiteheadian affect-based ontology he has described throughout the book. The metaphysics, he writes, cannot be applied to particular social and political circumstances. It does not command us, and it does not make ethical demands upon us. It does not make judgments of legitimacy. It certainly [...]
Continue reading about Realists are preventing us from having electric cars that run on $10/yr!
Last night, I finally saw The Other Dream Team, the documentary that proposes to tell the story of the 1992 Lithuanian Men’s Basketball Team that beat the Unified Team to win bronze at the Olympics in Barcelona. Of course, the story makes no sense without the necessary context of how this team, playing for the [...]
Over a week has gone by since THATCamp Paris ended (for me) with a CodeSprint at 190 Avenue de France. So I suppose it’s finally time for me to sort of put some ideas together about it. First, I’m very glad I went. I have never been to a THATCamp before, and the last time [...]
A J&B ad campaign showed up in France a few years ago, and I again saw one of the ads today. The whisky ad features two tag lines. The first, “So British!”, is also how the local press likes to describe Kate Middleton. The second tag line translates to “Born in London, distilled in Scotland.” [...]
This early February speech, by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the presidential candidate for the Front de gauche, a left-wing coalition in France, has been helpfully subtitled in English: Jean-Luc Mélenchon Discours de Villeurbanne Eng… par kominaaa Jean-Luc Mélenchon Discours de Villeurbanne Eng… par kominaaa If you only have time for one part of the speech, I recommend [...]
I already tackled Megan (now) Draper’s (winning) French-Canadianness when she sang “Il était un petit navire” to the Draperinos back at the end of season 4 of Mad Men. Further, the internet already melted down over the subsequent French song Jessica Paré chose to sing for the show, so I don’t need to touch on [...]
I may also mention that the book was written… where the libraries are not well equipped for European studies… Hence it is possible and even probable that I overlooked things which I ought to have considered and that I occasionally assert something which modern research has disproved or modified… On the other hand it is [...]
Continue reading about Erich Auerbach on scholarship in the post-Library.nu era
— Le vieux Paris n’est plus (la forme d’une ville Change plus vite, hélas! que le cœur d’un mortel Escúchela, la ciudad respirando In honor of an article I had run in The Classical, “Paris is Earning,” I watched Paris brûle-t-il ? earlier this week. The 1966 movie, with a screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola [...]
Given that class rules everything around me, I knew that Downton Abbey would be like a drug, and I watched the first series last spring in one sitting. While upstairs/downstairs plots always fascinate me for obvious reasons, Downton Abbey had the added appeal of presenting us a family in decline as aristocratic privilege gives way [...]
Why is it that when I search for a specific article on Google Scholar, all of the first hits lead me to pay repositories, despite the fact that the journal, published by the U.S. government, is free for all?
Continue reading about Google and publishers vs. free stuff from the Feds