Big Man
1. On Genre Flailing In a crisis we engage in genre flailing so that we don’t fall through the cracks of knowledge and noise into suicide or psychosis. In a crisis we improvise like crazy, where “like crazy” is a … Continue reading “Big Man”
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Yes/No: Referenda and Mandates
I. On October 14, 2023, Australia voted in a referendum on the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, an attempt to enshrine consultation with Indigenous peoples in the Australian constitution. The proposal originated in the Uluru Statement from the Heart, adopted by … Continue reading “Yes/No: Referenda and Mandates”
Reverse Manifest Destiny (Or, The Exiles and Me)
My people used to roam all over the place. -Homer, The Exiles As soon as he walked into the bar, I knew he was Native. He knew or knew that I knew and in no time, he was standing next … Continue reading “Reverse Manifest Destiny (Or, The Exiles and Me)”
The Politics of Aesthetics in Anticolonial Thought: A Review of Ricanness: Enduring Time in Anticolonial Performance by Sandra Ruiz
Frankfurt School philosopher Herbert Marcuse observes that “Art breaks open a dimension inaccessible to other experience, a dimension in which human beings, nature, and things no longer stand under the law of the established reality principle” (72). This, in short, … Continue reading “The Politics of Aesthetics in Anticolonial Thought: A Review of Ricanness: Enduring Time in Anticolonial Performance by Sandra Ruiz”
Epistolary Romance on Love and Friendship
Dear Shiv, You told me to write to you. It was kind of you to tell me to write. You were writing to me of heartbreaks and hangovers and whether we’ll ever love or write again, and how to replace … Continue reading “Epistolary Romance on Love and Friendship”
Après-Coup in extremis: Futurism and A-Historicity in the Work of Freeman, Lacan and Woolf
One of the many achievements of Beth Freeman’s Time Binds is its persistent interrogation of how temporality produces subjectivity, as opposed to the other way around. This preoccupation which is defined by Freeman as “queer temporality” is a queer project … Continue reading “Après-Coup in extremis: Futurism and A-Historicity in the Work of Freeman, Lacan and Woolf”
Worlding Oneness: Daoism, Heidegger, and Possibilities for Treating the Human
This essay argues for the “reworlding” of Daoist “oneness” by making it visible, thinkable, and doable as an immanent analytic. With a focus on dynamic articulations of oneness, especially how the idea “heaven and human are one” animates and is … Continue reading “Worlding Oneness: Daoism, Heidegger, and Possibilities for Treating the Human”
Retromania, the Canon, the Refusal to Work and the Present: The Crassical Connection
If the events of history, as Karl Marx once famously argued, happen first as tragedy and recur as re-enacted farce, the reoccurrence of any number of harbingers of doom typical of the last great global recession of the 1970s … Continue reading “Retromania, the Canon, the Refusal to Work and the Present: The Crassical Connection”
Back to the Big Apple
Italy was really great, but it’s so good to be back in NYC! Today I walked through Union Square, which is filled with tables distributing information for Occupy May Day. There’s a very exciting series of events planned, as well … Continue reading “Back to the Big Apple”
Vampires and Cyborgs: Transhuman Ability and Ableism in the work of Octavia Butler and Janelle Monáe
The afrofuturist dystopic visions of Octavia Butler and Janelle Monáe tip on the tightrope of critical disability studies through the possibilities and limitations they reveal for post-human bodies. In Butler’s speculative fiction, disabled characters are gifted with transhuman abilities … Continue reading “Vampires and Cyborgs: Transhuman Ability and Ableism in the work of Octavia Butler and Janelle Monáe”
War and Peace in Germany
Has peace broken out in Germany? German soldiers did not join the military conflict that started earlier this year in Libya. In March, Germany did not support resolution 1973 in the Security Council, which authorized military action against the Libyan … Continue reading “War and Peace in Germany”
Treading Contradictions and Ambiguities
The epicenter of the earthquake that brought Haiti to her knees on January 12, 2010 is located about seven or eight miles from my childhood neighborhood of Fontamara, just outside of Port-au-Prince proper. I was leaving my office at NYU, … Continue reading “Treading Contradictions and Ambiguities”
Jean Genet’s May Day Speech, 1970: “Your Real Life Depends on the Black Panther Party”
May Day 2020 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the demonstrations in support of Bobby Seale in New Haven and the unlikely presence of “homosexual outlaw,” Jean Genet, as the invited guest of the Black Panther Party. A good friend, New … Continue reading “Jean Genet’s May Day Speech, 1970: “Your Real Life Depends on the Black Panther Party””
Parsing the Jewish American Complex
In Itamar Moses’s new play The Ally, the “trickiest question”—“whether the fight against anti-Semitism belongs as a coequal branch of the social justice movement”—is itself a kind of trick question. Articulated through Moses’s academic alter ego in the play, Asaf … Continue reading “Parsing the Jewish American Complex”
Genocide and Campus Bans on Speech Critical of Israel: Then and Now
Not a single day goes by now in North America or Europe without an academic being disciplined or fired outright for expressing views critical of Israel. In mid-March 2024, when the University of California Regents meet at UCLA, they will … Continue reading “Genocide and Campus Bans on Speech Critical of Israel: Then and Now”