Quevedo versus JRJ

A student analyzed poetry by Quevedo and Juan Ramon Jimenez and arrived at a conclusion that the main difference between these poets (oh, how I love essays that list differences between authors separated by centuries!) is that Quevedo's vocabulary is "simple and consists mostly of popular words anybody would recognize" while JRJ's vocabulary is complex and sophisticated.

Huh?

Is there a parallel universe out there with a completely different version of Quevedo and JRJ?

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Will Nationalism in Quebec Ever Succeed?

I just found this curious post attempting to explain why Quebec nationalism will never be successful:

Quebec nationalism, though providing important moments of revolutionary struggle (i.e. the Front de Libération du Québec), was by-and-large a false revolutionary nationalism.  While it is true that the francophone sovereigntist struggle emerged in response to anglo-chauvinism, it was still the product of a nation of losing colonizers.  The French arrived to settle, enslave, and genocide this hemisphere's indigenous population––just like the English––they just happened to lose a colonial war and become a nation of subjugated colonizers.  Even when they were under the economic domination of the Anglophones, they remained a parasitic settler-colonial nation: they would send their police to smash indigenous resistance, their sovereigntism was most often a denial of anti-colonial struggle because the only national struggle it recognized was a struggle of settlers.  And this nationalism is, to paraphrase Fanon and Cesaire, ultimately nothing more than "a war amongst brothers." . . . Hopefully the Bloc's humiliating defeat in these recent federal elections will finally exorcise the ghost of that predatory nationalism that has lingered over the mass graves of indigenous peoples since its emergence.

We are used to nationalism being glorified by Conservatives of every ilk. Jingoism is one of the favorite Conservative pastimes, as we all know. You want to get people to die enthusiastically and for free? Nothing achieves that goal better than waving around a piece of painted fabric.

Here, however, we see a leftist blogger provide an extremely romanticized vision of nationalism. The right to nationalism, according to this blogger, has to be deserved. There are "pure" nationalisms based on the "legitimate" possession of the lands the nation claims as its own. Such nations have to be able to lay claim to struggles, persecutions and exploitations because without them they will never be pure enough to merit their own nationalism. These nationalisms that have cleansed themselves in the purifying ritual of true persecution can be applauded and supported in their nationalists struggles. This pure ideal, however, can be sullied easily by illegitimate nationalisms who take the sacred name of the nation in vain. Their claim to the lands and to the history attached to these lands is illegitimate. Their record of suffering is not nearly strong enough to put them on the same level with the kinds of nationalism that have proven their worth.

Of course, this is all bunk. There is no dichotomy of "legitimate" versus "illegitimate" nationalisms. A nation is always an "invented community," a myth. No amount of research will be able to prove definitively who was where first and whose possession of which lands is "rightful." A nationalism will either win or lose not on the basis of whether its claims are "righteous", but, rather, based on whether it will be able to make its myth attractive enough to a significant number of people. How much truth goes into the myth of a nation is completely immaterial.

It is curious how people of seemingly different political persuasions use the same rhetoric to decry the evils of "false" nationalisms and exalt the redeeming features of the "true" ones. In the above-mentioned quote, the author attempts to disqualify Quebecois nationalism by mentioning the mass graves left by the French colonizers on the territories that the Francophones of today see as their homeland. It is self-evident, of course, that nowhere in the world will you be able to find a nationalism without its own share of mass graves and genocides. As Zygmunt Bauman pointed out in Liquid Modernity, a community cannot be constituted without an act of violence that would lie in its origins.

It might seem very progressive and even revolutionary to range nationalisms by the order of their presumed legitimacy. However, all such efforts achieve is a reaffirmation of nationalism as a pure and romantic ideal. A critique of nationalism as an ideological construct would be a truly subversive act. However, it would knock one of the most useful tools of manipulation out of the hands of both Conservatives and Liberals.

Why Students Went Nuts Over Osama's Death

My blogroll is filled with posts analyzing why students in particular engaged in very tasteless displays of glee over Osama bin Laden being killed. Most of the explanations, as you can see from this post, are an exercise in inanity.  The authors of these weird explanations prefer to blabber about OJ Simpson's trial instead of looking at today's unemployment rate among young people. These kids are graduating from high schools and colleges only to realize how grim their prospects are. Unemployment, underemployment, crappy part-time jobs and living in your parents' basement for years to come - these are their main prospects. Students who are graduating from my university either can find no jobs at all or are offered ridiculous salaries of 10-12K per year. We keep hearing that the post-recession reality we are living today is "the new normal," and we should just get used to it.

So is there any wonder that these kids chose to release these tensions that must be bothering them every day in this way?

Happy Birthday, My Love!

Conservatives Win in Canada

Here is what the election results look at this point:

Even though the outcome is obvious, you can still consult the updated numbers here.

Michael Ignatieff, the leader of the Canadian Liberals, is so unappealing as a politician that he managed to drag his party down to the third place. The second place is now firmly occupied by the NDP. For those of you who do not follow Canadian politics, if Ralph Nader could organize a viable political party in the US, it would be the American version of the Canadian NDP. 

What the results of this election tell us is that Canadian progressives are an overwhelming majority in the country. At this point, their vote is split between the old and corrupt Liberals and the new and hopeful NDP. Today's victory of the Conservatives is not a victory at all, in my opinion. This is the very last chance they get to grab for power. Soon, the progressives will get their shit together and take our country back. And if you want to tell me otherwise, do it on some other day. Today, I've got to believe this.

Liberal Sexism

This is the kind of nasty, extremely sexist post that gives all Liberals a bad name. Right now, I'm completely ashamed to be on the same side of the political fence as somebody who wrote this atrocity:

Boy this last 24 to 48 hours have not been very kind to poor Sarah Palin. . . Then you send out a bitter, and clearly insincere tweet (and follow upFacebook post), in which you thank the troops for killing Osama Bin Laden while denying any credit to the Commander in Chief, which once again identifies you as a hateful, immature attention whore, and which receives richly deserved  condemnation from all over the blogosphere. And just when you believed that things could NOT get any worse, somebody posts a picture of you on the Internet with food stains (At least we hope they're food stains!) ALL over your expensive outfit. Okay I don't want to start any unnecessary rumors, but exactly what was on the menu at that Vanity Fair after party? 

This just makes me want to vomit all over that inexpensive blog. People who have been around my site for a while know that I have been consistently critical of Sarah Palin and have expressed my criticism in very harsh terms. However, calling a person a whore and making ridiculously stupid suggestions about stains on her outfit is simply not right. This is sexism, and I don't give a rat's behind where it comes from. It's just so sad that wherever you turn, you find some sexist shit like this. 

I am very disgusted right now.

Confused and Cautiously Optimistic

OK, I don't know what's going on here, but I'm grading final essays in my literature course, and five essays in a row are just brilliant. I was dreading this round of grading because I fully expected a fresh batch of "Cervantes would be an OK writer if only his characters were less weird" kind of statements. But these essays are phenomenal. At least, the five I have read so far are.

Is it possible that all my hard work paid off? I'm actually enjoying myself reading these essays. Wow.

P.S. As of now, I have graded 11 essays and loved all of them passionately. Am I a good teacher, or what?

Lovely Colleagues and Paperwork

Oh, I love my colleagues. There is this bunch of paperwork that I need to do, which is so confusing that one practically needs to get another PhD to understand how it needs to be filled out. The idea that I have to do this paperwork has been poisoning my entire day. I've been sitting here in a vile mood, contemplating the sad need to do the stupid paperwork and feeling sorry for myself.

And then a kind colleague came by and suggested that we all gather on Wednesday and do the paperwork together. Oh, happiness! Oh, joy! All that bad stuff I said about communities? Forget it. I am now a joyful convert to the idea of a community that shields one from the sad necessity of doing this scary paperwork on one's own.

Gifts for Men

There are few things that are as painful to shop for as gifts and cards for men. I love buying gifts for people almost as much as I love buying gifts for myself. Unless the people in question are men. And it isn't like I don't like men. Believe me, I have always been surrounded by truly amazing men who deserve truly fantastic gifts. It's just finding them that is problematic. Something's got to be wrong with the world where it's easier to find great men than great gifts for them, don't you think?

For women, one can buy so many different and wonderful gifts that the only problem is choosing. Jewelry, clothes, cosmetics, bath stuff, makeup, chocolates, flowers, scented candles, cuddly toys - the list can go on forever. For men we have shaving gear (and how many shaving gadgets does a guy need even if he is extremely hairy?), cologne (again, nobody needs 15 bottles of it), and that's pretty much it. People will suggest books, but if we are talking about a very well-read person (and I don't really hang out with any other kind), that's the trickiest gift of all. How do you know what this person has or hasn't read? Nobody I know ever gives me books because they know it's useless. 

If we look at cards, it's the same thing. There are all kinds of fun, romantic, beautiful and cheesy cards for women. All cards for men revolve around beer, toilets and some jokes that are in very bad taste. (I just saw a birthday card "for him" that said, "Even though you are old, there is still one thing in your pants that I find incredibly attractive: your wallet." Bleh.) 

I kind of feel sorry for men right now.

A Sacrificial Ritual

A sacrificial ritual according to Walter Burkert:

"Firstly, under the direction of the priest, father or king, or priestess, a basket containing the utensils and a bowl of water were placed around the altar. The participants then dipped their hands into the consecrated water, and sprinkled it on the altar, victim and offerer. Salted-barley corns from the basket were thrown on the animal’s head and into the altar fire. A lock of hair from the animal is then cut and burned, libation being poured on the altar with prayer. After silence is proclaimed, the music of flutes begins and the animal is slain. The larger animals were killed with a sacrificial axe. The head is turned toward the heavens, and the throat cut. The blood then spreads on the altar and is caught in a vessel. In The Odyssey, onlooking women raise a cry of worship at this point. After the animal was skinned and cut into pieces, the inner parts were disposed and a part burned on the altar with incense. The remainder was roasted and eaten. If the entrails were of normal shape and color, it was an omen that the sacrifice was acceptable to the gods. In The Odyssey, men wrapped the thigh pieces in fat and burned them on the altar. The tail and back, along with other bones and pieces with less meat left over were burned with a libation. After this procedure, it was then that the worshippers shared the roasted meal, while music and dance took place in the service of the gods. "

Donald Trump as a Republican Candidate

Of course, he's mildly creepy and he has weird hair, but if I had to choose among Republican candidates for president in case Obama loses (which today seems less probable than yesterday), I'd choose Trump. The reason why I think he'd be better than all the other candidates from that party is that he is not a religious fanatic. Better yet, after all the divorce proceedings, casinos and TV shows, he will not be able to sell himself as a religious fanatic. I believe that there is nothing scarier in the world today that religious fanatics of any persuasion.

Religious fanaticism today is a symptom of not being able to accept contemporary reality. The hysteria of religious fanatics betrays how confused and lost they are in the world they simply don't get. Learning to live with the new and constantly changing realities is an impossible proposition for them, so they'd rather the whole planet went to hell in a basket.

Trump is obviously not one of these folks. He is the exact opposite. He has found a way to manipulate the existing realities to his own advantage and turn them into opportunities. This is a person who thrives and flourishes in today's world. I don't see him buying into the fundamentalist propaganda, not even to win an election.

This is a big country with a huge variety of opinion (I think I deserve the right to an occasional platitude, especially on a Monday). If there is a Progressive movement, there has to be a Conservative counterpart. "Audiatur et altera pars" is a principle that I hold near and dear. For the longest time, I've been hoping to hear what the Conservative discourse in this country is. However, the Conservative movement in the US has been hijacked by a minority of crazed fundamentalists. There must be intelligent, non-hysterical, educated Conservatives who don't evoke Jesus, sin and evil every fifteen minutes and who are as comfortable with today's realities as we are. A candidate like Trump could help such people take back the party. This would be the kind of a Republican party that I would still not support, but at least I'd be able to respect it. Difference of opinion is a great thing, and it's precisely that which no religious fanaticism can allow to exist. I'm a lot more comfortable with (mind you, not happy about but comfortable with) an administrator who asks me to demonstrate how my existence is profitable to the university than the one who requires that I demonstrate how the teachings of Jesus will be integrated into my course on Spanish grammar (a true story).

"But he is a ruthless capitalist who will walk over everybody and everything in search for a profit margin," people say. That he is. And for many people this is what this entire country is about: being able to do whatever is needed to become rich and assume the risk of failure. A Democrat in office is supposed to make sure that we have some protections in place in case we fail. A Republican's job is to remove such protections based on a belief that this will make us try harder to win the competition. One can dislike this position but at least it's based on reason and not on hysterical fanaticism. 

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Television Journalists Suck

I just remembered why I stopped watching news on television. A journalist is commenting on the death of Osama bin Laden: "Now we can see that people who died in Iraq didn't die in vain."

I'd much rather have kept watching Celebrity Apprentice than listen to this kind of tripe.

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Obama Killed Osama

A major victory for President Obama: it seems like Osama bin Laden has been killed in Pakistan by American forces.

I was watching Celebrity Apprentice when it was interrupted by this special announcement. It was very curious to see the current President interrupt a frivolous show of one of his main detractors and a possible future opponent in the presidential race with this kind of major news.

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Favorite Female Characters, Anybody?

It is a commonplace in literary criticism that female readers tend to identify with male characters because female characters are so unattractive as to make any identification with them impossible. Finding a female character who is not one-dimensional, pathetic, silly, weepy, boring, and/or sexless is next to impossible even for a very well-read person. Honestly, I can't think of any such female characters.

Except, of course, Jane Eyre. Charlotte Bronte's fiercely feminist novel has a protagonist who is complex, conflicted, and strong. She is neither a perfect little Madonna who never speaks above a whisper and sacrifices herself with a beatific smile for everybody else, nor a sinner always ready to repent and debase herself in payment for her sins in the last pages of the novel. Jane Eyre feels insulted by the suggestion that her husband should keep her. She relies only on money that is her own. She doesn't marry her love interest until his is completely broken down and dependent on her for even the most basic things.

So this is pretty much the only attractive female character I can think of at this moment. Am I forgetting anybody? Any suggestions?

Money Can't Buy Taste

Forget about the Royal family being a waste of money and resources. It turns out that things are a lot worse than that. They are vulgar, too!

Do Economic Considerations Influence People?

If economic considerations had any influence on people's actions, the following would be true:

1. The poorest states in the country would vote Democratic and hate the Republicans for championing the interests of the rich at the expense of the poor.

2. People would care about other folks' abortions and homosexuality a lot less than they care about not losing their house, benefits and paycheck.

3. Nobody would use credit cards which make things bought with them cost a lot more than they actually do.

4. There would be no competition for academic positions which pay very little for the kind of work they require.

5. People who are directly responsible for causing the economic collapse of 2008-9 would be in jail instead of in the White House.

6. Whether you have a nice personality would not be a single most important factor in whether you get employed.

7. Companies and universities would not hire people for high-paying positions of great responsibility based on nepotism.

8. Sweden would not have a higher suicide rate than Mexico.

9. Women would not give up their financial independence for the dubious privilege of washing some guy's underwear and hoping not to get dumped by him in later years.

10. Nobody would have children.

Philosophers: Two for One

It never occurred to me to inform my students that Ortega y Gasset was one person, not two. Now I'm realizing that I really should have mentioned it. Two of my students have tried to figure out in their final exams which of the ideas in Ortega y Gasset's work were contributed by Ortega and which by Gasset.

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I Keep Inventing the Wheel

So I just discovered that if you get up at 7:30 and write for two hours while sitting behind a beautiful, well-organized, pristine desk in front of an open window, you manage to fulfill your writing goal for the day and then feel free to do anything else you want without worrying about the writing that needs to get done but isn't progressing.

I wonder why nobody told me sooner.

Where Do Students Plagiarize from the Most?

I just found a list of websites that inform most of the student cheating. It's almost enough to make you lose faith in the younger generation to see where students mostly plagiarize from: 

Over all, the top eight sites for matched content were Wikipedia, Yahoo Answers, Answers.com, SlideShare, OPPapers.com, Scribd, Course Hero, and MedLibrary.org

 If they think that Wikipedia and Yahoo Answers are legitimate sources of information for college essays, this means we have been able to teach them nothing. Of course, if instead of churning out more idiotic paperwork, our bureaucrats occupied themselves with punishing plagiarism, the problem could be eradicated pretty fast.

Bureaucracy Breeds

Whenever yet another set of bureaucrats needs to make its existence and its huge salaries justified, universities bend over backwards to accommodate. The amount of time we, the academics, waste on filling out paperwork that has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on the quality of instruction is unconscionable. With nothing to check this disturbing trend, it will only continue to grow. Take, for example, this new policy adopted by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that will make paperwork proliferate to the delight of the school's resident bureaucrats:

Starting next fall, transcripts at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will include information about the median grade in each course a student takes, along with students' rankings by percentile against their peers in every class. The move to adopt "contextualized transcripts" was approved a year ago by the university's Faculty Council. On Friday, the council approved additional legislation that defines what data will appear on the new transcripts. Beginning in 2012, each student's transcript will include a "Schedule Point Average" both for individual terms and cumulatively. That number represents the grade-point average for the average student taking the same courses. The Schedule Point Average will give an idea of how rigorous a student's schedule is and how that student performed compared with others in the same courses. (Think strength of schedule for academics, not just basketball.) Transcripts will also include a breakdown of how often a student has scored above, at, or below the median grade in a course.

Bureaucratic flights of fancy like this one abound, and I wouldn't bring you this particular one so early on a Sunday morning, had it not been for the last sentence of the article which is too hilarious for words:

Graduate and professional schools at Chapel Hill gave their input about what statistics would be useful on transcripts, Mr. Perrin said, but the university didn't consult any employers for feedback. He said he's not sure how­—or if—employers will use the data, but he expects that the new system will show them that the university is "serious about maintaining and increasing educational quality." 

I can just imagine those employers who have absolutely nothing else to do with their lives than to pore over a huge stack of paperwork trying to figure out how a schedule point average is different from grade-point average. Once you get infected with the bureaucratic insanity, you begin to believe that everybody else in the world also considers many confusing numbers on a transcript to be more valuable than the actual skills that an employee brings to the workplace.