What in the hell …

Funding-wise I mean. This was implied in some of my remarks in the discussion on research funding in the comments on this earlier post. I wonder, are there any major differences between substantive arguments and values that add up to something along the lines of “fund the National Endowment for the Arts” and “fund research by academics in the humanities”? I mean with the NEA parallel specifically funding for artists and artistic production, and by the humanities I mean to exclude things like medical advances, faster microchips, cleaner technology, and social stuff like improved counseling practice for trauma survivors, more effective teaching of reading, and so on - stuff with a clear and relatively short term and obvious economic or social welfare impact.

Hmm. A wrinkle… I realize that I’m assuming that there is no difference between some scholarly research and artistic products. I don’t mean to argue here that this is true for *all* scholarly research (though that’s my inclination, or close to it); I think it’s clear that *some* scholarly research is not different from art in important ways. I suppose then I’ve probably answered my own question: for that work in the humanities that is not different in important ways from art then there could be no real and honest important difference in the justification for that work in the humanities. So I have to extend my claim further. Assuming that some work in the humanities is different from art, what (or when?) is different about justification for funding that work and funding artistic production?

A post at Charlotte Street reminded me of something I’ve been meaning to put down for a bit. (more…)

I don’t know Althusser’s work. I was uninterested in it for a long time - categories like ideology and structure don’t interest me very much. My impression was that his work was largely about the successful continued accomplishment of the reproduction of capital, which doesn’t strike me as of much use to articulating the breakdowns thereof. I’ve become more interested, while those concerns remain, in large part via exposure to folks I respect very much who have made use of Althusser (Angela and David are high on that list, as is Jason Read). (more…)

It’s very disturbing, that’s for certain. And yet quite compelling.
http://www.ratemyprofessors.com

Thiago dissed a piece by Michael Berube over at Long Sunday. (more…)

To be even more obtuse, maybe it should be “relative (ideo)lexical rigidity.” Eric and I have been having a conversation by email about modes of speech, and power plays related to them. (more…)

From the ‘bringing oneself down to their level’ department…

A friend of mine came out of a short-term hibernation today, and to celebrate invited several people to a bar. It was nice - good jukebox, a Galaga arcade style video game, decent cheap beer, and conversation with smart, funny, good-looking people (and I don’t just mean my wife Angelica). Negri’s impending appearance in North America was mentioned (some conference in April in Canada), someone told a story about Negri trying to come to the US for a conference and getting given the run around by the government, not a denial but a permanent deferral of permission. Then Agamben’s “No To Biopolitical Tattooing” diatribe was approvingly referenced, his refusal to come here, his calling for others not to come here (which I don’t remember, I’ll have to look at that piece again).
(more…)

My mother-in-law Faith named her two daughters Angelica and Christiana. It probably doesn’t need to be said that she’s very religious. At some point when Angelica and I were living at Faith’s house, a friend of ours, meeting Faith for the first time, remarked “oh, you have a pretty name.” She replied, “Thank you. I wasn’t so happy with it for all those years I was agnostic.” Surprised, Angelica asked Faith for clarification, and found out that Faith had been an agnostic from the age of 15 to about 30. She had wrestled with her religious beliefs in part because she thought that if she didn’t believe in god then her father had wasted his life as a lutheran pastor. She asked Angelica, “don’t you feel like my life is wasted if there’s no god?” or something to that effect. Angelica laughed and said no, that she didn’t feel like Faith’s life’s value rests on her christianity or her work with her church. (more…)