I went on a walking tour of the West Campus of St. Elizabeths (intentional no apostrophe) in Washington, D.C. This is a historic asylum. On the East Campus, there is an active mental hospital housing John Hinckley. The West Campus is owned by the federal government and is being developed as the headquarters for the [...]
Archive for the ‘Words’ category
Read yr idols
Hard to believe this book is twenty years old. It still thrums with energy and danger. Half a lifetime ago, I discovered it at a friend’s house, devoured it, and started saving up to buy it myself. This was in the days before Amazon and Google Books. I had to take a bus to the [...]
The devolution of blasé
Celebrity author blurb on the cover of the book I’m currently teaching (meaning I have to stare at it all the time, which led me to vent in this post): “David Foster Wallace turns the short story upside down and inside out, making the adjectives ‘inventive,’ ‘unique,’ and ‘original’ seem blasé.” –T. Coraghessan Boyle It’s [...]
The written words
Once, the tools of writing were precious. People had to invent paper. Use chalk on slate. Carve stone with hieroglyphics. Prepare calf vellum. Make ink. Even growing up in the 70s, pencils, pens, felt tips, chalks, crayons and pads of paper were celebrated birthday and Christmas gifts. Then, those things become cheap and plentiful. And [...]
Religion is boring
This semester I keep running into religious boredom from my students. At Religious College, the students are totally entranced by the text we’re reading except when I try to say something about the religious context of the author, whom they far prefer to judge according to the standards of their own beliefs. At Secular College, [...]
Pressed for the truth
The other night I was ironing a shirt for work when I accidentally got a steam burn down the side of one finger. The wound was invisible, the pain wicked, especially since I was still wielding the iron, its hot, wet air hissing out all over the place. Though I persevered until the shirt was [...]
Bad Faith
I often get the sense that people are asking me questions they don’t want answers to. It’s a kind of social blindness I have, which is weird because my parents did this all the time. You’d think I’d be used to it, but somehow I never learned to tell when it’s best just to tell [...]
Grudges
Not the big hurts and betrayals that you grieve over, nurse for years, take to therapy. Not the stuff of broken hearts. Just the little insults that continue to gnaw at you, sometimes years later. Sure, it takes energy to sustain a grudge, and usually it’s easier just to let the offense fade into the [...]
poems
the thing i love about poetry is that you can write just about anything and as long as you space it out creatively, it transcends mere words. or at least it feels that way. ~~~ it also helps if you write in all lower-case letters. ~~~ i know this is crap. but now i will [...]
