In case you can't tell, that's a photo of a baby chicken dressed in a hand-knitted...item.
Yes, I know it's wrong. But there's an element of embarrassment in the Berssenbrugge poem that's worth exploring, and let me tell you, the Regretsy comparison hits that particular nail right on the head.
from: Harry Le Grande, Vice Chancellor - Student Affairs (campuswide) to: "Academic Senate Faculty, Staff, All Academic Titles, Students, Instructors," date: Mon, Aug 30, 2010 at 1:11 PM subject: Time, Place, and Manner of Public Expression
PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS EMAIL'S REPLY FUNCTION - SENDER WILL NOT RECEIVE
Dear Faculty, Staff, and Students,
With the Fall semester's beginning, we write jointly to remind the university community that use of our common resources - our classrooms, labs, offices, and public spaces - is subject to rules aimed at upholding the Principles of Community. Rights of protest and demonstration are both protected and governed by rules of appropriate time, place, and manner, crafted collaboratively by faculty, students and administration, in accordance with First Amendment law. These rules will be enforced as we embark on a season of renewed discussion and debate concerning the path forward for Berkeley and higher education. We expect the full compliance of faculty, staff, and students.
The Campus Regulations Concerning the Time, Place, and Manner of Public Expression can be found at http://students.berkeley.edu/uga/regs.stm. We highlight the following sections:
311. The University has a special obligation to protect free inquiry and free expression. On University grounds open to the public generally, all persons may exercise the constitutionally protected rights of free expression, speech and assembly. Such activities must not, however, interfere with the right of the University to conduct its affairs in an orderly manner and to maintain its property, nor may they interfere with the University's obligation to protect the rights of all to teach, study, and freely exchange ideas. These regulations purport to assure the right of free expression and advocacy on the Berkeley campus, to minimize conflict between the form of exercise of that right and the rights of others in the effective use of University facilities, and to minimize possible interference with the University's responsibilities as an educational institution.
312. These regulations provide authorization for certain uses of University facilities, and establish procedures for such authorized uses. Such uses must conform to these regulations, Berkeley campus and University policies, and state and federal laws that may protect or regulate matters of public expression on the Berkeley campus.
321. All individuals on University property or in attendance at an official University function assume an obligation to conduct themselves in a manner compatible with the University's responsibilities as an educational institution. This means that all persons are responsible for complying with applicable University and Berkeley campus policies, including but not limited to the listed prohibitions. No person on University property or at official University functions may:
(a) block entrances to or otherwise interfere with the free flow of traffic into and out of campus buildings; (b) have unauthorized entry to, possession of, receipt of, or use of any University services; equipment; resources; or properties, including the University's name, insignia, or seal; (c) engage in physical abuse including but not limited to sexual assault, sex offenses, and other physical assault; threats of violence; or other conduct that threatens the health or safety of any person; (d) obstruct or disrupt teaching, research, administration, disciplinary procedures, or other University activities; (e) engage in the production of amplified or non-amplified sound that disrupts campus activities; (f) exhibit disorderly or lewd conduct; (g) participate in a disturbance of the peace or unlawful assembly; (j) possess, use, store, or manufacture explosives, firebombs, or other destructive devices; (k) possess, use, store, or manufacture a firearm or other weapon; (l) engage in the theft of, conversion of, destruction of, or damage to any property of the University, or any property of others while on University premises, or possession of any property when the individual had knowledge or reasonably should have had knowledge that it was stolen; (m) fail to comply with the directions of a University official or other public official acting in the performance of his or her duties while on University property or at official University functions; or resisting or obstructing such University or other public officials in the performance of or the attempt to perform their duties; (n) camp or lodge on University property other than in authorized facilities; (o) climb up or rappel down any tree, building, or structure on University property.
322. (a) The University House is primarily a personal residence and is not open to the public. The use of University House is limited to the residence of the Chancellor's family and guests and the venue for periodic special University events hosted by the Chancellor. It is not open to the public, and is accessible by invitation only. The property is not a designated area for public expression. Rallies, demonstrations and other forms of public expression by members of the University community or the general public are not permitted at any time on the grounds of The University House. Given the nature of the University House as a residential home, any such assembly advocacy activity may not occur within 50 feet of the property boundaries between the hours of 10 pm and 7am daily.
331. The Sproul Plaza and Lower Sproul Plaza have traditionally been designated as areas for public expression. These areas are open to the public generally between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and 12:00 midnight. Between the hours of midnight and 6 a.m., these areas are generally closed to all activities except coming and going to a University building or crossing the campus. During open hours, Sproul Plaza and Lower Sproul Plaza may be used without reservation for discussion or public expression which does not require or involve sound amplification equipment. Space in both areas may be reserved through the Center for Student Leadership for use by recognized campus organizations or non-University groups in accordance with facility use regulations and established office procedures. However, use of these areas for discussion or public expression may be limited when such use interferes with the orderly conduct of University business or authorized events.
Thank you for attention to this and best issues for a successful academic year.
Sincerely,
Harry Le Grande, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Gibor Basri, Vice Chancellor for Equity and Inclusion Fiona Doyle, Chair, Academic Senate
I like the Freudian slip of the closing line.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
According to my sitemeter, while Mac OS X accounts for 10.9% of web use [dubious source], it constitutes 63.4% of traffic to this blog.
I start reading Twain's Autobiography at any page and don't want to stop, for the sheer voluptuous pleasure of the prose.
I am pretty sure that's also how Twain felt about the Autobiography.
I'm struck, first of all, by Ebert's observation that you can just drop in anywhere in the Autobiography. That's true. Twain rambles on and on about what he believes to be his own clever innovation, viz. to dictate whatever the hell he feels for a few hours a day, on any subject, past, present, or future, and call it an autobiography. So the Autobiography is arranged chronologically by date of dictation, not by the sequence of events in Twain's life.
And, second of all, it's interesting that Ebert's in love with the prose, because this is Twain's prose at its loosest. As Ebert elsewhere tweets, it's "MUCH longer than the 'Autobiography' we know!"
The editors at the MTP work very hard, but their aim is not to improve the Autobiography, but rather to retrieve the most authoritative possible text by looking at all the variant drafts, figuring out which notations are in Twain's hand and which were made by Albert Bigelow Paine or Clara (Clemens) Gabrilowisch, or some random editor at the North American Review. That means that this edition is pretty unabridged. There's no more of ABP's and CG's judicious (or cautious) cutting. It's full-on Twain, which isn't, stylistically speaking, always a good thing. Perhaps he would have written a shorter autobiography, but he ran out of time.
One of Twain's favorite syntactic forms was, "X was ADJECTIVE and ADJECTIVE and ADJECTIVE and ADJECTIVE." He really does get lost in his own descriptions, and he can't resist tacking just one more modifier on there.
He couldn't have a more sympathetic reader than Roger Ebert, it seems. I hope Ebert writes more about Twain; he doesn't have Twain's bitterness, but in a way they're kindred souls.
Also, I suspect that Twain, like Ebert, would have loved Twitter.
I actually moved into this office weeks ago, but I just had a chance to snap some photos this morning. It's really lovely to have an office in this building, after seven years in the department. I have three officemates who have yet to show up to actually use the space, so in practice I have a huge office all to myself, at least for now.
It's crying out for a philodendron, isn't it?
I snagged the rickety wooden chair for my personal use. All the other chairs were those awful office chairs for giants, with armrests. One of the casters falls off the wooden chair sometimes, but it's still more comfortable to me than the padded monstrosities.
My desk is already cluttered in the way that I like--with pens, lists of call numbers, scratch paper covered with notes, marked-up drafts. I know where everything is.
Like all the fourth floor offices, this one has a balcony. Here's the view:
Yes, that's the Financial District of San Francisco back there, with requisite Bay haze:
Marin is also visible:
And here's the Eucalyptus Grove, which is blocking any view of the Golden Gate Bridge:
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Fact #1. Mark Twain is a profoundly bad poet.
Fact #2. Mark Twain is always capable of saying something inappropriate. Always.
These facts have been brought to you by the Bancroft Library's Mark Twain Papers.
There are a lot of f-bombs in this post. Just saying.
Puerility is a powerful mode for a number of the authors I study, so you can imagine my delight when the internets deposited the following gem before me:
We learn that there is going to be no claim to dignity from the very first line, even before the endlessly catchy refrain:
I see you driving 'round town with the girl I love, and I'm like, "Fuck you!"
"I'm like" lets us know before we even arrive that this will be no haughty drama; no grand passion; no cold, dignified rage. It acknowledges at once the immaturity of responding to heartbreak with "Fuck you!" The song subtly clues us into the conjectural status of the "gold-digger" theory of rejection as well: "I guess the change in my pocket wasn't enough." Translation: you must have rejected me because you're a venal, flat stereotype of a woman. Cee Lo indulges in the most simplistic of interpretations, the one that makes a rejection into something other than a real rejection. There's a vicious pleasure and satisfaction in facile interpretations (viz. cable news), and Cee Lo both embraces that pleasure and acknowledges it for what it is: puerility.
As Kevin points out, the song's "fuck you" is universal ("fuck you and fuck her too"--which is to say, fuck everybody). The song's first sentence lets us think the addressee is a competitor for a woman's affections, but it quickly slips back and forth between addressing the competitor and addressing the woman herself. Eventually the universe of the song expands to include an appeal to "Mamma," whereupon the singer is once again denied and handed off to "Dad," in a deft Freudian disciplinary gesture.
The song invokes a queer triangulation of desire (of the woman, of the competitor), but despite the proliferation of f-bombs, in the end it is not an adult song at all but a childish immersion in polymorphous desire. This is why it makes perfect sense that a key metaphor revolves around more or less awesome video game consoles ("Xbox" versus "Atari"), why it "ain't fair" seems like a valid complaint, and why the bridge devolves into explicit (and hilarious) whining, an actual tantrum. By the end of this bridge all pretense that the gold-digger theory could have actually been valid has been abandoned in favor of the open, raw howl of "WHHHHY?" He doesn't know why. It's all a free-flowing libidinal soup now.
The clever lyric video supports the polymorphous libido of the song by refusing distinctions between reasonable and unreasonable, important and unimportant, figure and ground. Every last word of the song is printed before our eyes, in time, including backup vocals and non-words like "OOO, OOO, OOOO" and "UH." (Follow the bouncing ball?)
This is perhaps the best use of puerility I've seen in a while, and like some of Mark Twain's funniest rants, it's characterized by an unusual energy, a full-fledgedness that's hilarious, in part, because it's so very cute--an impotent, multidirectional, adorable rage. This is how the song manages to be intense and light at the same time, angry and hilarious--like some of Twain's less sporting pot-shots at the literary lights of a previous generation. It's indulgent, childishly so, and that's what makes it appealing.
As with Twain, there's a dark dimension to this humor as well. First, it depends on our willingness to take childish anguish lightly, and to laugh at what is intensely, if incoherently, felt. And second, puerility (that is, the tantrum of the male child) here becomes the humorous grounds for perpetuating a deeply misogynistic narrative. She isn't really a gold-digger, no, but Cee Lo gets to say she is, over and over, and we'll laugh at it, because puerility excuses it. Female desire is reduced to a cipher for our amusement. There's no resolving this, I don't think. Humor always has its undertow.
I know this is absolutely pathological, but I'm a little bothered that the apostrophe in front of "round" is pointed in the wrong direction. Someone didn't override smart quotes?
Also, it strikes me as ingenious that the video emulates film stock, but I'm not sure why.
On cuteness: Ngai, Sianne. "The Cuteness of the Avant-Garde." Critical Inquiry 31.4 (Summer 2004): 811-47. Print.
Okay, since Twitter has failed me: anyone want to recommend some good academic podcasts?
By "podcasts," I don't mean college courses that have been recorded and put on iTunesU, nor one-off lectures; I mean regular series like PoemTalk or Digital Campus.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Lila ♥ Foucault.
Yeah, it's a couple of gratuitous cat photos; what? (Special thanks to Hillary for the photos.)
Apropos of yesterday's sequence of stills: I can't believe I still haven't posted on Janelle Monáe. I mean, she has a disc titled Metropolis, for heaven's sake. I'm still hoping the much better Kevin Dettmar will post on her soon (and can I dream of a Jack Halberstam post?). Still, I have some thoughts to work out on her, and will do it one of these days.
