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The Public Blogging of Pomosexuality, Homotextuality, Homophobiaphilia, and Drear Theory (aka Career Theory) [aka Gay4Pay]. We also read the Corner and OpJournal so the right buttock will be punished as well.
All comments subject to publication. Or dismissal. Or Both.
Saturday, August 10, 2002
I got the "call for papers" pasted below in an email. If it's a joke it's an elaborate one. The paper caller named at the end does seem to exist (paper call'n should be an event at the MLA county fair).
From the resume on his page at the U Memphis site it would appear that this sort of thing is Nathan's niche.
A previous conference gig produced:
"Rope and Faggot: the Homoerotics of Lynching in William Faulkner's Light In August and James Baldwin's Going to Meet the Man." Society for the Study of Southern Literature conference, Lafayette, Louisiana, March 2002.
My favorite moments in "the call": That intriguing "(obstensibly)". And the phrase, "Other approaches, however, are welcome". No doubt. The namedropping/logrolling/backscratching mention of one "Robyn Wiegman" is a classic touch as well.
Of course Nathan is incapable of typing the word narratives without quotation/denigration marks around it.
I have a similar fixation in my typing of the word "scholarship".
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
PUB: call for papers on the homoerotics of lynching
==========================================
For a proposed Special Session at SCMLA '03, held at the Arlington Hotel and Spa in Hot Springs, Arkansas, I am seeking papers that explore the intersection of homoeroticism and lynching. I am
particularly interested in approaches that deal with castration and the attendant phallic relations occurring between the white lyncher and the (ostensibly) black lynching "victim," or what Robyn Wiegman calls "the image of white men embracing -- with hate, fear, and a chilling form of empowered delight -- the same penis they were so over-determinedly driven to destroy."
Other approaches, however, are welcome and can explore either fictional relations of lynchings or non-fictional lynching "narratives" such as those found in _Without Sanctuary_.
250-word abstracts, along with CV, should be surface-mailed no later
than February 1, 2003, to:
Nathan G. Tipton
Department of English
The University of Memphis
82 Stonewall Street
Memphis, Tennessee 38104-2456
or emailed as plain text ONLY to ntipton@memphis.edu
9:59 AM
Thursday, August 08, 2002
Richard Goldstein says he ain't no commie but that certain unnamed Gap models have called him such and then erased the evidence.
This should be some sort of scandal. But I guess expectations are so abysmal for any Goldstein piece that no one really notices or cares. Imagine the laziness. Richard G. decides to write about being branded, libeled, as a "communist" and "marxist". It's the latest tactic of that sneaky power trio "Fundamentalists, libertarians,... backlash liberals".
Neo red-baiting that "shuts down critical thinking, and in that sense, it's the most effective instrument of conformity we have". (Ever notice how the straight-faced use of "critical thinking" in a sentence is a sure indicator that mindless recitation is in full effect?)
So, anyway, Richard's got his hook, his pretext. Now he goes looking for the actual, you know, quotes. The examples of how the tactic has been used to shut him out, shut him down and lobotomize his critical thinking. EXCEPT HE CAN'T FIND ANY. Does he doubt the premise? Rethink his raison de bitching?
Well there's a problem with rethinking of course. It requires that some original thinking took place. If you FEEL like you've been attacked as a "communist" then you must have been. Evidence notwitstanding and not existing. Let Mr. Science explain:
"...bloggers can manage their own archives, making it possible for them to say the most outrageous things and then hit the delete key when the objections roll in. Unless you've downloaded the original blog, you can't prove it ever existed. It's gone to that great cookie in the sky."
The technical mastery of it all. Blogs are being "downloaded" and celestial "cookies" being invoked. But Mr G's meaningless use of the jargon is a lttle bit charming. It's like a letter from your grandmother.
Except my grannies were nothing if not honest. Energetic as hell. And sensible. If they decided to paint the kitchen of a an afternoon only to find that the paint can was empty they wouldn't have poured the empty can into the pan and rolled the non-paint onto the walls. THEY WOULD HAVE FOUND SOMETHING ELSE TO DO.
Sunday, August 04, 2002
I received an email that linked to a planetout.com story about the sudden demise of an HBO reality TV project that centered around a group of gay guys sharing a Fire Island house for the summer. My correspondent wrote:
"Could it be that the people and subject were really, really boring?"
If that is the case then shame on them. If you aren't living your life with an eye towards keeping it interesting for potential home viewers then what's the point of living at all? Here's my rule: If your life hasn't been optioned yet for "Real World" or "The Perennial Bachelor" then live your life like the camera is always on you. Keep things moving, mix it up, fall in love, fool around, fight/make-up/fight, cry more than usual. A lot more.
Of course if you have been optioned and the cameras really ARE on you then act like they aren't, but KNOW that they are. AND KEEP IT INTERESTING.
2:27 AM
