September 21, 2007
Internationalizing American Poetry?
The announcement that Paul Muldoon will be the next poetry editor of The New Yorker provoked Ted Genoways, editor of VQR, to to call out American poets (in a friendly way)>:
“The Irish-born Muldoon (who also edited the Best American Poetry anthology in 2005) joins the ranks of English-born Glyn Maxwell at The New Republic and Yugoslav-born Charles Simic at Paris Review. And Simic is also now the Poet Laureate of the United States. Has anyone spoken to Lou Dobbs about this? Should we be concerned that Europeans are taking jobs away from American poets? Or is editing the kind of work that Americans are no longer willing to do? All kidding aside, this seems another example of the healthy internationalization of American literature that has been going on recently. Maybe it’s time to put away ideas like Best American this-and-that in favor of publishing the best work, period—regardless of where it appeared or where the writer was born or lives now. Maybe we can also hope that an Irish poet such as Muldoon will have an eye for harder-hitting, more topical poetry than we’re used to seeing in mainstream American magazines.”
So being Irish makes you hard-hitting and topical? I thought we weren’t supposed to generalize based on nationality any more.
It’s a good question, though: Is Muldoon’s appointment (or Simic’s, or Maxwell’s) really an example of a new internationalism in American literature or something less dramatic? Poets, speak.
Jennifer Howard | Posted on Fri Sep 21, 04:07 PM | Permalink | Comment [5]History, Healing, and the 'Jena 6' Case
Sherrilyn Ifill, a law professor of the University of Maryland, in Baltimore, writes at BlackProf that she has been feeling grim this month since a noose was left hanging near the office of the Black Faculty and Staff Association at Maryland’s College Park campus.
Ifill has also been concerned about the “Jena 6” case, in which six African-American teenagers have been severely prosecuted after a spiraling series of violent conflicts at a Louisiana high school. Critics have accused the local authorities of being much more lenient toward the white teenagers involved in the incidents. (The Jena case, which was the subject of large protests across the country yesterday, appears not to have been on the radar screens of most legal bloggers.)
But Ifill writes that she has been comforted by attending this week’s “Maafa commemoration” at Brooklyn’s St. Paul Community Baptist Church. The annual event, which centers on the crimes of the Atlantic slave trade, is “a real community treasure — an incredible creative expression of ownership of our history and of our healing,” Ifill writes.
(A similar event is being held this week at Georgia State University.)
Earlier this year, Ifill published a book about the history of lynching in the United States, and the prospects for healing its wounds by using tribunals modeled after the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. And yesterday she published a related essay in Baltimore’s Sun.
In 2002, The Chronicle explored scholars’ attempts to make sense of lynching and other forms of ritualized racist violence.
(Photo by Flickr user T. Young.)
David Glenn | Posted on Fri Sep 21, 01:32 PM | Permalink | Comment [3]Reich on Preventing Recession
"All eyes are on Ben Bernanke and the Fed," says the Berkeley professor and former labor secretary Robert Reich. "... But a Fed rate cut won't stimulate the economy. That's because lending institutions, fearing their portfolios are far riskier than they assumed several months ago, won't lend lots more just because the Fed lowers interest rates."
Reich's alternative recommendation? Cut taxes for the lower and middle classes.
"Yes, I know: Tax cuts have gone out of style ever since Democrats became born-again deficit hawks, and George Bush squandered the $5-trillion surplus he inherited in 2000 mainly by cutting taxes on the rich.
"But with a recession looming, Democrats need to stop being the party of Herbert Hoover economics. And the Republicans need to understand tax cuts for the rich won't help because the rich don’t increase their spending when their taxes are cut. They already spend as much as they want to spend. That's what it means to be rich.
"... I say exempt the first $15,000 of earnings from payroll taxes for a year, starting as soon as possible. Sure, this may cause the budget deficit to widen a bit. But if the economy goes into the tank, the deficit will be far bigger."
Playing the Credit Card
Noting that a former Harvard economics major, Kenneth Griffin, is Number 117 on Forbes's list of the 400 richest Americans (worth $3-billion, says Forbes), Greg Mankiw writes:
"Yes, I know, the Harvard econ department does not deserve all the credit for Mr. Griffin's success, but we will happily accept a small share of it. After all, our building does need renovation."
Not to put Mr. Griffin on the spot or anything!
Meanwhile, President Bush reflects on his education in economics:
Another Tattoo: Y Combinator? Why Not?
To complement the recent science tattoos strutting around the Web, The Loom features a math tat.
The tattoo's canvas, named Mark, explains: 
"This is a formula called the Y Combinator. It is a fixed-point combinator in the lambda calculus and was discovered by Haskell Curry, a rather prolific mathematician and logician whose work helped start Computer Science.
"What this formula does is calculates the fixed point of a function, which in turn allows for recursion by calling on that fixed point; recursion is perhaps the single most important concept in Computer Science. Being a computer scientist and a mathematician, this formula is very important to me and represents the innate beauty of computer science and mathematical logic."
Alex Kafka | Posted on Fri Sep 21, 10:49 AM | Permalink | CommentSeptember 20, 2007
Drezner on Newly Free Op-Ed Piece in NYT
Now that The New York Times's opinion pieces are free on the Web again, Daniel Drezner no longer feels free to ignore them. So he goes after Roger Cohen's piece today on the destruction of various French taboos under Sarkozy. The gist of Drezner's criticism is that Cohen's analysis is right on the money, but a decade late.
Alex Kafka | Posted on Thu Sep 20, 10:33 AM | Permalink | CommentSeptember 19, 2007
The Inevitable Arrr!
The requisite International Talk Like a Pirate Day humor, for classicists.
And for theologians.
And for lesbian and gay historians.
Last but not least, take a tour of Pirate University.
In 2005, The Chronicle told the tale of the ”Pirate Captain” who captured the student government at North Carolina State. And in 2004, we asked the eternal question, ”Why doesn’t every college have a course on pirates?”
(Photo by Flickr user elvissa.)
David Glenn | Posted on Wed Sep 19, 03:11 PM | Permalink | Comment [1]Cheap Thrills?
Cafe Hayek wonders why Wal-Mart has to spend millions convincing America that low prices, and having money for other things, are good.
Alex Kafka | Posted on Wed Sep 19, 11:31 AM | Permalink | Comment [8]PC? Or Zzzzz?
At EconLog, Bryan Caplan writes that, in his experience, professors' dullness and students' lack of enthusiasm have been far more frequent than PC brainwashing.
Alex Kafka | Posted on Wed Sep 19, 11:19 AM | Permalink | CommentAftershocks from U. Fla. Taser Incident
(Updated at 4:55 p.m. Wednesday)
By now you may have read about and seen video footage of Andrew Meyer, a student at the University of Florida, being Tasered by police at a John Kerry speech.
New wrinkles and background information are emerging, for instance this item on Meyer’s reported behavior after the incident and this one on Meyer’s student journalism.
Still, Leiter Reports, which earlier asked whether “the campus cops at the University of Florida train at Abu Ghraib,” says the new information “hardly explains the tasering.”
Leiter links to Accidental Blogger, who writes:
“Even if one concedes that Meyer indeed is a publicity hound and asked provocative questions to garner attention, how could he have ‘staged’ the police reaction? Attendees at political meetings often wish to attract attention. No one wears a T-shirt with a message, holds up a banner, or asks a question of a politician in order to be unobtrusive. So what was new here? If the campus police at the University of Florida feel that Meyer’s enthusiasm for self-promotion is a defense for their own indefensible Gestapo-like action, it is laughable.”
Alex Kafka | Posted on Wed Sep 19, 11:06 AM | Permalink | Comment [6]