Author: Antonio Gamoneda
Title: Erroneous Song
Language: Spanish
Year: 2012

I’m generally not good with Spanish poetry but there are poets I somehow just get in spite of my lack of sophistication in this area.

Antonio Gamoneda is one such poet. Erroneous Song is his first collection of poetry since he got the Cervantes Prize back in 2006. This is very dark poetry. The 84-year-old poet is facing his own approaching death and trying to find meaning in existence. In every poem, his conclusion is the same: there is no meaning.

This is very dark, very complex poetry that cannot be fully understood without an immersion into the author’s poetic imagery that he’s been creating throughout his life.

A woman in her sixties was outbid on a house she wanted.

“Nobody was willing to recognize that this was very traumatic,” she says petulantly. “The realtor was refusing to treat this as real trauma.”

So she tried to get the new owner of the house raped. But she feels justified because of the trauma she experienced when she couldn’t buy the house she wanted.

True story. 

I never remember anybody’s face, so when people stop me in the street with, “OMG, I haven’t seen you for SO long? How ARE you doing?” I just respond with, “Hey! It’s been so long! So great to see you!”

And it’s really embarrassing when people respond to that with, “Oh wait. I think I’m confusing you with someone!”

What’s a person supposed to say to that?

Let’s look at the following website, offering “one-of-a-kind and never resold” PhD dissertations:

The website warns people not to get lured by the dishonest competitors who sell bad product. And who might those competitors be?

So who are these kind people who are warning the American students about evil Ukrainian websites? Hmm, that’s a mystery!

Well, no, not really. The small print at the bottom of the page tells us all we need to know:

 

I had no idea that all of the links I gathered for this collection would share the theme of self-infantilization but here you have it. 

Extreme childishness is in vogue, and people who are trying to get elected to positions of extraordinary responsibility think it’s cute to pretend they are 3 years old.

Another example of this: here is a suggestion that the way to help black people is to see them as toddlers.

And one more story about immaturity: “According to the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries, lotteries took in $70.1 billion in sales in the 2014 fiscal year. That’s more than Americans in all 50 states spent on sports tickets, books, video games, movie tickets, and recorded music sales.”

I don’t watch Game of Thrones but here is somebody who does and explains at length why it sucks.

Robin Williams matryoshkas.

The British are finally starting to make some phlegmatic moves in the direction of banning extremism.

In the meanwhile, the University of California is pandering to extreme immaturity in a desperate bid to safe itself: “The University of California at Irvine plans to offer a four-week MOOC based on the FX television series The Strain,which follows the spread of a disease with the “hallmarks of an ancient and evil strain of vampirism.”

And here is an example of somebody who childishly mistakes her psychological problems for a political stance: “It’s pretty terrific how the Patriarchy sets rules for women that effectively mean we can like ourselves, or be liked by “everyone else,” but not both.”

I keep having this exact same experience with students and it’s very frustrating. But this indifference is still better than what the previous link shows.

[Spanish] Literature is being squeezed out of Spanish schools.

“When George Zimmerman inevitably gets himself killed, I’m sure I won’t be alone in feeling happy about it, in feeling that a standing offense to the concept of justice has been belatedly mitigated. . . I’m sure we all have people about whom we have similar feelings: Darren Wilson, for instance, or Donald Trump.” I especially love it how such people need to hide from their own childishness by projecting it onto “we all.”

“When complimented on a good presentation, I’ll sometimes say “Oh you really thought so?” or much worse, “No, it wasn’t! You’re just saying that.” Beyond the conference setting, I’ll deny that I’m a good teacher or won’t take credit for my part in organizing an event by saying “No, colleague X did all the real work!””

Russia rehearsed nuclear attack on Poland.

George W. Bush bashes President Obama over his handling of the Middle East. Wait, what?

Why the teaching of foreign languages in this country often sucks.

If you are fed up with Rate My Professor, check out Draw My Professor.

Microsoft’s wildly inaccurate “How Old Do I Look?” is a data miner’s dream.

I can’t say whether this is immature or simply stupid: “If you want to understand the completely irreconcilable difference I am talking about [between Muslims and Westerners], you need only compare two groups of people: the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks, flying their hijacked planes into the World Trade Center, and the New York City firefighters running up the stairs of the burning Twin Towers, determined to save whoever they could, regardless of the risk to their own lives.”

But the winner of today’s immaturity series is the following piece on bathroom signs. The bathroom signs themselves are running a close second.

Countries of the Third World are those where leaders get elected for a third term.

And this is what happens when you learn to perceive every slight discomfort as harassment and horrible trauma. A student showed up to the advisement office without an appointment and quietly sat in the chair, waiting for somebody to see him. An unhinged paper-pusher started freaking out and telling him (in a very insane and unprofessional manner) that she was being harassed and was calling the campus security.

The number of these useless bureaucrats on campus is growing. I wish people talked more about this very real problem of higher ed instead of focusing on some completely invented and irrelevant issues.

The organizers of the Oxford conference sent out an email telling the participants that the conference discourages “power dressing.” I only hope this doesn’t mean I will have to spend a week surrounded by unkempt feet in flip-flops and beige shorts. 

We are the only people in our street not to get rid of dandelions on our lawn, and we were perfectly right to do that.

Dandelions are beautiful and important. And kids love to play with them. They were my favorite toys when I was a kid. I have no idea why there is such dread of dandelions in this country. 

41 percent of 2013 and 2014 graduates earn less than $25,000

, 64 percent are working in their chosen field, and 64 percent feel their education prepared them well for the workforce.

The stats reflect very neatly the breakdown among students that I observe: about 60% work hard and love learning while about 40% beg for grades, ask “Will this be on the test?”, and believe that college should be about constant reinforcement of their awesomeness.