Freida McFadden writes mega bestsellers, thrillers with a million plot twists. Fun, entertaining reads, perfect for the beach, the airport, and the beginning of the academic year.

I want to mention The Tenant in particular because it’s the second novel this week (after Culpability) that portrays a hen-pecked man, eager to please, and fussing around helplessly as women tug him around and pummel him.

A man terrified of displeasing women is now a major theme in American literature. I could give a long list of books where that is the center of the narrative. The Brits are obsessed with housing, the Spaniards are fixated on their depopulating countryside, and Americans can’t figure out how men and women should coexist.

The novel is great fun. Probably the best I have read by McFadden.

I know people who do these things and they always make carveouts for their acquaintances.

“I think we should strip tenure off everybody who voted Republican in this election.”

“I voted Republican.”

“Oh! I didn’t mean you! You know I love you. I’m sure you had good reasons. I mean other people.”

These aren’t bad individuals. They do these land acknowledgements like I put on eye shadow, because I think it looks nice.

The actual real fanatics who enjoy hurting others are few. Just like women who put on eye shadow because they want to steal your husband.

Most of them are clueless and they don’t care much one way or the other. They were told that BLM posters and pronouns in signatures are the thing, so they do it.

Putin sent his happy Udmurt double to meet with Trump, and American soldiers had to crawl on their knees in front of him.

Lukashenko invited Trump and his family to Minsk, and this invitation was accepted.

What?

— WarMonitor🇺🇦🇬🇧 (@WarMonitor3) August 15, 2025

I hope it’s not true because seriously? Belarus? Have we solved all our domestic problems so that our President can take trips to the utterly insignificant Belarus?

In a healthy relationship, ambiguity creates no stressors for the relationship. In unhealthy ones, ambiguity is intolerable.

I’m so glad you read the book! I hope you loved it. Everybody should read it, it’s a masterpiece.

If you are in the US and you are invited into a struggle session, I recommend immediately to contract a lawyer and request that the administration deal directly with your legal representative. College administrations are terrified of legal threats. I have witnessed unsavory personalities wheedle the most outrageous things out of the administration by lawyering up. Don’t say a word, don’t go to any committees, everything through a lawyer.

I understand that the events in the novel are set in Cape Town, and I don’t know how things work there. The professor in Disgrace did the next best thing to finding a lawyer. He refused to engage beyond the bare minimum. That’s always the correct behavior in any workplace spat. Whoever says the least, wins. Never ever ever do point-by-point rebuttals. Limit your responses to a difficult colleague to one sentence.

I’ve felled absolute wild beasts of prey who had made life impossible to generations of administrators before me by using this strategy. Don’t give them any time and, most importantly, any of your mental space. Pray, meditate, do whatever you need to not dwell. One sentence responses that are declarative (not questions). “I understand your position but I disagree.” “Please proceed as instructed previously.” That’s it, you are done, move on.

How does a nation-state come into existence?

A nation’s cultural elite comes together and creates the story of the nation, demonstrating that the nation existed from the earliest times it’s possible to co-opt for the story. It creates an idea of the national character and the national values. It compiles a list of cultural figures, philosophers, artists, military leaders, etc who were carriers of the national character for centuries. Different factions within the cultural elites have their own list, and they battle it out in debates. The story of the nation can be completely invented but that’s utterly beyond the point.

Then the story and the list of symbols, iconic characters and values has to be popularized. The people of the nation should develop an emotional response to this story. There should be a national archive, well-defined borders, and the symbols of the nation that appeal to all the senses and evoke an emotional response. All of this creates a feeling of “we, the people.” An imagined community of people who never met each other but feel part of the whole.

Every European nation-state went through this process throughout the 18th century and arrived in the 19th ready to become an actual nation-state. Without this process, there is no nation. Nation-building is great but it can only be done organically, from the inside. Nobody can give it to others. It’s a long, difficult process that can only be carried out by the nation itself. Any attempt to nation-build for others is doomed.

This is why all these “recognitions of Palestine” are stupid. You can’t appoint a nation into existence. We’ve seen many efforts in that direction in Africa, and they all failed. There’s nothing mysterious about nation-building. The process has been described in great detail, and it always follows the pattern I described.

The reason why Duolingo works is that they added the AI chatbot. Without it, the whole thing would be mildly useless.

The chatbot is a beaut. It was designed by people who really know how to teach languages, and I say this as somebody who has been teaching languages since age 14. I always get distracted in the midst of chatting with the bot by my admiration of how every precept of the methodology of foreign language teaching is followed.

A couple of weeks ago, I was talking to the chatbot in German in an empty hallway. Right at the moment when I was saying, “I prefer to order food delivery from this place because they don’t charge for rice or drinks”, the German professor from my department suddenly walked in. He never knew I could say anything in German, and this is a very random phrase to hear from your department Chair upon arrival at work. I haven’t seen him since then. He probably thinks I lost the last of my marbles and is hiding.

One of my favorite afterwork activities is I pick up Klara, we get poke bowls, bring them back to the office, and I listen to a book or do German exercises while Klara draws or plays or I set her up in our departmental movie theater.

It’s hot like the Gobi desert, and our space on campus is cool, empty, large, and quiet.

The administrators think I’m mega hard-working because I’m always here but it’s simply that I love having this gigantic space all to myself.

You hoped for a military coup and you believe it’s a good idea to express that wish in public?

The defenders of democracy strike again.