A sad day: a new act of terror in the UK and Juan Goytisolo died in Marrakech.

Let’s see what other news the past week brought us. 

A great (if incomplete) summary of Trump’s pro-Russian activities. Unfortunately, the author choose the craziest medium to deliver her message. Who can read this kind of text? 

Here is a much better format for this crucial information. 

It’s beyond annoying how every dumb little starlet immediately screams sexism whenever anybody is not 100% welcoming to her money-making schemes. 

I agree with Bob Basil that what’s happening in Evergreen is an absolute disgrace. This is what happens when you begin to treat students like customers and promote a consumerist vision of higher ed. I especially recommend the video of the head manager, aka the school’s president, allowing angry consumers, aka students, to throw tantrums in his face as he licks their consumerist shoes. 

A completely deranged plan on how to “improve” secondary education. If you don’t have time to read the whole insane rant: this teacher thinks that the perfect school has students sitting in cubicles doing online exercises. 

A 1949 media diet: a fascinating experiment.

Trump’s meeting with religious leaders. It’s absolutely hilarious. 

A brilliant response to Ted Cruz and Joyce Chaplin who are making idiots of themselves on Twitter. 

A beautiful quote on hard work and knowledge. 

So how did we get from liberalism, which rests on the beautiful belief that all people are equal in value and should be respected, to something as nasty and perverted as neoliberalism? (And if you don’t think it’s nasty, please make sure you get in the shade and drink plenty of water.)

In a famous Soviet sci fi / fantasy novel, scientists engineered a creature who was 100% satisfied in all his needs. Once they activated the creature, he grabbed all of the material objects he could reach, and then warped the time dimension in an attempt to possess it as well.

Liberalism’s respect for an individual can easily be steered towards respect towards a desiring individual. As we know from Econ 101, there is no natural limit on human needs. People will devour all resources, the whole planet, and each other if there’s nothing to place a limit on their desires. And it’s very easy for a creature like the one in the famous Soviet novel to say, “If you respect me and my rights, you’ve got to respect my right to consume.” 

Neoliberalism uses the vocabulary of the great liberal revolution to extract more profit. People are so disarmed by the talk of individual rights that they fail to notice that the only right that neoliberalism grants them is the right to keep buying.

N and I are celebrating, at a very adult restaurant, the 10th anniversary of the day we met.

This isn’t the actual anniversary, though. We’ve been celebrating in stages because a love story like this deserves to be celebrated. 

The actual anniversary is Tuesday. Then there will be the anniversary of the second time we met and when we actually started living together. 

Also, prominent among the things that annoy me is the weird belief that you can only find real Mexican food in Mexico, real Indian food in India, etc.

When I make borscht in Southern Illinois, it is as real as the borscht somebody is making in Kiev right now. If I had my heart set on using the same canned tomatoes or tomato paste that the person in Kiev is using, I could easily do that. (I don’t because I don’t see any great difference).) I’ve cooked tons of very authentic Soviet dishes here in the US. You taste them and it’s like you are in the USSR in 1986. There’s no need to time travel to taste this food. 

A neighbor just shared the following insight with me: Governor Rauner will sign the bill raising the state’s minimum wage because he’s afraid that if he doesn’t, the black people in Cook County (“and there are SO many of them and they are very criminal”) will murder him. 

Before you jump to the conclusion that this comes from some poor redneck, this person’s house is 3 times as big as mine and her profession has to do with art. I mean, serious, real art. 

I know somebody who is a very successful academic. Like in, you don’t get much more successful than that. Well, this person has no problem at all self-promoting. She emails you her articles, brings her books to every meeting, and generally acts like the world is desperate to see her work and she is trying to oblige. 

I love this attitude of deep respect towards one’s own work. I envy the deep conviction that everybody is eager to read what one has published. I wish I could be this way but I have this unfortunate trait of all Soviet intelligentsia of fearing self-promotion. And it’s not even real modesty. You, folks, know me, how modest am I? And it’s not self-effacement because seriously, you know me. It’s a weird Soviet tic.

So academics, share your self-promotion strategies to help me get over it. 

So, people, especially if you are academics, how do you feel about getting emails that go like follows,

Dear Professor Bulochkina,

I’m writing to let you know that my new book titled Xxx came out last month. Here are the links if you are interested.

Sincerely,

Abcde 

I’m seeing some people do it and I’m not sure what the etiquette is. Should I do it for my new book? 

I have to be honest: I LOVE getting such emails (and please consider sending one to me the next time you release something.) I find it very useful to get them because I like knowing what’s being published. Plus, I’m always happy that things are happening, people are getting published, etc. 

But we all know I can’t be trusted to guess what the majority likes and responds to. Will people think I’m an idiot if I send out such an email? Would you do it?

At the salon yesterday I told the stylist that I’m going to New Haven for a reunion. 

“It’s not like I’ll be traveling to a high school reunion in Ukraine because that’s too far,” I said. 

The stylist stared at me, looking confused. 

“Oh,” she finally said. “I completely forgot you are not from here.”

Once you actually get to know me, I’m not that weird. 

Nnedi Okorafor asks on Facebook:

I need to understand this phenomenon: 

WHY do people tweet to and email me asking if they can find my books in Amazon??? Why can’t they just go to Amazon and check? What IS that all about???

They do it for the same reason you wrote this Facebook post, lady. They want attention. 

Writers are often very disappointing as people. 

So there was this woman who really wanted to be a full-time writer. She was desperate to leave her boring old job, to stop getting up at 6 am every day and suffering through an endless commute while hating every second she couldn’t spend writing. Her job was at an institution of higher learning, and as such jobs often do, it kept spilling over into evenings and weekends. It was a running joke among her friends how entirely unsuited she was to a life of a regular 8 to 6 worker who has to show up at her job early each morning. 

The woman snatched every free moment she had to write, write, write. And finally her books started selling. And then bestselling. And finally she had enough money to quit her boring old job, buy a beautiful big house with a view, and do nothing but write. So that’s what she did. 

And. . . for the next three years, she didn’t write a word. All she did was stay in bed and weep. And eat. And weep some more. She gained a ton of weight and drove everybody who knew her to distraction because it’s hard to feel much compassion for a bestselling author with a beautiful big house and no money worries. The worst part was that she couldn’t explain what was torturing her.

“But isn’t this what you always wanted?” her long-suffering husband would ask.

“Yes,” she’d say and start weeping.

Finally, her agent got fed up with not getting paid. He showed up at her house one day, packed her into his car, and drove her to his office. He led her to a tiny windowless closet and said,

“Look, I put a desk and a chair here for you. Each day you’ll arrive here by 7 am, like it’s a job, and stay working for the next 8 hours, like it’s a job. And you’ll keep doing it every day. Like it’s a fucking job!”

So that’s what the woman did. She started writing again, and selling, and even bestselling. The writing is not as good (I’m a fan, I read all she writes) but it’s good enough. Most importantly, she is smiling again. She lost back the weight and started taking dancing lessons. 

Self-awareness is a great and rare gift.

P.S. It’s a completely true story that the writer herself has shared in a multitude of interviews.