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LS and you
One of my flaws as a teacher is that I really can't handle "dead time." I jabber through silences. When the conversation stops, even if only momentarily, my heart drops, a belt of adrenaline hits my arteries, and I kick things back on to track, for better or worse. I've heard stories about teachers who are better about this, who can stand 5 minutes of silence without freaking out. Alas, I'm not sure if prolonged stoppages will ever be for me.
So just imagine what the near-silence chez nous is having on me! LS is having a bit of a slow period. A prolonged slow period, actually. Which is totally understandable. People are busy, things need to get done, and if anyone knows about the ebb and flow of blogjuice, it's me. (I've been killing my blogs off since before many of you had heard the word "blog" for the first time...)
But I'll admit, this is starting to make me a bit sad. It wouldn't be an overstatement, I think, to say that at one point LS was one of the blogs to turn to if you were interested in an amalgam of theory, left politics, loosely literary analysis, and related fields. It is a blog that should exist, don't you agree?
Anyway, this is dangerous pool, for certain, but desperate times call for desperate posts. If you are interested in writing for LS, I encourage you to write me and say so. I think that we would be especially interested in people who have some blogging / writing experience, and, obviously, have some interests in common with those that have written for the site in the past. So tell me a little bit about yourself, point me to your own blog / writings / whatever. And I'll let the others know about your interest and we'll go from there.
One thing: don't count yourself out because of your professional position or lack thereof. We've always been a pretty eclectic group on this front. A lot of graduate students, a lot of non-academics, a few faculty folks. Mostly what I'm interested in are people who would like to write here fairly regularly, who write well, and have an interest in one or more of the following fields:
- left politics
- "theory" and philosophy
- politically or theoretically inflected approaches to literature, film, popular culture, music, art, architecture, philosophy, and so on...
- other issues that have some connection to the above.
Another thing: obviously pseudonymity is fine by me, so don't let that rule you out either.
This is obviously a bit dangerous, as maybe no one will write me and then the question becomes where to go from there. We don't want that to happen, so drop me a line...
By CR | July 6, 2007 in Intellects, Narrow and Cold and Resenting | Permalink
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CR--thanks for this post. Over the past months, LS has become for me a repository of guilt, a kind of taunt that I need to do more, write something, or who know what. I've wondered if we should try a symposium again--that's when we were really hopping. It's weird, there are a whole series of things I'm willing to put on I Cite, but I don't think they are appropriate for LS, likely because they are too tied to specific projects or personal concerns.
The Weblog thrives, it seems to me, because of Adam. The Valve persists because of Holbo. A nifty attribute of LS was that there was not an individual at the center; we were (are?) a group and that offers pressures and pleasures.
Posted by: Jodi | Jul 6, 2007 1:38:30 PM
"... at one point LS was one of the blogs to turn to if you were interested in an amalgam of theory, left politics, loosely literary analysis, and related fields ..."
Strike "one of" and singularize blog.
Agreed with Jodi about symposiums.
After 18 months + of working among downtown Toronto's homeless population as a street pastor for the Mennonite Central Committee, I feel like I'm just about to the point where I can't not begin spilling over with stories, observations, critical reflections upon praxis. I could, I suppose take up a weekly column over at the weblog again, but a few factors, primarily Jodi's observation about "not an individual at the center" give me some pause (a second big factor being my uncertainty at the yet developing relationship with An und für sich). On the other hand, my particular theological bent means that I'm not a particularly good fit here. (Not to mention the fact that I flaked out on the Schmitt symposium).
In any event, I do hope that LS finds a writer or three or some other means to reinvigorate things. I've begun to wonder at times whether our frontier in the blogiverse is steadily become a series of ghost towns.
Posted by: old | Jul 6, 2007 4:15:38 PM
'This is obviously a bit dangerous, as maybe no one will write me'
Oh. My. Gawd. There'd be another 5 minutes of unfullfillment to navigate...
Posted by: patrick j. mullins | Jul 6, 2007 6:41:44 PM
I'd be interested! I'm an ABD graduate student in English at the University of Florida specializing in Romantic Literature, Theory and Film. I have a few URLs that might be of interest:
1. my blog: http://tharmas.wordpress.com. I don't have a huge audience, but I do post pretty frequently.
2. my CV: http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/rwhitson/vitae-2.pdf
3. an edited collection I produced for the journal ImageText called William Blake and Visual Culture:
http://www.english.ufl.edu/imagetext/archives/v3_2
My interests would obviously be more focused around academic politics, theory, literature and media--but that might be just what you are looking for.
Posted by: Tharmas | Jul 6, 2007 6:47:15 PM
I would love, love, love Old to join us and welcome him with open arms. I think fondly of our discussions of sovereignty, race, and the state.
Thamas also seems a valuable addition to our little blog. A literary and film type, someone who thinks about visual culture, would overlap with and nicely extend a bunch of our interests here.
I don't have admin privileges, but I hope those who do will bring these folks on board asap!
Posted by: Jodi | Jul 6, 2007 7:32:42 PM
I definitely agree with Jodi on both counts.
Anyone else?
Posted by: CR | Jul 7, 2007 8:02:46 AM
The Weblog thrives; the Valve persists. That's a great way to put it.
At AUFS, we have arrived at a fairly harmonious arrangement -- Anthony generally takes the lead, but I think it's more balanced than most group blogs. But I think that part of what makes it work is that it's undergirded by "real life" relationships -- the main three posters at AUFS are really close personally, and there are a couple groups of friends represented among the regular commenters, too.
Just trying to put together a "supergroup" from among a certain class of blogs -- like Long Sunday tried to do initially -- seems tougher to do, since the relationships are pretty much entirely mediated through blogs.
Posted by: Adam Kotsko | Jul 7, 2007 8:56:39 PM
Isn't that funny. As I was clicking my way to LS, I was expecting to find nothing new, and I thought how wonderful it would be if I didn't find anything new again, which might suggest that I had found a website that could "cool down," to use a McLuhanism. Wouldn't it be wonderful if Long Sunday only published works that people had agonized over for years (or months, maybe)? Imagine a website that didn't succumb to the hyper-speed TV-addiction of western marketing. Who are you people and what have you done with art?
Posted by: Cornchops | Jul 7, 2007 11:12:24 PM
Cornchops--I like some of these people, and like to comment on some of their blogs, including CR and Jodi, but I like your thought about the 'cooling down'. I'm writing a lot about this in current work of my own--and I always write it out in handwritten form first, except on the rare occasion when I write a piece of it directly to my publisher and collaborator. I didn't believe this part of Baudrillard--about how much the computer does of your own writing--till I tried it, and it can be quite true, although perhaps not always. In fact, he was talking about it opposing the old typewriter to word processing. I find using pen or pencil to be even more striking, but I don't expect most people are going to want to do it. Even if you're not going to publish anything, it's good practice, so that when you do write on the internet, you do more writing that 'cuts through the internet part' than just writing on it, which can sometimes let it stagnate. In this way, you can actually set cybespace aside and cool down, no matter what anybody tells you about how the machine is on now, and always working through you. The world is far from virtualized, or people would NOT have started wanting to shop at brick-and-mortar stores again, as currently, instead of doing online shopping because, as they so eloquently put it, 'the computer makes it feel like work.'
Posted by: patrick j. mullins | Jul 8, 2007 12:23:51 AM
I should add though, cornchops, if CR and Jodi are enthusiastic, and have been successful at recruiting new operatives, that there should therefore be no cooling-down at LS just yet, and there are BILLIONS AND BILLIONS!! of sites, as Carl Sagan might say, where we go in search of the sweet nectar of the 'coolings-down.'
Posted by: patrick j. mullins | Jul 8, 2007 12:51:20 AM
i really enjoyed the symposiums as well. there were whispers of an LLB symposium there for a while...
I also think these symposiums really distinguished LS from other blogs - focusing the contributions around something tangible - rather than giving in to the aimless meanderings that so consistently mark the form.
perhaps it is merely the structure that makes the difference, as personally, I cant seem to finish anything that doesn't have a deadline and somebody who'll notice if i miss it.
an editor! That’s what LS needs. some strong authoritarian presence to keep us pinkos producing on a regular basis.
I will happily contribute, and look forward to the thoughts of old and new. (you see that? what I did there?) also, old – I think your theological bent is not nearly so different from our own predilections, though I would love to hear how you perceive it to be so. Why there’s a post possibility right there…
Posted by: squibb | Jul 8, 2007 1:12:04 AM
CR, my battery is running out so I'll keep this short; have re-started Before the Law, more or less, and would be willing to contribute, perhaps by cross-post, something once in a while to LS if you guys are still interested . . . .
Adam
Posted by: Adam Thurschwell | Jul 8, 2007 12:21:04 PM
Hi Guys!
I'd love a chance to post and get some feedback...it's hard to even get an adviser to stir the pot as much as you folks do.
I've got 6 years uni based more or less on the topics dealt with hear. Sadly, don't have a page myself I can point you to but would love to give it a shot nonetheless.
Best,
Jake B
Posted by: Jake B | Jul 8, 2007 11:35:08 PM
This is some Heavy Shit. I'm positively reeling here.
No, really.
Posted by: jerry | Jul 9, 2007 3:08:44 PM
Sorry I'm a bit slow in getting back to everyone about this. I promise I will get back to everyone. I'm just away from home, with sort of scattered access to the internet, and kind of busy as well doing what I'm doing here!
Posted by: CR | Jul 9, 2007 5:25:38 PM
Hello,
I'll/we'll write properly as requested. But this might take a day or so to properly represent ourselves. however words will follow....
sdv
Posted by: sdv | Jul 10, 2007 4:03:07 AM
Perhaps you should think about why a good percentage of those listed as contributors very seldom post anything.
Posted by: Oliver | Jul 10, 2007 11:24:25 AM
I think it would be great if Adam T joined--Adam, I think I asked you last year. And, weirdly, I didn't know you weren't a contributor!
Oliver--do you have any hypotheses?
Posted by: Jodi | Jul 10, 2007 6:21:25 PM
LS Members:
Please go to the lounge, where I've posted something about this process of taking on new members.
(Yes, we have a lounge...)
Posted by: CR | Jul 11, 2007 5:55:35 PM
Thanks, Jodi. CR, just where would I find this alleged lounge?
Posted by: Adam Thurschwell | Jul 12, 2007 11:34:30 AM
Reading and enjoying the Levinas notes associated with Jodi's Critchley post...
The question that it raises is why have they not been forced into becoming a high level post. For example somthing entitled 'Levinas and the Political' - which could then be properly interrogated.
Doesn't this line of comments suggest to CR what may be problematic in the group blog form ?
Posted by: sdv | Jul 13, 2007 6:38:35 AM
SDV (and those in charge at LS), how about a symposium -- "Levinas and the Political"? That might be an optimal use of the group blog (per Squibb above) -- Adam
Posted by: Adam Thurschwell | Jul 13, 2007 9:36:28 AM
Adam,
yes. Like the idea. Especially given the claims being made along this line at the moment.
Posted by: sdv | Jul 15, 2007 1:00:28 PM
Adam,
yes. Like the idea. Especially given the claims being made along this line at the moment.
Posted by: sdv | Jul 15, 2007 1:00:36 PM
I'm still interested in contributing...if people are interested in having me. Where is the lounge?
Posted by: Tharmas | Jul 16, 2007 1:12:00 PM
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