Changes to the sidebar

Just  a quick note to say there's been a (not so) short column added for "past contributors" on the sidebar, which seemed an appropriate thing to do.  If by any chance we've missed someone or your name appears as other than you would prefer, please notify someone here immediately; thanks!  (A general question:  how accessible is this site to you?)

Also the blogroll has been updated.  See especially Meta-Philosophy, a new group project of John Protevi et al., including generous posts by John McCumber (whose work has probably been mentioned here more than once).

Blinks

• A plug for a project several LS-friends are currently involved in: Edu-Factory.og.

• Yesterday was the 100th anniversary of Simone de Beauvoir (incidentally also the name of my new cat). Better reading than the debate over Hillary Clinton's allegedly evental tears: The Second Sex.

• OpenDemocracy needs your support, and deserves it because they consistently publish popular-yet-largely-responsible articles such as this one by Tina Beattie: "The end of postmodernism: the 'new atheists' and democracy:"

The most pressing question confronting us lies here: how to respond to the slow death of democracy. The recent confrontation between religion and science is in this context a smokescreen which is distracting us from much more urgent political and intellectual issues. It allows the secular intelligentsia to hide behind a convenient and inflated - where not fabricated - myth of religious extremism which masks from us our own complicity in the murder and mayhem by which western global supremacy and our own privileged status within that are now maintained.

SSRC Blogs

Send your critical attention this way, why don't you (via Crooked Timber).

On another note, I'd just like to register a sadness that the blog, "In Writing" has become defunct. In many ways that site was, and continues to be our most kindred spirit/model. Or so it has always seemed, somewhere in the back of my mind. One wonders about potential for and nature of any sort of long-term blog memory/archival. Here's to fresh engagement, silences, turns of thought in the New Year.

Administrative Update

In our ongoing effort to reinvigorate and rejuvenate Long Sunday, we are pleased to announce the first of the new contributors to Long Sunday: Adam Thurschwell, Barret Weber, Jeremy Crampton and Old. Adam is an associate professor of law at Cleveland State University. He maintains his own blog entitled Before the Law. Barret is a provisional PhD candidate in sociology at the University of Alberta. He also contributes to The Yolk: A Blog Theory. Jeremy is an associate professor in the Department of Geosciences at Georgia State University. He maintains Foucault Blog. Old is a street pastor with the Mennonite Central Committee in Toronto.

Play: Never the Sinner

Please Join Us As

Woodshed Collective

Presents
The New York Return of

Never the Sinner
The Leopold and Loeb Story

By John Logan

Conceived by Woodshed Collective
Directed by Gabriel Hainer Evansohn
The Outer Citric Circle Award for
Outstanding Off-Broadway Play Returns to New York City July 13-28.

Never the Sinner
July 13 – 28

Flamboyan Theater, CSV Cultural Center (107 Suffolk St.)
Tuesday-Saturday @ 8pm.
Sundays: July 15 and 22 @ 3pm
Saturdays: July 21 and 28 @ 2pm

All Tickets $18
www.smarttix.com or call 212-868-4444

(Featuring Long Sunday contributor Stephen Squibb!)

Continue reading “Play: Never the Sinner”

New Journal

Worthy of your reading time: Radical Musicology:

The journal espouses no particular theoretical line, ideology or programme. However, responding to a perception that the projects going under the names of ‘new’ and ‘critical’ musicology have been succeeded by a certain disciplinary retrenchment or even counter-reaction, we aim to encourage work which explicitly or implicitly interrogates existing paradigms, and which acknowledges that musicological work will always have a political dimension. The politics we favour might be summarised as a desire to democratise the field of the permissible.

to: the only person reading these things

Keith Gessen as interviewed by something called the New York Inquirer:

The trouble with blogs arises when they go from being diaries (very private expressions, telling us something only that person knows) to being basically attention-grabbing mechanisms. That fake blog we had up was the result of my frustration with lit-bloggers. Back in the day, you would occasionally stumble upon some person blogging about their very private reading, what it was like, what their reactions were. Those people still exist, but they're drowned out by people who are just purveyors of literary gossip--who comment on books they haven't even read, who, as Marco likes to say, are just basically freelance publicists. It's one thing to be corrupted by, say, the pressure of writing for the New York Times Book Review, or the prospect of employment somewhere, or a blurb. But to sell your birthright for a couple of review copies and a link on a blogroll! For shame. So I spent a few weeks making fun of lit-bloggers and it was therapeutic. But then I stopped when I discovered the Alexa traffic ranking system and saw that I was practically the only person reading these things.

(via The Valve, of all things...)

Surely he's not, you know, talking about us. Right? As far as I know, LS has never received a single review copy (but feel free to go ahead and make me a hypocrite, expensive presses! I'd especially like a set of Moretti's new numbers, and I'd gladly review the $200 set right here on our burgeoning site...), we don't really gossip (does this count?), and, as far as I can tell, we publicize only the revolution to come...

We do, however, often enough comment on books we haven't read. In fact, in my case, almost always. But, really, who has time in the age of the instant-and-always-on, the age of the blog?

Anyway, I'm looking forward to my next issue of n+1. I'm even trying to talk my neighborhood bookstore into stocking it. Freelance publicist indeed...

November Surprise

It's November 1st. Republicans are down 12 points across the board nationally. President Bush is struggling to get to 40% approval ratings. Could there be a better time to "condition the environment"?

Kerry's mispronuncisplained joke was Rove's unintentional October surprise. But could there be a November surprise? Be sure to glance at the last graph of the article.

Continue reading “November Surprise”

Nylon Research

Out of NYU, apparently.   Looks doubly promising.

Karl (und Carl)

May 5th is Karl Marx's birthday.  Happy birthday Uncle Karl! 

In the trajectories of blogweaving, and by way of an invitation sent out rather late, what would it mean to assemble a conversation not at Marx's funeral but at his birthday?   I'll leave it for Craig to post here about (the other) Carl.

Spivak

Hot on the heels of the rather successful Tronti symposium, it has been suggested that we turn our collective attention and efforts to Gayatri Spivak.

It is possible that this might be an enterprise that would bring together the forces of Long Sunday, the Weblog, and the Valve.

The proposed text is "Scattered Speculations on the Question of Value".

Update: We now have a preliminary schedule.  Further participants and suggestions always welcome.

France, etc. (new highs and blows)

Another site, in addition to the one already on the sidebar, carries brave sarcasm and commentary, as well as translations of graffiti (courtesy of s0metim3s).  In the US meanwhile, we're striking brave new blows in the fundamentalist reactionary nostalgic "preemptive" war on democratic dissidents.

Continue reading “France, etc. (new highs and blows)”

On Vanity

Witnessing from our referrer logs that Long Sunday has received not one, not two but three 2005 Koufax Award nominations, hosted there by the ancient Wampum (excellent in blog years, that is).  Alright, but only three?  Well, that is something.  Congratulations all around.  To be frank, I don't think we stand a chance.  Why Wampum doesn't nominate itself, we don't know.  But the impetus behind these things is undoubtedly a good, and from the look of it this may be their final year.  So do please check out all the wonderful competition, for now, in this our first round selection and pre-vote glory, including I see one Jodi Cites, one Jon Posthegemony and one The Adam Kotsko.  Speaking of which, I'll vote for each of you if you three vote for us.

Our Service has Returned to Normal

I am pleased to announce that our technical problems have been resolved. Comment moderation remains in place.

Over the next week or so I hope to update the archives page so that all current and past contributors are shown in an attractive and useful format. Currently all posts are listed by author at the very bottom of that page, but I find that format unattactive and confusing. Thank you for your patience in this matter.

We would like to also extend our thanks to Typepad technical support for their assistance.


Thank you for reading,
Long Sunday Management

We Interrupt Regularly Scheduled Postings for an Important Announcement

Please excuse my interruption, but there are two important announcements I must make.

First, you will notice that your comments will not immediately appear when you post them. An onslaught of abusive and incoherent comments has prompted the management to institute comment moderation. Any comments posted are published at the discretion of the post's author. I hope you understand why we've taken this step. Your patience is appreciated.

Second, some plain strange things are happening with Typepad. We hope they are only temporary. Again, your patience is appreciated.



Thank you,
Long Sunday Management

Der Ister

It's about time. As you know, easy bootlegs of criminally over-priced DVD's are a horrible, horrible thing, and should never under any circumstances be spontaneously shared, and especially not with any members of well-deserving international group philosophy weblogs who just happen to reside in the United States.

Continue reading “Der Ister”

n+1 profiled

As I mentioned on The Value just now, it's nice to see these guys finally getting the attention they deserve.  (As for their web version being crap?  Well, hardly.  Those talking may wish to start here.)  But anybody interested in the current state of literary affairs and wishing neither to despair entirely nor read only cute commercials should definitely take note of n+1.  Don't worry, the comparisons with Eggers are desperately overwrought.  And for the moment, subscriptions are still cheap (it's a better thing between covers, really).  (Full disclosure, n+1 once offered me the position of French language correspondent, which I promptly turned down for lack of propre qualification.  But then again, it may have been a joke.)   More here, here and here.

While I'm at it, the latest issue of PMC offers some interesting things for those with the requisite stomach, though you undoubtedly knew that already.  May I recommend R. Williams' review of Rogues and David Wills on Politics of Friendship.

Update:  Also, Scott McLemee wonderfully reviews the new documentary, Zizek!

After-After-Party Elsewhere, Hymns and Things

So the thread that Faust Mantock is now calling "an institution" (although, dear Scott, it would really love nothing more than to be an empire) keeps sprouting legs.    If this sort of discussion interests you, please explain yourself precisely in the comments below, or better yet pay a visit to Mark Kaplan and explain it to him.  Obviously, I would personally very much like to think that this sort of discussion, if held to certain standards of respect and openness (on both sides) can still be productive, as in, a good thing in the shared world.  Now if you'll please excuse me, I have a bicycle to catch.

Continue reading “After-After-Party Elsewhere, Hymns and Things”

Theory's Empire: Dissenting with Dissent

Matt Christie has provided an excellent guide to debate about debate over Theory's Empire.

"His seriousness kills me"

Old news in blogtime, I know, but for those perhaps unaware, the exceedingly generous Paul Kerschen is currently translating the diaries of Franz Kafka [1910-1923] every day at his blog (part of the extraordinary resource known as The Kafka Project).  And he seems to be inviting comments.

Continue reading “"His seriousness kills me"”

Open Memorial?

A friend of mine has an interview with Peter Eisenman, architect of the new Holocaust memorial in Berlin, published in The Nation.  I've excerpted one bit, but the whole thing is rather worth reading.  One aspect of the memorial that strikes me is the apparent concern for irregularity, in particular for irregular distances, or steps.  (Agamben counterposes the "memorable" to the "unforgettable," where the "unforgettable," as represented by the tombstones, is that which resists closure or archival.)  While neither a uniform, sterilized graveyard nor purely ostentatious and inaccessible (nor excessively immune), the site suggests the opposite of what might be described as any essential distance.  Perhaps.

You once said in an interview that when you travel to Germany you go as a New Yorker and you return as a Jew. What did you mean by that?

I think that's really part of the problem. The Germans treat me with so much deference, and that makes me feel Jewish, right? They step all over themselves to be nice. Nobody treats you this way in New York. In New York a Jew is a Jew, an Italian is an Italian, a Muslim is a Muslim: Nobody's going out of his way to treat you in a special way. I really don't even think of myself as being Jewish except when I'm in Germany. And that's what we're trying to get over. The Germans should stop pretending that they love all Jews.

'Sarcasm' brain areas discovered

Link: BBC NEWS | Health | 'Sarcasm' brain areas discovered.

Scientists say they have located the parts of the brain that comprehend sarcasm - honestly.

By comparing healthy people and those with damage to different parts of the brain, they found the front of the brain was key to understanding sarcasm.

This seems important. Maybe they'll also find the areas for gullibility, craveness, and failure to find GWB repulsive. Or maybe they'll find that Halliburton puts stuff in the water to damage sarcasm comprehension sectors. What I really want to know is if scientists can distinguish between brain that can tell the difference between sarcasm and irony.