Some links

December 16, 2020

I'm back, babies!  Sorry for the month-long silence; it's been busy at the end of the semester.  I'm slowly pulling myself out of the rubble, and here's what I have, for starters.

 

The phrase “white supremacy“ has exploded across America’s public discourse over the past decade, and this article nicely discusses it.  Count me among those who, while we are aware of its rhetorical impact, find it all-too analytically clarifying, alas.  

 

Interesting article reflecting on the presence of arabic, Persian, and Turkish concepts in Dune, and on the deeply complicated presence of Islam in the novel.

 

Some cool maps.

 

Professor Robin Dunbar, from the University of Oxford, observed: "This study offers convincing evidence that good writers work very carefully within the psychological limits of the reader."

 

Fun piece about The Mandalorian and religious pluralism.

 

There’s a lot of good stuff here, on the university as a site in moral crisis, even if there’s also hysterical hyperbole. 

 

Good backgrounder on Vince Guaraldi and A Charlie Brown Christmas here. 

 

Charles Mills, in an interview from a couple of years ago with Neil Roberts—two political theorists I admire.  Good stuff on the possibility of a non-racialized liberalism, among other things.

 

Nice interview with Rita Felski, whose The Limits of Critique is only the first thing of hers I’d recommend.

 

Some good thinking on the challenges of the Electoral College, and possibilities for changing it.