the bad clown ever.

I heard this out as "When criticizing something, you must judge it for what it is, not what it isn't"

Years ago I read this criticism from an actual professional critic of Jane Austen. He said her work was not as good as everyone said because she didn’t talk about things like the napoleonic wars and the sugar trade. You know, dude stuff. Instead of seeing Austen as a brilliant writer who brought to light the stories of women and the things that concerned them, he thought she was rubbish for not bringing up stuff all the male writers of her time were already covering. He was seeing her work for what it wasn’t, instead of what it was, which was revolutionary. I’m so “glad” to see people still fucking this up.

You’ve grown into someone who would have protected you as a child. And that is the most powerful move you made.

thinking about anastasia trusova paintings again

The readings *are* the course. The lectures are just priming you for the readings. The tutorials and seminars are just how we collectively process the readings. If the readings were intended to be optional, they would have been listed under the "optional readings" heading.

"Oh but I hate this reading! The author's an idiot, they're wrong about everything" Good. Do the reading and then tear it apart in class. This isn't high school, you're not expected to mindlessly absorb things anymore

If you're in physics, do the derivations. Don't believe that any equation given to you is true. Derive it. Convince yourself that it must be true, and understand the limitations of its truth.

The very first lecture I give my students emphasizes that they do not have to accept the readings as truth from on high. They don't even have to like them! Critical reading is perhaps the most important skill I hope they take away from my course, and you can't develop it if you're not doing the fucking readings!

#the number of ENGLISH MAJORS who refuse to read and then complain about not understanding the class discussions#I'm begging y'all. the information is in the words

I do really think that the use of ChatGPT and genAI by students highlights the fundamental flaw of our education system focusing almost entirely on grades and test scores rather than generating curiosity and inquiry, which produces individuals who fundamentally do not understand that the purpose of an assignment is meant to be to learn *how* to do something, not simply to produce a product you can turn in to get an A+

i’m gonna cry it’s raining right now and i just passed by a family where both parents were without an umbrella but their kid who couldn’t have been older than like 3-4 was proudly holding this GIANT umbrella whose diameter was as tall (if not taller) as the kid. both the parents were getting absolutely drenched but u could tell the kid was just so happy to have an “adult” task and carry the umbrella themselves and i think that sacrifice is what love is all about

asking people to be mindful of others when sharing a communal space (especially one you cannot just up and leave from) is not selfish or misanthropic. come on now

has anyone figured out how to turn off the thing where you love your pet so much it slides inexorably into grief-borrowing

people understand that Spanish speakers speak different dialects of the Spanish language but don’t understand that black people speak a dialect of the English language

I just want to state for the record that this is completely uncontroversial among linguists. It’s the first day of sociolinguistics class.

tag yourselves i'm the GREAT ROOM beside the GOURMET KITCHEN