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Wednesday, March 03, 2004

Exactly how is the economy like a Faulkner novel?

Via Salon’s “War Room” blog (some scrolling required), I came across this quote from a recent Los Angeles Times story:

“The economy now is very much like a Faulkner novel,” said Rob Koepp, a research fellow at the Milken Institute, an economic think tank in Santa Monica. “You have competing and schizophrenic versions of reality. But it’s one reality.”

Apparently, Mr. Koepp is thinking of The Sound and the Fury or (even more likely) As I Lay Dying.  But what about Sanctuary?  You know, where Bush’s economic team is Popeye and you’re Temple Drake?

In other news: I haven’t been able to do any serious blogging for the past few days, but here’s an update.  I’ve been madly trying to finish an essay for an academic journal (can’t say which one, don’t want to jinx myself), and just turned it in yesterday.  On Friday I head down to Atlanta for the Modern Language Association’s conference on Disability Studies and the University-- the very first conference of its kind in the humanities.  The lineup, by the way, is terrific.

But the really good news is that I got a book proposal accepted-- for a book based on my December 2003 Chronicle of Higher Education essay on dealing with an outspoken conservative student in the classroom.  The book will be titled Liberal Arts:  What Really Happens in the Literature Classroom and Why, and I’ll be writing it all summer.  Meanwhile, I’ve just learned that my edited collection, The Aesthetics of Cultural Studies, featuring essays from Rita Felski, John Frow, Jane Juffer, Jonathan Sterne, David Shumway, David Sanjek, Barry Faulk, Irene Kacandes, Steve Rubio, and Laura Kipnis, will be out in October from Blackwell (it will also have a brilliant jacket design).  And I’ve begun work on a book for NYU Press that I’ll finish over the next 15 months, tentatively titled The Left at War.

Many, many thanks to the legions of outraged conservatives who generated so much interest in my Chronicle essay.  Folks, you’ve done me another good turn, and I won’t forget it.  Remember, the book is called Liberal Arts.  I’d start ordering it from Amazon right away if I were you-- along with The Aesthetics of Cultural Studies and The Left at War.

Posted by Michael on 03/03 at 06:49 AM
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