Our second academic job market materials workshop starts this Friday with @mitchrmurray.bsky.social. Sign up here: tinyurl.com/36fvvctv More info on our website: mid-theory.com/mtc-writing-...
it’s not always easy for me to remember that when i’m peer reviewing i’m not also acting as the editor. i don’t have to improve the economy of each paragraph and sentence.
I work at a public library. People who want to use AI seem to have no trouble doing so. People who don't want to use AI have a harder time. I crowdsourced and then finalized this document "How to disable or avoid intrusive AI" and then gave it a short URL: notoai.org Please pass along if it's useful
me calling maintaining: i’ve no wifi front desk: okay, you can put it in work order me: it’s july 31, and i don’t have wifi. this is more of an emergency call than work order situation. front desk: oh, okay.
My article "Provincializing Victorian Studies" is out in the latest PMLA. It's many years in the making—thanks for reading. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Provincializing Victorian Studies: A. Native’s Marita among Literary Traditions | PMLA | Cambridge Core
Provincializing Victorian Studies: A. Native’s Marita among Literary Traditions - Volume 141 Issue 2
cambridge.org
Emily Coccia pens an anti-eulogy for 'Hacks,' and an ode to the queer fun of making thing, hard and hacky things with others even when, especially when, nothing is guaranteed.
An Anti-Eulogy for ‘Hacks’
Because they’re not just writing jokes; they’re writing a years-long love letter to each other. As a rule, Deborah Vance doesn’t do funerals. Neither, it turns out, does Hacks (2021-26), whic…
mid-theory.com
i have to cut 4k words out of an essay. your thoughts and prayers are especially appreciated during this difficult time.
okay, fine, i’ll see the odyssey. but the question is should i take the hour-long train to AMC in SF to see it on imax 70mm or walk the 10 minutes to my local theatre and see it in standard screen?!
Post a perfect album from the 90s that isn't nirvana, soundgarden, pearl jam, or alice in chains.
Mark Goble@goblemark.bsky.social · last wk.Post a perfect album from the 90s that isn't nirvana, soundgarden, pearl jam, or alice in chains. TBF there is a lot on this that sounds like nirvana+soundgarden+pearl jam+alice in chains
if you have a world-cup-shapes hole in your life, you can watch the WNBA all-star game right now 🏀
can i say something: i do not care for chapter summaries at the end of book intros. i read them, they seem sorta foreign to me as they appear our of context, then i immediately forget about them. i feel like intro + ToC is sufficient.
My response to Appiah's "field report" is up: please repost www.chronicle.com/article/kwam...
Opinion | Dear Critics of Literary Studies: Do the Reading
The philosopher’s report on the state of literary studies is a shambles.
chronicle.com
from 9:35am-4:55pm, i sent emails, emails, and more emails…52 emails to be exact. i feel quite dizzy and dazed, the kind only an uphill berkeley run can cure, but, but i did it. please clap.
Farah Bakaari@bakaari.bsky.social · 2w agothis morning, i have to open my email inbox after living carefree & laptop free on the better coast for two glorious weeks.
For our latest installment of Adaptation Anxiety series, Nathan Likert reviews The Odyssey and what it says about the director's futile guilt & generational angst! "Homer’s text thus becomes a Trojan horse through which the contemporary can be litigated."
What Can A Homer, Or A Nolan, Offer the Future?
Adaptation is everywhere! In 2026, MTC is running a new series called Adaptation Anxiety, where new and returning writers consider literary adaptations from the last few years. We ask not whet…
mid-theory.com
MTC July newsletter is full of all the things you might have missed and might want to know! Including information about our August job market workshop. Read the full newsletter here and subscribe: tinyurl.com/56n6n9hb
this morning, i have to open my email inbox after living carefree & laptop free on the better coast for two glorious weeks.
i have been traveling for rest and joy and didn’t bring my laptop but i refuse to set up an out-of-office reply because i don’t want anyone to get the false impression that i am timely with my emails when *in office*
i’m never more theoretically well-read than when deciding how many books to bring for a two-week trip :/
the male urge to grunt and breathe like one hundred threatened snakes at the gym is so annoying and embarrassing. buddy, if the weights are heavy for you, take it easy, with proper form you can work your way up to the 45s 🙄
obviously egypt was robbed and the enemy of all live sports is slow motion. if the refs can’t see what’s happening or can’t even review a replay in normal speed but instead need it to be played shot by shot to determine its content then what’s the point of them?!
“Transcription principally concerns, then, the difficulty of remembering and commemorating an old mentor in an era of advanced technological circulation … it stages mildly odd moments where inheritance and influence operate in distorted, warped ways…” brilliant review by @omidb.bsky.social
Under the Influence: A Review of Ben Lerner’s ‘Transcription’
In Lerner’s works, this sense of an extraordinary but intangible connection is what wonder and paranoia have in common. It’s no secret that Ben Lerner admires John Ashbery. Not only is the title of…
mid-theory.com
It's Thursday, which means a new MTC essay! Today, MTC contributing writer, Omid Bagherli reviews Ben Lerner TRANSCRIPTION, a novel about what goes (un)recorded between men. "In Lerner’s works, this sense of an extraordinary but intangible connection is what wonder and paranoia have in common."
Under the Influence: A Review of Ben Lerner’s ‘Transcription’
In Lerner’s works, this sense of an extraordinary but intangible connection is what wonder and paranoia have in common. It’s no secret that Ben Lerner admires John Ashbery. Not only is the title of…
mid-theory.com
Our next meeting of Capital vol. 1 reading group will be this Friday, July 10 from 3-5pm ET. We will be discussing Part 3: The Production of Absolute Surplus-Value & Part 4: The Production of Relative Surplus-Value. Sign up here for the zoom link. All welcome even if you didn't come to the first.
MTC Reading Groups
Read With Us: Below you will find our upcoming and ongoing reading series. If you’d like to lead a reading group for MTC, please get in touch with us at editorial@mid-theory.com MTc 2026 Big Book S…
mid-theory.com
every 4 years, the world cup reminds us that jameson was right about global cognitive mapping and yes, third-world football like like third-world literature is and should be read as national allegories. anyway, GO CAPE VERDE 🇨🇻
i’m reading a mediocre novel where a smart immigrant black girl goes to a wealthy white liberal arts college and is subsequently wooed by a wealthy sardonic handsome boy. i don’t know why this keeps happening in novels but from experience i can tell you, it has never, not once happened in real life.
i will send the emails today. i will send the emails today. i will send the emails today. i will send the emails today. i will send the emails today. i will send the emails today. i will send the emails today. i will send the emails today…
the belgian players fighting on the field reminds me of a shameful episode of my youth: when i was in 8th grade or maybe 6th grade i was in some school wide competition and i made a boy on my team cry on stage after i scolded him for missing 3 questions in a row.
more than the start of the new fiscal year, it’s the belgium v. senegal match that motivated me to get this chapter over the finish line. which is SUBMITTED at merciful 12k words. goooo senegal 🇸🇳
Farah Bakaari@bakaari.bsky.social · last mo.how your email finds me 🫠
