"Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideousthat even you turned from me in disgust?”―Mary Shelley, Frankenstein "You may ask yourself, 'Am I right, or am I wrong?'And you may say to yourself, 'My God! What have I done?'"--Talking Heads The road to writing hell, it seems, is paved with good intentions. I like … Continue reading Confronting AI, Part the Second →

In comes this email on my Higher-Ed.-In-Prison Google Groups listerv: "Wondering about the ways HEP can be both empowering and oppressive? Here's an AI-generated essay on the topic." "What Was I Scared Of?," Dr. Seuss Now, I've been laboring over an article on this same topic since January of 2020. Currently titled, "Liberators in Theory, Collaborators in … Continue reading Confronting AI, Part the First →

Punctuation is politics. I've said it before. In a post on this blog titled, "We Need to Talk About Ellipses," I wrote, "[T]he basic job of the ellipsis is to fill in for a missing chunk of text in a direct quote. This gives it, along with the quotation mark, a certain moral weight–it’s punctuation … Continue reading We Need to Talk About Brackets →

"Church Stone Shelter," Julia Kivelä, archdaily.com It is a truth universally acknowledged--among my colleagues, anyway--that the best classroom experiences tend to come from the ancient pedagogical practice known as "winging it." Sometimes, that means veering into a side quest when it seems profitable enough. At other times, it means walking in totally unprepared, relying only … Continue reading Cold Comfort: The Classroom as Refuge →

"Lady Macbeth Sleepwalking," Johann Heinrich Füssli I recently read Macbeth—twice—in case I ever decide to watch Joel Coen’s film version. Half way through I was surprised to find how much it mirrors Hamlet in its theme of conscience battling with action. The main difference is that, while Hamlet struggles internally--and endlessly--over the ramifications of righting … Continue reading Is “Macbeth” a Reboot of “Hamlet”? →