Friday, 15 December 2006

MLA 2006: The Plan?

(x-posted from the Valve, hence the pronominal weirdness)

Many of you will be attending the MLA in Philadelphia in a few weeks, and we here at The Internet would love to meet as many of you as we can.  “My” panel on academic blogging is Saturday at 8:30 a.m. in room 308 of the Philadelphia Marriott—a terrible time, yes, but perfect for a brunch afterwards so long as too many people don’t attend.  Thing is, I’ve heard word that too many people will in fact attend, which means we ought to think about alternative arrangements.  Some of us will be heading to D.C. Saturday night for UnfoggeDCon.  Others have plans for early Friday evening, but maybe a later engagement could be arranged?  (After all, it is Friday night.)   

Then there’s Thursday night.  Many of you will already be around for Amardeep, Michael, Rita Felski and Jeffrey Williams’ panel on “Literary Studies in the Public Sphere“ (scroll down), which begins promptly at 12:00 p.m. in the Philadelphia Marriott’s Liberty Ballroom Salon C. 

I’m merely throwing out ideas here.  Anyone who’s interested (participants included) in attending some sort of blog-specific extra-curricular activity send me an email at scotterickaufman (at) gmail (dot) com.  Give us a general idea of your schedule and we’ll try to accommodate as many people as is mathematically possible. 

Dec 15, 2006 3:36:12 AM | Literary Theory, Literature, MLA 2006, Weblogs

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This'll Teach me not to Read the Comments; or, That is my Reputation? Cue the Pet Shop Boys, Please I confess: I often read posts in Google Reader without clicking through to read the comments. Sometimes I don't even have time to read the posts and end a week with an imposing backlog. In December's haul, I encountered this Charlotte Street post. It contained a link to the (unread) comments to this earlier one, in which the world-renowned Deborah asks: Is this a post about Scott Eric Kaufman and The Valve? 'Cause boy, it sure fits like it. Mark responds with typical grace, but the comment still grates on my nerves. The post concerned imposture and academic charlatanry—a subject previously discussed at the now-defunct CPROBES—and the remarkable Deborah thinks me a prime example of both. Why? Because I've neither read nor thought seriously about Continental philosophy, generally, or Zizek, in particular. I'm positive the illustrious Deborah intended to be ironic there. No one with her sterling reputation would intentionally respond to a post about judging someone by reputation instead of a knowledge of their work by judging me on the basis of my reputation and not a knowledge of my work, right?
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