* My point in observing that atmospheric carbon levels have gone up about about 14% while Game of Thrones has been a thing is that geological time is now faster than pop-cultural time. This has only ever been true before of earthquakes and volcanoes.
the cruelty is the point, yes, but it is also a means to an end: normalizing and legitimizing ever-greater cruelty as a sober and patriotic response to accelerated conditions of suffering which they and we all know are coming. it's a pedagogy in brutishness
— Patrick Blanchfield (@PatBlanchfield) April 5, 2019
I love how we're all just going about our 9-5 jobs and normal habits while the fact that–short of immediate, transformative action–a near-term mass die-off alongside the collapse of civilization is the most plausible scenario.
once this deleuzian I knew shared a reading of The Matrix about how "resistance" was an electrical engineering pun that also described how the movie's human body batteries functioned to power the system that enslaved them and I'd be lying if I said I didn't think of this often
On James B. Duke whose "true “innovation” came not in the 1880s, when the cigarette machine transformed the production process" but in the expansion of corporate power, partially through the manipulation of the 14th Amendment to protect corporate interests https://t.co/Sug2Vl8scf
* I tell my students, “Look, we’re here to discuss the meaning of life.” The meaning of life is that I’m alive for the time being. I’m in a world which is making contradictory demands upon me. What do I do?
Every urban area in America gets looted three times: first by city officials redirecting resources to wealthy white residents, then by county officials outflowing money to the white suburbs, then by state officials outflowing money to other, whiter regions of the state.
…which doesn’t even factor in the way the federal payments system loots densely populated Democratic regions for the benefit of tiny populated Republican regions.
the real stakes of the Democratic primary are not about policy or about winning the election but about which group of crooks, scammers, and amoral hangers-on get cushy jobs with a tremendous amount of power and influence for the next decade, so you can see why people care so much
actual quote from the Senate floor today: "You'll notice … important features here: First of all, the rocket launcher strapped to Pres. Reagan's back & then the stirring, unmistakeable patriotism of the velociraptor holding up a tattered American flag." https://t.co/mv4h6oSKd0
on the sand, half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown and wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command tell that its sculptor well those passions read which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things the hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed- pic.twitter.com/rbYadoG4Dn
we write "Millenials Are Killing The [X] Industry" because when you write "Unsustainable Profit-Driven Systems Are Crumbling Around A Wage-Suppressed Global Populace Serving Roughly 2000 Aging Billionaires" people get too depressed to click through & watch our hair cream ads
Nearly 20 years after the mass shooting at Columbine High School, students there are putting stickers on their ID & cellphones to indicate their desire for images of their bodies to be publicized & shared if they are killed by gun violence.https://t.co/Ynvy1oA0ml via @CNN
In the 1960s a woman lived in a house with a dolphin, tried to teach him English, and jerked him off daily. The experiment failed because the lead scientist was obsessed with giving the dolphins LSD. The experiment shut down and the dolphin killed himself https://t.co/VgikyScg4c
* It is amusing the Dungeons and Dragons- a game for small children- has a more accurate model of intelligence than the Quilette people do: it’s a minor bonus to an extremely noisy stochastic process that is easily swamped by situational advantage modifiers.
By luck, I’m able to teach the Africana literatures class this semester — a class I’ve always wanted to do but would be four or five back in the priority list in a normal semester. The theme (of course) is “Afrofuturism,” and spends about a third of its time in America, about a third of its time in America thinking about Africa, and about a third of its time in Africa. I’m excited! Here’s the description and schedule; full syllabus with policies and assignments here…
Greg Tate has said that “Black people live the estrangement that science fiction writers imagine.” This course takes up the nexus of intersections between black history and the radical black imagination that is commonly called Afrofuturism, focusing in particular of figurations of Africa as a space of science fictional possibility from both sides of the Atlantic. If Afrofuturism has been, as Kodwo Eshun has said, “a program for recovering the histories of counter-futures created in a century hostile to Afrodiasporic projection,” how does the rise of Africa as a global economic powerhouse in the twenty-first-century transform our understanding of black futurity? 2018’s smash hit Black Panther is only the most vivid registration of the ongoing global importance of the Afrofuturist imagination; from comics to film and television to literature to music videos to social media we will trace Afrofuturism across the twenty-first century cultural landscape.
T
Aug 28
FIRST DAY OF CLASS What Is Afrofuturism? film (in class): Sun Ra, Space Is the Place (1974) (excerpts)
Th
Aug 30
Mark Bould, “The Ships Landed Long Ago” [D2L] film (in class): John Akomfrah, The Last Angel of History(1996)
T
Sep 4
Sable Elyse Smith, “Ordinary Violence” [museum] MEET AT THE HAGGERTY
Th
Sep 6
film (in-class): Get Out(2017)
T
Sep 11
film: Jordan Peele, Get Out (2017) (discussion)
Th
Sep 13
Get Out (2017)(discussion continues)
Steven Thrasher, Get Out thinkpiece #1 [Web]
Aisha Harris, Get Out thinkpiece #2 [Web]
T
Sep 18
Janelle Monáe, Dirty Computer (2018) (viewing and initial thoughts)
Th
Sep 20
Janelle Monáe, Dirty Computer (2018) (extended discussion)
Aja Romano, “Janelle Monáe’s body of work is a masterpiece of modern science fiction” [Web]
Brittany Spanos, “Janelle Monáe Frees Herself” [Web]
Christopher Lebron, “Janelle Monáe for President” [Web]
T
Sep 25
film: Ryan Coogler, Black Panther (2018) (discussion)
Th
Sep 27
Black Panther (2018) (discussion continues)
Gerry Canavan, “The Limits of Black Panther’sAfrofuturism” [Web] FIRST PAPER MINI-WORKSHOP
T
Oct 2
Ta-Nehisi Coates, Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet, vol. 1
Evan Narcisse, “Ta-Nehisi Coates Explains How He’s Turning Black Panther into a Superhero Again” [web]
Th
Oct 4
Ta-Nehisi Coates, Black Panther, A Nation Under Our Feet, vol. 2 FIRST PAPER DUE
T
Oct 9
Ta-Nehisi Coates, Black Panther, A Nation Under Our Feet, vol. 3
Kodwo Eshun, “Further Considerations on Afrofuturism” [D2L]
Th
Oct 11
Octavia E. Butler, Wild Seed, Book I (“Covenant, 1690”)
T
Oct 16
Octavia E. Butler, Wild Seed, Book II (“Lot’s Children, 1741”)
Th
Oct 18
FALL BREAK—NO CLASS
T
Oct 23
Octavia E. Butler, Wild Seed, Book III (“Canaan, 1840”)
Th
Oct 25
film: Wanuri Kahiu, “Pumzi” (2009) (in-class viewing and discussion) SECOND PAPER MINI-WORKSHOP
T
Oct 30
film (in class): District 9 (2009)
Th
Nov 1
film: Neill Blomkamp, District 9 (2009) (in-class viewing continues and discussion) SECOND PAPER DUE
T
Nov 6
District 9 (2009) discussion continues District 10 (forthcoming eventually?) discussion
Octavia E. Butler, “The Monophobic Response” [D2L]
Th
Nov 8
Nnedi Okorafor, Lagoon (Act I, first half)
T
Nov 13
Nnedi Okorafor, Lagoon (Act I, second half)
Th
Nov 15
Nnedi Okorafor, Lagoon (Act II)
T
Nov 20
Nnedi Okorafor, Lagoon (Act III)
Th
Nov 22
THANKSGIVING BREAK—NO CLASS
T
Nov 27
Abdourahman Waberi, In the United States of Africa (part one)
Th
Nov 29
Abdourahman Waberi, In the United States of Africa (whole book) FINAL PROJECTS/PAPERS MINI-WORKSHOP
T
Dec 4
Film: Boots Riley, Sorry to Bother You(2018)
Chip Gibbons, “In the World of Film, We’ve Edited Out All Rebellion: An Interview with Boots Riley” [Web]
LAST DAY OF CLASS
Th
Dec 6
CLASS CANCELLED DUE TO INSTRUCTOR TRAVEL
F
Dec 14
FINAL PAPERS/PROJECTS DUE BY 5:30 PM VIA D2L DROPBOX
RT @MikeWTrapp: Seeing a lot of posts like, “And what of the man I call Filthy Gulliver who cleans my feasting hall while I pelt him with e… 11 minutes ago