Tuesday, December 29, 2009

The Ten Most Harmful Books in Human History

The aim is to get on here in 2010:

Karl Marx and Fredreich Engels, Das Kapital
Karl Marx and Fredreich Engels, Communist Manifesto
Mao Zedong, Little Red Book
Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf
Robert Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land
August Comte, Course de Philosophie Positive
Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man
Keston Sutherland, Hot White Andy
Annie Proulx, Brokeback Mountain
Anthony Giddens, Capitalism and Modern Social Theory
Simone de Beavoir, Being and Nothingness
Michael Moore, Stupid White Men

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Second Policy Document

CCG Style Guidelines for essays in the humanities and social sciences.  Word doc, 10 pages, consultation period closes 15/01/10.
  • (pat.) – “patriarchy.” Used when the validity of a passage derives from its harmony with the interests of men.
  • (casp.) – “casparchy.” Used when the validity of a passage derives from its harmony with the interests of whites.
  • (het.) – “heteroarchy.” Used when the validity of a passage derives from its harmony with the interests of heterosexuals.

    Saturday, December 26, 2009

    Boxing Day Policy Document

    This exposure draft poem mainly relates to career structure; teaching will be minimally affected.  Consultation period closes 15/01/10.

    Executive Summary

    The Flexibility Agenda. Tackling over-specialisation, making English Literature more relevant to the contemporary knowledge industry.

    The Glorious Literature Agenda. Achieving the right balance between theory and literature, to correct the socio-political bias of current teaching practices.

    The Streamlining Agenda. Reducing redundancy within English and across disciplines, to leverage the most out of our people.

    The Access Agenda. Allowing distance and part-time learners to benefit from recent IT advances. Widening access to ensure the sustainability of our discipline.

    The Choice Agenda. Tackling the stigma associated with third-party pedagogy providers. Empowering the student to fulfil learning objectives however he or she chooses.

    Download the full document (Word).

    Friday, December 25, 2009

    Some photos of poets 2006-2009

    Taken by Eirik Steinhoff.



    Joshua Baldwin and Bobby Baird

    Thursday, December 24, 2009

    From "The Proxy Inhumanity of Forklifts"

    By Keston Sutherland.

    that chickenshit apollo,
    but to draw conclusions from that
    all over the wall in a heap of dust on the ground
    grinning like lipstick in a frying pan,
    the wall of wood torn down,
    its entire catalogue of shit having at last digested itself
    there is nothing to be done but
    be nothing to you,
    as there is nothing to do
    it for but to be doing nothing but
    wanting to try to
    live to drown the ice it licks in vinegar,
    wanting to try downloading Amputeens,
    to try wanting to instead of to die to operating the cast get lead
    out forklift as leg fast and as steam
    I knew that to be wood I too remained interesting
    sh/se had a pelvis like an overdue fruit bill in an incinerated ringbinder
    but to draw conclusions from that

    Wednesday, December 23, 2009

    From "The Proxy Inhumanity of Forklifts"

    By Keston Sutherland.

    We last forever then, and dead love shed us,
    us as in milk at the primaries soft bite runs,
    runs up a debt serviced on living to desire,
    desire to last as if desire lasted least

    Tuesday, December 22, 2009

    Silent Gilonis:

    As regards versified vent, Harry Gilonis is a bit like Silent Bob from Kevin Smith's View Askewniverse, or the character Vinny Jones plays in the remake of Gone in 60 Seconds. When he puts something out there you sort of have to sit up:

    "Crater 3; Acacia Feelings: The Collected Poems of Pao Ling-hui, from North Hills by Harry Gilonis, is now available for order. It contains 7 of HG's faithless translations, letterpressed and hand bound in a run of 170, available for £5 UK £6 outlands, p&p included. Confusing folding; no paperknife required. Here's the blab on PLh:

    Pao Ling-hui was an early Sung dynasty poet. Younger sister of the male poet Pao Chao, she probably died circa 464 AD. 200 of his poems survive; her surviving 7 are collected in the later anthology New Songs from a Jade Terrace. Her works based on precursor poems have attracted particular praise."

    No web site is given, so backchannel or leave a comment & I'll put you in touch.

    Monday, December 21, 2009

    We're now back on

    WALTON:
    We’re now back on. So moving onto the next question. On your little Post-it Notes, another little drawing for you guys actually. Can each one of you draw, now we’ve talked about the blog strategy, the strategy map in a little bit more detail, I want you to draw a face, a face, and on that face, put how the blog strategy makes you feel. Okay, just one face. That may be a smile, it may be a frown, it may be sad. Okay, and then I want you to very quickly talk it through to us, about why you’ve drawn what you’ve drawn. So how does the blog strategy make you feel? Lovely Marianne, Marianne’s face is indifferent, and Marianne actually the correct answer should be, it’s a smiley face. If you do take that on board as we do the next exercise. So, how does the blog strategy feel? Put how it makes you feel on a face. Justin’s drawn our infinitely long in one direction helix of butteryellow gauze, beginning in 1998, it’s now insouciant. That again Justin should be a smiley face. I’m only going to give you a couple of minutes. Jonny’s had a Business Seizure.

    JONNY:
    I wasn’t really sure how to draw ‘apprehensive’ so I’ve just put, wide eyes, tongue hanging out. I don’t know.

    WALTON:
    Mike’s drawn a, almost, would you call that a vacant face?

    MIKE:
    No I – well, that’s a doodled version. Well, I heard the question, which was basically, ‘Put your feeling about the new blog strategy onto a face.’ And I – I really don’t know. The only sort of thing I could think of is those sort of ancient statues, that you sort of see? It’s cross country or whatever, and you think, ‘What’s all that about?’

    FRANCES:
    I can’t really draw!

    (Laughter).