OK. I know that our little investigation into English Studies this semster has been quite a ride. Pulling the curtain back on the field has been frustrating, enlightening, disconcerting, invigorating, disheartening, overwhelming, empowering, and a whole slew of additional “ing” words that you can feel free to add youself.

So, as a way to end the semester…or better, to provide some suggestions for a little post semester detoxing…I thought I’d send a list of lighter English Studies narratives. I don’t know how many of you have poked around in the subgenre of academic novels–that is, novels about the academy and academics–but these will certainly provide a little levity suitable for snowy day reflections on the field we love.

• Straight Man: A Novel
  by Richard Russo
• Moo
  by Jane Smiley
• The Lecturer’s Tale: A Novel
  by James Hynes
• Publish and Perish: Three Tales of Tenure and Terror
  by James Hynes
• Small World
  by David Lodge
• Blue Angel: A Novel
  by Francine Prose
• The Groves of Academe
  , by Mary McCarthy

I’ll admit that I haven’t read all of these. However, after our class, I put the ones I haven’t read on my Christmas list!

If you decide to pick up a couple of these and find yourself feeling a bit edgy…it might be because you still have that pen in your hand as you read and your are craving secondary texts–you know, criticism! Don’t worry. Be calm and check out Elaine Showalter’s Faculty Towers: The Academic Novel and Its Discontents
Whew.

Anyway, I hope you have a restful break. Thanks for a great semester.

Ah yes…today was a blogging day.  I should say it was a good day for blogging.  But, alas, I had no time (it’s the last day of the semester here) and now I am to tired to reconstruct.  Not to mention the fact that I have a whole lot of papers yet to grade.  So, in an attempt to prevent some of my thoughts from vanishing into the void, here are a few snippets of what I wanted to write on today:

• The limits of judgment.  In particular, judgment as exercised by liberal/progressive folks.  Here I am talking about the way that so many folks on the left side of the fence seem to equate “judging” with action.  I want to review several episodes of a radio call-in show such as Radio Times out of WHYY in Philly and examine how so many callers who self identify (or demonstrate themselves to be) as “liberal” show a very limited understanding of public argument.  This is a similar line of thought that Lakoff
  discusses in progressives misguided belief in certain Enlightenment-informed assumptions–such as “the facts speak for themselves.”  [taking a break...Rowan is crying] Other points of connection.  Public arguments made in university spaces–public forums, organizations, meetings.
• Elephant in the room.  Limits of “the process” and the ways in which problematic behaviors/practices are systematically reproduced by silence.  Or, when an institution looks the other way and the kind of justifications given for not doing the right thing.
• Podcasting ideas–Fictions of English departments and state schools.  Short takes on writing.  Academic literacy narratives.

OK…gotta go burp the cannonball.

Hey all…this little “short film,” Beware of the Doghouse, comes to me by way of my colleague Amy O’Brien.  This will definitely make it into my advanced comp class next semester.  If you put the “film” in the context of the documentary The Persuaders, you can see a pretty sophisticated initiative to by-pass traditional modes of marketing and appeal to a more “viral” network strategy.  The ad firm for this campaign is Saatchi & Saatchi, New York headed by Kevin Roberts who appears in The Persuaders talking about his book Lovemarks: The Future Beyond Brands.

Now, let me also say that I laughed all throughout this…It’s an excellent example of “seamless integration” of product and medium.  Would you know this is an ad for J.C. Penny’s?  You get only very subtle hints as to what is being marketed…the story takes center stage.  It also is very subtle about how it plays on holiday “fears” as well as represents a prevalent cultural script for marriage.  Perhaps the most interesting part of this ad is that there is a “self-help” website associated with it to help fumbling men to “get out of the doghouse.”

I guess there is a reason why my 8 year old nephew sings “Every kiss begins with Kay” and  wanted to buy his mom jewelry for x-mass last year.

If you can’t see the video below, you can check it our here.