Still in my Lewis Hyde phase — unsure how I didn’t really know about Trickster before now.
Would love recommendations for books about Ignatian approaches to culture/making.
I wrote about disability social media trends and the question of imperfection.
I talked to students some weeks ago about affordances and limitations in technology, and I mentioned in passing the Ordo Amoris, the ordering of loves. They have really latched on to this ancient idea! Choices, tradeoffs, limitations.
David Cayley’s intellectual biography of Ivan Illich is nicely organized — I just finished the chapter on Deschooling Society; Cayley outlines the various reviews and criticisms of it as companion to its sources, timing in Illich’s life, highlight passages and arguments.
Finished revisions on a paper about interdisciplinary work using Howard Gardner’s idea of “fruitful asynchrony” in creativity, and positing my own framework for creative inquiry between art, design, and engineering. Looking forward to it being out in the world — a nice summation of my last decade.
Sublime afternoon hearing Mozart and Haydn requiems at Boston Symphony Hall with a friend. Mild autumn day, bus ride there and back.
“I need a way through what often feels like a binary choice when institutions disappoint us: adopt a “see no evil” denial about their failures and defend them from the barricades, or give up on them altogether. I think we’ve seen, as a society, where that second choice leads…
What a beautiful evening hearing Dougald Hine in conversation with Lewis Hyde and hosted by the generous @mbattles. Can’t wait to read Hine’s new book.
I need to write a Letter to a Young Woman Engineer Who’s Ambivalent About Her Standing in the Field post. It’s not the message you’re thinking of.
RIP artist Rebecca Horn. Her mysterious “prosthetic” sculptures and performances were so important to me early on. I wrote about Finger Gloves for Art in America a couple of years ago.
Anne Snyder is a visionary thinker, writer, convener, and this conversation gets at some of her earned insight. Recommended.
Cambridge celebrities: Saw Jill Lepore this morning. She was post workout, headphones in, so I decided not to fangirl. But so tempted!
We all went up to Halibut Point yesterday. Glorious.
I hit pre-order so fast for my friend Chad Holley’s debut novel, coming out in November!
This analysis from Bethel McGrew on party politics and abortion is genuinely great: razor-sharp, unusually attentive, erudite.
Good heavens, I loved this conversation with Vinson Cunningham on Know Your Enemy.
Good day. My book was the campus read for Stevens Institute of Technology, and I gave the convocation address. Students were absolutely delightful, river view incredible.
First day of high school for all three — the only year they’ll all be together again. 💔
Long ago, when I was getting almost-a-phd in history, an advisor told me that I had the inconvenient problem of being interested in absolutely everything. Never a truer thing said.