Why the Humanities Matter

Still grading analysis essays this Sunday (and they are, as they were last quarter as I’ve noted here, a joy to read for the most part since for many students, this is their first true understanding of how to do analysis and interpretation), so no new posting. But here are a few highlights from the week’s blogs/readings:

But here is a posting from the guest blogger, Jarrod Hayes,  at Tenured Radical that echoes some of the themes from the  Why Literature Matters talk I gave last December.

And here is a very amusing posting from Feministe linking to a video mocking skin care ads.

And Acadamnit’s query–am I a male blogger or a female blogger?–led to many an amusing comment earlier this week.

I laughed until I cried (sort of) watching these excerpts from SNL that were highlighted at Bitch.com.

I am collecting articles on Facebook and blogging these days for a future project. Here is a recent one on the aging of Facebook friends. For those interested in a cultural analysis of blogging, check out Aaron Barlow’s book Blogging @merica: The New Public Sphere (Praeger 2008).

I finished reading Black Ships by Jo Graham this week, a novelization of the Aeneid, told from the perspective of the Sybil.  I enjoyed it: there’s romance, history (sort of), action, etc. It was a light read, but thoroughly entertaining. I see a Hollywood picture deal in its future…