A Post of Links

Remember, I've missed a lot, so send useful things from the last month my way. But here are some recent, interesting links.

First up: Dr. J has an interesting project, and she is asking for more volunteers! It is called "American Values", and you can see the results of the first photographs being used this video. I think this is an great project, and I suggest going and being a part of it.

If " Gastronomic Solutions to Imperial Problems: Oswaldo de Andrade's Cannibal Manifesto" is not the best title for a blog post ever, than I don't know what a good one is. But if you click the link, you will go over to Prodigies & Monsters, where Matt has great post up with that very title. The "Cannibal Manifesto" has been one both Matt and I have been obsessed with since we first discovered it, with lines like: "Only Cannibalism unites us. Socially. Economically. Philosophically." In this blog post Matt begins to highlight some of the reasons it is such a profound and powerful manifesto, go check it out.

After keynoting at the PIC Conference, Peter Gratton went on to deliver a talk at Cornell on Agamben. He has some of the details up. I can't wait to read the talk, and I am very sorry I had the miss that whole event.

There has been a recent interesting and important discussion on dealing with sexual harassment in philosophy over at The New APPS. Reading the comments is a must. Well, today Inside Higher Ed has taken this recent post to follow the entire trajectory of discussion (including the What is it like to be a Woman in Philosophy? Blog). I thinking about preparing a longer post on this issue, but this is basically where I am: The situation is far ranging, and obviously terrible. There aren't many 'solutions' that I am not willing to try at this point.

The NY Times has a graph up demonstrating American consumption of meat over the last century. It is staggering.

I am sure you have all heard about the insanity that is surround William Cronon, if not Stuart Elden has posted an email that tracks down important links and ways to show support. With the sort of work I do, I can't overemphasize how important Nature's Metropolis has been for my own work.

I am about to take some advice from the band Cults, and "Go Outside"

Two Links, a Note, and a Video

This blog has been basically on hiatus as March has been rather time intensive for me.

Link 1) The Revolution of Time and the Time of Revolution: A Conference starts tomorrow. I flew out yesterday 9 am, but got stuck over night in Dulles, where I am still am. So, I won't be in until later this evening.
For those who follow the academic blogosphere, there will be many people from that virtual place gathered together actually. Including myself and one-half of Prodigies + Monsters, Peter Gratton is the keynote. Devin Shaw of The Notes Taken, Ben Woodward, David Kishik, Dan Barber of AUFS, and I am sure other people I don't know or have forgotten. It should be a blast.

Link 2)
Eileen Joy just sent me an email telling me that the awesome journal postmedieval has a special issue on the Animal Turn with free pdf and html access through the end of March. So, go look.


Note: That brings me to my note. I thank Eileen Joy for her email because March has been a terrible month for in terms of keeping up with other blogs. So, let me know about the most important posts out there, things I should know about but haven't noticed.


Video: The Kills have a new album coming out. The first single is beyond amazing!

A Post of Links

Well, my browser isn't functioning anymore due to the numbers of tabs I have open.

First, Peter talks to a debater about Continental philosophy in policy debate (for you debaters out there, that means they talked about kritiks). I plan to respond later, but hey, debate people, go read. Peter is curious how an organization like SPEP might be able to help encourage or help understanding such philosophy. If you can think of concrete and feasible suggestions, let him know. Make sure to read the comments, where Cameron Kunzelman weighs in with some discussion of how debate utilizes critical literature.

Prodigies and Monsters has been kicking so much ass recently. First up, I cannot over suggest this post on feminist autonomists. Honestly, go over there now. Here is a take away line: "This is, perhaps, just a long way of saying I’m entirely on board when James and Dalla Costa establish as a proper autonomist feminist task the refusal of the night shift so folks can make love." Also, check out this post on the It Gets Better. Here is a paper on Howard Zinn. And lastly, they have their own post of links. They make me feel better for slacking off, because wow, just go read them.

Thursday morning I am flying out to the Sex, Gender, Species conference. Eric has a post up with a preview of his paper that he is presenting there. I look forward to this whole conference.

Speaking of Judith Butler, check out this post by Tim Morton on Butler and OOO. Maybe that isn't your thing for some strange reason. BUT! Tim Morton also links to an article on Queer Ecology. Don't miss that.

In what I can only call important news, it seems that we are beginning to get some data on if pro-animal welfare campaigns actually decreases meat consumption. The answer seems to be yes, they do (h/t vegan.com). Now, unlike the people I link to, I don't think this is a full response to Gary Francione's arguments. There are two important arguments this doesn't respond to: (a) Are people decreasing animal products in general, or just meat? In other words, are they decreasing eating animals, but increasing dairy and eggs? (b) Are these reforms actually more effective than an abolitionist stance? That these reforms are effective doesn't actually answer back issues of comparative effectiveness.
With that said, I think the pro-animal welfare position, with hopes of leading to an abolitionist society, is gaining ground. More data, please!

Speaking of data, here is a test that indicates that monkeys display self-doubt, just like humans. (h/t Graham's blog). The article is interesting, and I suggest reading it. Tests like these are always weird. The more the we prove animals have capacities we think were unique to us, the more I feel even non-violent tests like this one are, at best, creepy. I am thinking of J.M. Coetzee's depiction of primate testing in The Lives of Animals.

Here is an interesting post on how legal scholarship turned toward Carl Schmitt and Agamben following 9/11 (h/t Craig).

Lastly, Levi lets the cat out of the bag: SR has been nothing more than a publicity stunt. Expect to be able to buy a blue coffee mug with an OOO logo in a store near you. (Actually, that is kinda a cool idea. Do I see a cafepress shop in the near future?).

I have a lot of videos to try and choose from this week. But how could I post anything besides the new Radiohead video? (btw, I expect Adam Kotsko to post some funny and insightful take on this video any day now. He is on notice).

Tim Morton's interview

Normally I would save this for another post of links, but the interview was too delightful and interesting of a read. John Protevi is doing great work in these interviews, and Tim is a wonderfully disinhibited and thoughtful subject.

A take away point for people who read this blog:

I remember one meal—I was a heavy vegetarian at the time, and I was invited to do an interview, which included a meal at High Table. All these Oxford types sitting there telling me how ridiculous vegetarianism is. And I write about it, and I am one! It was like being eviscerated by intelligent insects. They are in eternal attack mode. In the USA I realized that some humans had endoskeletons and soft skin, as it were. Now when I go back I feel like Gulliver among the Lilliputians—“Why are you stinging me? That's really annoying! Do you think you're being clever? What is that?” Schivelbusch was important but it was also a lot of Deleuze and Guattari combined with Braudel. When you look at capitalism as forces of deterritorialization and reterritorialization you start to see food not simply as symbolic or “meaningful” or whatever but as an actual material substance that circulates around. I was also fascinated by Žižek as he had just produced The Sublime Object of Ideology, and it seemed to me that food directly was ideology. In other words, a McDonalds Happy Meal doesn't signify comfort: it is comfort, directly. “The Truth Is Out There.” This was very clear to me and very boring for everyone else, who wanted food to fill the gap left by the “death of the Author.” University of California Press flat refused to publish my stuff because it had philosophy in it—that was their actual stated reason! They wanted to replace The Fascinating Story of Charles Dickens with The Fascinating Story of the Potato. Kind of like that movie The Red Violin. After a while I stopped writing about food because I just ran into a lot of walls with my demystification approach. Instead, I started writing about ecology. Vegetarianism is obviously about ecology and all food involves thinking about ecological stuff. That was woven quite explicitly into the first projects.

A Post of Links

First up, The Time of Revolution and the Revolution of Time has an official conference blog. Not much there yet, but check it out.

Graham Harman announces a new Speculative Realism book series. Check his blog out for the details. His book on Meillassoux is set to be the first book of the series, and I am pretty excited for it. Speaking of first books, Levi's The Democracy of Objects is soon to be released by the OHP's New Metaphysics series. What is the difference between those two series, you ask? Well, Graham has the distinction as well.

Speaking of books I am totally psyched to read when they come out, Stuart Elden has a final draft of the The Birth of Territory.

Do you have any talented philosophical undergraduated from under represented groups? Well, encourage them to apply to the PISKI summer program. (h/t Feminist Philosophers)

Richard Twine & co recently set up a list of works dealing with Foucault & Animals. While not entirely complete, it is still remarkably thorough. Eric says he wants to do the same with Derrida at some point. I feel that will be a much bigger job.

Speaking of Eric and Foucault, he has an essay of some of his recent work with Foucault. Check it out.

In a similar vein, you have to read MLA's post on Thinking through Sovereignty and Governmentality.

A new journal of critical history, entitled History of the Present, has details up for potential submitters. It seems really exciting. (h/t Elden)


I have been on a huge glam rock kick since I posted my last video of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. So, here is Butch Walker performing "Ladies and Gentlemen... The Let Go Out Tonites!"
It's live, because that is the only way to listen to Butch Walker:

A Post of Links

Hey, my birthday is coming up this Saturday. I will be at GA Tech coaching and judging for the debate team. On to the links:

HJM of Prodigies & Monsters has this powerful and moving post on the need for those of us who consider ourselves radical thinkers to also be committed to trans/gender non-conforming rights. I cannot agree more. Few things feel me with as much disgust as radical thinkers who reject such concern as Bourgeois multiculturalism. Also, those thinkers who simply ignore such people are in some ways no better. After summarizing some of the shocking conditions for existence that trans people deal with, HJM concludes:

In short: you can’t just not write about this, folks, even if you don’t ‘do’ queer and/or feminist theory, no matter how much you love the Situationists, no matter what your dissertation is on or what your next article is about, whatever courses you’ve been assigned this semester. If you don’t feel you have whatever knowledge-base you need to think about resistance and the amelioration of certain of these modes of thoroughly naturalized and normalized brutalities, better ask somebody.

Fuck yes.

Speaking of the rights of transgendered, there is both good and bad news out of Canada, both of which come out of Feminist Philosophers. The good news is that the lower house in the Canadian parliament passed legislation protecting trans people. The bad news is that the legislation seems in danger in the upper house.

Tim Morton and Zachery Price have been discussing OOO and politics. Morton's take home point is in favor of anarchism. Tim is here, and Zachery's follow up is here.

Also, Adam Kotsko and Tim have been discussing OOO and negative theology (in relationship to Derrida and Hagglund's work on Derrida). Adam is here. Tim is here, and here, and here. Make sure to read the comments as well, to get the full discussion.

Also, I know this getting Tim heavy, but he has some discussion on internet types and women in blogging over at Arcade. Since my blog has started to attract its own trolls, I've been thinking a bit more on this issue. I don't have much to say. I don't publish troll comments, and yet trolls keep making them knowing this. Turning their comments into a one-way message to me. It is a weird impulse. One of my debaters referred to as pure art. Not sure if I agree with that, but libidinal economy that certain trolls engage in is one I do not understand. (I will, I presume, get trolled on this post having brought this up. It will continue to amuse and mystify me).

Over at APPS is a wonderful and insightful interview with Cynthia Willett. Check this out, as well:

Now I am working on how the same basis for sociality in the preverbal eros between infants and their caregivers also accounts for ethical relations across species.

Totally awesome, I cannot wait.

Lastly, you have to read this amazing polemic against foodies. Not only is there the enjoyment one gets from reading any good polemic, but it is also very insightful. Some of the quotations are long, but here is a short one that summarizes both joys:

That’s right: guests have a greater obligation to please their host—and passersby to please a vendor—than vice versa. Is there any civilized value that foodies cannot turn on its head?

It is one of the truths of the foodie world that guests are obligated to take on the role of host, and thus hospitality is turned on its head. Maybe so, maybe so. But it is certainly a philosophical insight.

I recently finished teaching Plato's Symposium to my Intro to Philosophy class. I should have thought through how a book that deals with homoeroticism and pederasty might cause a bit of a stir in my Baptist university located in the middle of GA. But, I didn't, really. Anyway, I am going to be showing them Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and I cannot wait for that discussion. In honor of that, here is Hedwig and Angry Inch's The Origin of Love. If you haven't seen the movie/play and are curious how it relates to the Symposium, this is one of the overt parts. You have to see it if you teach this work by Plato. Or, if you like awesome movies.

A Post of Links

The problem about not doing updates very often, is that I lose a lot for my Post of Links. So, feel free to promote links in the comments.

There is a new blog to add to your readers: Lines of Fracture. Among academic blogging, this blog is somewhat unique. It is a group blog composed primarily of debaters, and features many high schoolers and undergraduates engaging heavily with continental philosophy and radical politics. You should check it out.

Graham Harman has been an amazing resource on what is going on in Egypt. So, check out his blog regularly.

Mark Bittman has given up his old column as The Minimalist, and is now focusing full time on food politics. Here is his first column. And here is his blog post reflecting on reactions to that shift.

Many of you have read here and elsewhere arguments that violence towards other animals leads to violence against other humans. Or at least there are connections. In ways that can only be described as weird, Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-CA) has combined those thoughts with a thorough-going xenophobia. Check out this Mother Jones article.

Bruno Latour was interviewed in The Hindu. Highly worth reading. (h/t Anthem).

This posts song is from Amanda Palmer, remixed by Peaches and the Young Punx. If that wasn't warning enough, this video might be what they call not safe for work (though I watched it at work, so who knows). Also, Amanda Palmer and Peaches should let you know how awesome this video is. Here is the "Map of Tasmania".

A Post of Links

This is going to be far less comprehensive than previous posts, and I know I am missing a lot of good stuff (apologies in advance).

First up, the deadline for abstract submissions for the conference, The Revolution of Time and the Time of Revolution, is Feb. 1st. Get them in, people. The conference itself is really coming together. Many of the submissions so far are simply wonderful looking. As well as strong traditional submissions, we also have a few performative or artistic submissions that also seem quite amazing. Come join what is sure to be a great conference.

As you know, Peter Gratton is the keynote speaker at The Revolution of Time and the Time of Revolution, and he also has a review of Nancy's The Truth of Democracy.

Levi has responded on the issue of Derrida, here. I have two quick comments, for now (and this might exhaust all I have to say on the subject at the time). (1) Levi's response treats Derrida as a serious and important thinker, whose philosophical system is one he has particular disagreements with. That's fair. Whether one agrees with Levi's assement of what Derrida says, or agrees with that critique of that position, Derrida is not being treated as a caricature. (2) Levi seems to indicate in his post that I had treated some of Derrida's critics in the form of a caricature. I don't think so. I think at times during the so-called 'Derrida Wars', there have been statements (perhaps purposefully hyperbolic) that have claimed that Derrida only writes about books or is only a destructive thinker. But I'm not invested in who said what or anything. And not all critics of Derrida have been reductive in the ways they have treated him.

I also want to suggest this post on relations, from Levi.

Awhile back I talked about humane-washing:

Zamir doesn't confront what I call, following the term greenwashing, humane-washing. Because, for the most part, increasing the humane conditions of animals decrease profits market logic dictates that people don't increase humane conditions. But, one might object, isn't this why it is important that we demand more humanely raised animal products? Well, just as with greenwashing, humane-washing involves selling the image and myth of more humanely raised animals while not fulfilling this promise. Which makes far more market sense really. And we have seen this, over and over again. We have seen this with so-called cage free eggs, and we have seen this with humanely raised meat. Increased demand in both these cases didn't lead to better conditions, it frequently led to companies decreasing standards in order to gather the profits of higher demand.

Well, this was clearly the sort of term that was bound to be invented by a lot of people, and here is an interesting Grist article on the issue of humane-washing. Definitely worth a read.

Almost everyone has linked to this post by Jason Read on the dialogue between Judith Butler and Catherine Malabou on Hegel. And for good reason, go check it out.

Tim Morton takes up the issue if computer programming languages should count as a foreign language requirement. Ian Bogost follows up here. There is an interesting history over at PIC on that very issue. A while back PIC required three languages. Then it became three languages, but logic could count as a language. Then, it wasn't just logic, it was also things like computer languages. And then, it wasn't just logic and computer languages, it was a skill that would be helpful toward working on your dissertation. So, one woman did a dissertation on the way that women constitute their sociality during sewing and quilting, and she had to learn to sew and quilt for her dissertation. However, it was determined there was no real way to evaluate if someone had attained a skill, and so that requirement was eventually just booted. Leaving us still with a two language requirement. I'm not sure if any of this answers the question of if a computer language counts as a foreign language.

PACT is having a conference on "The Political Animal", in the broad sense of that term. I almost named my blog the political animal, but it was the name of the blog over at the Washington Monthly (at that time Kevin Drum blogged there), and so I decided on Critical Animal instead.

This is an annoyingly punned article on how a rooster in a cock fight killed the owner forcing him to fight. I link to this because so often people talk about animals in such passive terms, as if there is not constant and regular resistance.

I know I missed stuff, but Peter has been doing a good job at catching a lot more stuff that I have been missing, so start at this post and work your way through his recent blog posts.


This time is a song from Delta Spirit, "People C'mon". The music video has everything: Murder, Art, Intrigue, and a kick-ass song.