Most accurate portrait of modern culture currently available
The program for the Duke conference on Jameson in April is now available. www.fredricjamesonandthefutureofcriticaltheory.org/schedule
I hadn't seen this cool endorsement from Bruce Robbins yet: "More playful than pious, these essays are must reads even for people who’ve never heard of Fredric Jameson, if any such people exist.”―Bruce Robbins, author of, Who's Allowed to Protest? www.amazon.com/Future-Total...
I'm amazed at how quickly Routledge puts these websites up, but here's the page for the new book, which includes a number of recent essays. (I had wanted to call the book, "Is the World a Place?" but they didn't like the title, so I just used it for Chapter 10.) www.routledge.com/Geocritical-...
That is, the 1940s and '50s seems to have been their "proving round," much more so than "the Sixties" as the term becomes known.
Interesting that so many recognized theorists / activists would be from the so-called "silent generation" (in the US, at least), between the "greatest" (who fought in WWII) and the Boomers (who would turn 20 a some point between 1966 and 1984).
Thank you!
As with Thiel, Vance, and the others, their love for Tolkien is in absolute inverse relation to their knowledge or understanding of his work.
Sure, although to be honest, I haven't much used Substack. (I find it unwieldy, but perhaps at some point I'll figure it out.)
News from the neighborhood. (The kids are alright.) www.youtube.com/watch?v=629_...
How apt. In Tolkien, Erebor is the very site of "dragon sickness" (a.k.a. rapacious greed and jealous hoarding), so it makes sense for this to be associated now with Palmer's new "bank."
Thanks!
University of Florida Critical Theory Reading Group Conference
The State of the Unions
Keynotes: Sianne Ngai, Anna Kornbluh
-How have unions+ labor itself, been the subject of - or been eliminated from - literary studies, literary texts, pop culture?
call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/12/...
They marketed "Poltergeist" (produced by Spielberg) as if it were a fun family movie, like "E.T." Scary AF!
I am very excited to see this work coming out in the Spring. As some of y'all know, Rick was my undergrad advisor, and the author (Tom Zigal) of this memoir tells me that my remembrances of some of those days appear in the Duke chapter(s). tcupress.tcu.edu/9780875659565/
Also, an amazing Otis Redding song!
I grew up in Winston-Salem. They used to take kids on field trips to the cigarette factory, which was actually pretty impressive. (100,000 Winstons per minute!) :D
I'm not quite sure why, but my book on "The Hobbit" is on sale, priced at an almost reasonable $14.50. Check it out! www.amazon.com/J-Tolkiens-H...
Coming in 2026! The Greek translation of my book on Jameson: www.opositobooks.com/%CE%B5%CE%B9...
Good news from Italy! The Associazione Italiana Studi Tolkieniani has published a translation of my "Let Us Now Praise Famous Orcs"! www.jrrtolkien.it/2025/12/03/s...
I think spending time with people outside the field chastens one about this. My spouse, an academic, hasn't heard of a single "star" in literary and cultural studies (not even Said or Foucault). Non-academics have heard of even fewer. Literally, *nobody* is impressed with who (or what) I know! 🙂
I'm in (starting tomorrow, maybe?)!
So proud to have this in the Journal of Tolkien Research and @roberttally.bsky.social without your book it wouldn't exist - thank you!
scholar.valpo.edu/journaloftol... #Tolkien #LOTR #TRoP #Orcs #LordofTheRings #Therapysky
Wonderful! Congrats, and thank you!
Just got the new issue of boundary 2, which contains my interview with @roberttally.bsky.social, “Grateful and Generous Reading: An Interview with Robert T. Tally Jr.” I'll post links as soon as they're live. Thanks so much to Rob for sitting down w/ me! More here: bradleyjfest.com/2025/11/12/g...
I am so honored to have been interview by Brad Fest for boundary 2.
