Tinsel Vandergraph Satire

Dear diary, spent the whole afternoon properly comparing two nineteenth century letters, written by correspondents who clearly knew each other well, and found them genuinely, flatly contradicting each other on a single key point I’d assumed was simply settled historical fact. I documented the whole discovery in a piece on exactly how I found two … Read more

Dear diary, something genuinely rare happened today, properly, a colleague and I finally agreed on a specific interpretive point after literally years of respectfully but persistently disagreeing about the exact same nineteenth century text. I wrote the whole reconciliation up properly in a piece on exactly how a colleague and I finally agreed on something … Read more

Dear diary, properly humbled myself tonight, rereading a nineteenth century text I’d confidently dismissed years ago as minor and unremarkable, only to find it genuinely brilliant on this considerably more careful second reading. I wrote up the whole reassessment in a piece on exactly how I reread a text I’d dismissed years ago and found … Read more

Dear diary, got genuinely stumped today, properly, in front of an entire class, by a student’s sharp question about a specific translation choice I’d apparently never actually examined closely enough to answer with any real confidence. I wrote the whole embarrassing, genuinely productive moment up in a piece on exactly how a student’s genuinely sharp … Read more

Dear diary, properly finished tonight, a manuscript I’ve been revising, on and off, for three considerable years, a project I genuinely wondered at several points whether I’d ever actually bring to completion. I documented the whole finishing moment in a piece on exactly what it actually feels like to finally finish a manuscript after three … Read more

Some archival puzzles resist tidy resolution no matter how carefully you compare the evidence Dear diary, I spent this afternoon comparing two nineteenth century letters between the same correspondents, written only months apart, that genuinely contradict each other on a specific factual point I had assumed was settled in my earlier research, a discrepancy that … Read more

Some scholarly disputes actually do resolve, occasionally, and it feels genuinely strange when they do Dear diary, a colleague and I finally reached genuine agreement today on an interpretive question we have been disputing for literal years, a resolution that felt genuinely strange given how thoroughly I had come to expect our regular, friendly disagreement … Read more

Some books simply need the reader to catch up to them rather than the other way around Dear diary, I reread a nineteenth century Anglo Indian text tonight that I dismissed rather dismissively as minor and unremarkable when I first encountered it early in my graduate training, and found myself genuinely struck this time by … Read more

Sometimes the best classroom moments come from a question you genuinely cannot answer confidently Dear diary, a student asked a genuinely sharp question in class today about a specific nineteenth century translation choice that I found myself completely unable to answer confidently, a genuinely humbling moment given how many years I have spent teaching this … Read more

Some projects simply take exactly as long as they need to take, however frustrating that timeline feels Dear diary, I finally sent off the manuscript I have been revising for the better part of three years tonight, a genuinely surreal moment after so many rounds of feedback, restructuring, and the particular kind of slow, grinding … Read more