Progeny-less Update (Life in Austin)

It's been awhile since we've had a personal update that didn't involve offspring. Here goes.

I am currently (this week) finishing up my last semester of course work. Beginning this summer, I will be working full-time on developing my prospectus and composing that magical document, the dissertation. I may have more to say about this later, but, for now, in short, I will be writing about the troubled relationships between seemingly mimetic works of art and "unrepresentable" historical violence (World War, Holocaust, the Bomb, the WTC attacks).

I spent the last four days at the 2008 International Narrative Conference. I have been working off and on for about a year as conference staff, and I chaired a couple of panels over the weekend (and attended what seems like hundreds). I heard some great panels, met some academic heros (and got a couple of business cards), but what was most impressive was seeing the "invisible acadamy" made at least temporarily visible. It made the direction of my life seem less obscure and evanescent.

I continue to teach, and am looking forward to teaching a course of my own creation in the fall. It will be, perhaps unsurprisingly, a course on violence.

I've been watching a lot of Top Chef on Bravo (my one televised guilty pleasure) and cooking quasi-elaborate meals whenever time and budget allow (and sometimes when they don't). My exercise regimine has slacked off, but I'm hoping to change that with the return of Friday basketball over the summer. Hopefully I can get back to regular running as well (I can feel my legs crying out for a good run even as I type).

The life-long pursuit of good coffee and good beer continues, as does a very rewarding playing at domestic bliss. The heat and humidity of an Austin summer are beginning to creep into the background of the everyday, and I'm trying (not terribly sucessfully) to ignore the democratic primary. I'm still at the same parish, doing the same sorts of parish-y things.

Alright. Back to writing about Civil War photography. Be well, my friends.

The Hunter, part 27

Happy Birthday, Steve.


Drink some sake for me.

Mapping the Political Landscape

Hey, you there! Remember when we used to post to this blog? Share funny stories, argue with Grady and Coye and Ryan about things important and things not so important? Yeah, I miss that.

Just for fun, I filled out the series of questions on electoralcompass, which then plotted my range of responses on a graph to suggest which political candidate I ought to support. No big surprises here. More moderate than Coye, less than Dusty (yes, you are my political landmarks).

Happy 2008.

Stanley Fish and Theodicy

There are a few of you to whom I owe email responses or other signals that I continue to live and breathe. Especially Adam, who wrote to me before his trip to Italy and is still waiting for a response. Unconscionable, I agree. Alas, I am finishing (read: writing from scratch, or re-writing) the first chapter of my dissertation this week, to be submitted to various members of my committee on Friday, so I won't be communicating much this week. But, by Saturday, I'll be back in action.

In the meantime, you might be interested in reading Stanley Fish's latest blog post on "Suffering, Evil and the Existence of God." The post is actually an extended review of two forthcoming books, Bart D. Ehrman's (a Wheaton and PTS grad) God’s Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question – Why We Suffer and Antony Flew’s (not even close to a Wheaton grad) There Is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind.

Both books take up Epicurus's old question: “Is God willing to prevent evil but not able? Then he is impotent. Is he able but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Whence, then, evil.” As you might expect from their titles, they come to different conclusions on the matter. An interesting read.

Towards Perpetual Peace

I am in the early stages of designing and proposing my own Rhetoric course here at UT. The standard convention is teaching a course named "The Rhetoric of..." fill in your topic here. It will come as no surprise to you that I am thinking of teaching the rhetoric of political violence. My interest will be pushing the concepts of peace, war, oppression, security, violence, retribution, resistance, revolution, protest and the like. (I am also thinking about the practices of war and peace, national security and civil rights, captial punishment and torture, peaceful protest and revolution.)

I have ulterior motives in telling you this. I want to exploit you as resources. I am wondering what kinds of texts-- poems, novels, songs, films, essays, etc-- you might recommend for giving undergraduates a conceptual vocabulary to think and write about violence in the political sphere-- particularly violence that is framed as necessary and/or instrumental. A text that justifies violence could be as useful as one that presents my own personal pacifist views (although I will, of course, appreciate that kind of suggestion). Particularly, does anyone know of fitting texts by MLK or Ghandi?

[My second choice might be a rhetoric of profit, so if you have any great ideas in that direction...]

Oh, September

I thought I'd give you fellas a personal update before the craziness that will be my fall semester totally subsumes my life. Unlike the midwest, September in Austin is still very much the summer, so this will be a quick, sweaty email sent from deep in the heart of Texas.

I started teaching a new class in a new department this week. I think it will be good and rewarding, but it's going to be a hell of a lot of work. [profanity used advisedly] I'm sort of writing the syllabus as I go along, so there's a certain seat of the pants uneasiness that I'm trying to turn into some sort of thrilling ride. I'll let you know how things go on that front.

I met two girls this week. Well, one I had chatted up several months ago and then lost track of, and she turned up again when I went for a drink with a friend of mine. The other I'd been wanting to talk to at cafe I frequent, and she showed up at a random party that another friend's roommate talked us into going to. Anyways, I guess I'm pulling that whole resilient, "get back on the horse" thing. It's either very brave or very stupid... but you've gotta try, right?

I also moved into a house with a roommate, so my old address is bad and you'll need to get my new one from me if you need it. Redundant, I know. I'd like to leave you all by pointing out that my city is better than everywhere the rest of you live, so you might as well come visit me. But not on September 17th: I'll be watching Bob Dylan play in Zilker Park that night. Bon nuit.

It did not give of bird or bush

So I have what probably qualifies as a mandatory update announcement:

I just got an email from the editor of the Wallace Stevens Journal, and they are publishing my article on Stevens, memorialization and the World Trade Center. It's not the largest journal, but publication counts as a major career milestone in the humanities, so I thought I should share it with you guys. The earliest it would be out will be Spring 2008, but I could (today, if I wanted) start putting it down as a "forthcoming" publication on my CV.

And I am still up 2-0 against Andy in the frolf books. That particular poison wasn't a banned substance until AFTER the match; it was totally legal at the time.

Traber 611 World Frolf Championship Circuit

I had the pleasure of hosting Andy and TEFKAMS in Austin last week (Andy, at least, came for the North American James Joyce conference... I'm not really sure what TEFKAMS was doing here). I think that either one of them could vouch for the comfortableness of my couch and the timeliness of my airport chauffering, in case anyone else might be contemplaing a trip down to bat city for a conference or music festival. The bats, unfortunately, were not as punctual. In fact, they absolutely refused to come out from under the Congress Avenue bridge on Friday night (all 2.5 million of them having a good laugh at all the humans standing around on the bridge for nothing), so we got to stand around with a bunch of strangers and think of all the things we could drop on the boats floating beneath us-- a good time, yes, but not what we set out for that evening. Fortunately, the Blues Allstars are always on top of their game, and we got to hear a very nice set from them at the Continental Club. Good times were had by all.

Now, for the title piece: I once again came out victorious over Andy in our multi-city disc golf competition (known to lovers of silly words as frolf). Andy played a remarkable thirteen holes and led the entire game up to hole fourteen, at which point he self-destructed and I was able-- with some rather skillful tosses-- to recover from the sizable gap created by my erratic play and win with a respectable five stroke lead. That makes the series record Coye 2, Andy 0. He claims that I poisoned his frisbee with a toxic yellow dye that only took effect on the back nine, but such claims are ludicrous, libellous and should be referred to the governing body of the 611 College Town Frolf Gaming Board Rules Committee. If anything poisoned Andy, it was his unprecedented proximity to so much Finnegan's Wake during Friday morning and afternoon. We saw firsthand how the Wake can cause spontaneous self-destruction (an unfortunate question and answer session, to say the least).

The tasty burritos enjoyed by all, the two-stepping skipped out on by Andy, the coffee drank, the women chased, the parking spaces sought endlessly-- all of this must, unfortunately, be left out of the current post (I still have several pages of French grammar to read through tonight), but, needless to say, it was all great. Nous avions un bon temp.

Adieu, mes amis.

finis

Today I finished the requirements for the Master of Arts degree at the Univeristy of Texas at Austin. I guess it requires some stamping and filing before its officially official, but I'm pretty much a master of the univers(ity). I can feel the power flowing through my veins. Andy, why didn't you tell me about the power. It's incredible. It's intoxicating. I feel... just capital.

I also started looking for a different place to live. All this power can't fit in an apartment anymore, so I'm trying to find a house to rent. I'll need a roommate or two to pull it off, but I'm sure that with all this power I should be able to persuade someone to pick up part of my rent.

I shot a roll of film this afternoon, so I might have some cool Austin pics to post in the near future. We need some more pictures up that aren't of me in a skirt. In the meantime, I'm out, Reno style!

breaking and entering

So someone broke into my car today. I have a case number and everything. The cops took fingerprints. Which I find hilarious. I don't know what they thought they were going to steal. They didn't even take my Altoids. Or the sweatshirt in the back seat. I think they might have been after my ice scraper. But I fooled them. I always keep it in the trunk.

I turned in the master's report yesterday, which is splendid. Sort of had my heart broken the day before, which isn't. No worries. A few days, a few more pages written, and I can seek the heavenly bliss of oblivion. Consciousness. Burden. uhg

Chairman

I thought I'd let everyone know that my former roommate, the Chairman, will be living in Los Angeles and attending UCLA this coming fall. It looks like a very good gig for him since his brother is already living in So Cal and they can share an appartment, etc, etc. We should really try to get him to post his own updates now that he isn't in the PRC. I'll work on it.

Goodbye

Hi friends, the time has come for me to spend a semester off of the floor. My attempts to start a doctoral program this fall did not pan out, and I will be starting a job search as soon as I can find some free time. I am removing myself from the online community soon since it might hamper my job search. I thought I might not have to take this step, but the most recent prior post made my decision an easy one.

To everyone, I wish you the best. Given what I know of a few dating relationships, I am hopeful to be reunited with some of you in 2008 for a wedding or two or three. Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this blog. I have a lot of good memories - the P, WC, and MK cards; Logey's house on fire; our mission for Greenspan; naming Dave's child (good final choice); the personal updates; I could go on. Please pray for my job search. Keep centered on Christ.

Grace and peace, Strauss

My contact info is available through the college's alumni website except the email address is yahoo or verizon.net, not juno. I will likely continue reading the blog.