This is just to give a better idea of what I might be writing about on here. I can’t guarantee that any of these will see the light of day, unless otherwise noted.
Why do so many people feel like frauds? (published 8/26/21)
A three-part series on literary analysis, focusing on how to read politically without becoming a sociopath (published September 2021 but taken down because I was dissatisfied with it)
About a year later, a book came out that did basically 1/3 of what I wanted to do with this series, only better; I discuss this here.
I intend to write about the idea of authorship as ownership sometime before May 2023.
Canons and canonicity (published 10/6/21)
The case against feeling bad all the time (addressed in “On Logging Off,” published 2/17/22)
Quick writing tips (addressed in “Quick Fixes for Academic (and Other Formal) Writing,” published 7/24/22)
You have no idea what English grammar is, and that’s okay (I probably will not write on this particular thesis, but “Grammar, Usage, Mechanics, and Style” [published 8/13/22] summarizes the major points that I’ve wanted to make)
Something about Christopher Lasch (I published an essay on Lasch’s Minimal Self that I took down because I wasn’t satisfied with it; a heavily revised version will appear by May 2023)
A series on aesthetic judgments, including an analysis of the statement “I enjoyed [it] and also thought it was kind of bad,” and a discussion of whether or not it’s possible to separate (contingent, idiosyncratic) personal tastes from universal or universal-ish standards, assuming such standards exist at all (addressed very indirectly in “The Replacement-Level Novel: Notes Towards an Investigation”)
Tracing the history of some of my own aesthetic judgments
The “making live” part of “making live and letting die” has all but completely disappeared
Rick Perlstein’s Before the Storm quadrilogy
Nathanael West, Los Angeles, and apocalypticism
Philip Roth’s American Pastoral and climate anxiety
Why I love 100 gecs (I probably won’t devote a whole article to their work, but they will be mentioned in the revised Christopher Lasch article)
Krzysztof Penderecki’s music as a case study in modernism (or just something about modernism in general)
Public space—it’s good, folks! (Or: why are there “No Loitering” signs in public parks?)
Joel Garreau’s Edge City
Shadow governments (might combine this with the previous topic)
A rat who knows he’s in a Skinner box is still a rat in a Skinner box, and other examples of “everybody-is-a-mindless-robot-but-me” syndrome
You are never “just sharing your work” on social media (or any other platform that awards imaginary internet points)
You can’t be a hypocrite if you don’t believe in anything
Something about affect theory
“Nuance” is a meme
Will esoteric writing return in the age of “C.R.T.” bans? (contingent on whether I can bring myself to read Leo Strauss)
I promise that I will never write about Twitter drama or Substack drama.