As soon as I heard the news last night I immediately remembered a moment from last year—pleading with my father for 2 months to quit his job as a cook at a Chinese restaurant during COVID because I was afraid that he would be killed on his 2 hour commute on

public transportation to work, from work. Or telling my mother on the phone that she has to be careful when she goes out for her walks in Boston but meaning there is danger and I have already seen that people want to hurt you because you are Chinese, because you look Chinese.

He repeatedly kicks and stomps on her head. Attack on Asian Woman in Midtown Prompts Another Hate Crime Investigation nyti.ms/3cz7PJt

Another day, another NYT story substituting individual psychology for socioeconomic power. The 99% become “not everyone” ("Not everyone can afford to throw caution to the wind. But for a growing number of people...") 1/n

...or are consigned to the past (“more people than ever can afford to take a risk these days”) while decorative statistics ("a recent Microsoft survey found that more than 40 percent of workers globally were considering leaving their jobs this year”)...

...are juxtaposed with praise for “fearless” & ‘risk-takers” who are “threatening to quit unless they’re allowed to work wherever and whenever they want.” No mention of the fearlessness it takes to threaten to quit unless they're allowed to make rent. Solidarity unthinkable.

Look! Signs of life! ❤️

Are you ready--really ready--for a new issue of The Rambling ? #teaser

Clarissa in one word: sexy

Now introducing our newest issue on CLARISSA, edited by @DrBibliomane and Yoon Sun Lee! "Clarissa was the go-to text for lockdown life. Our worlds too had contracted in spring 2020." the-rambling.com/2021/06/11/iss…

I wrote about not wanting to go outside

Read about a quarantine like no other, by the inimitable @DrBibliomane “Nothing of Body:” Our Clarissa Quarantine - The Rambling the-rambling.com/2021/06/11/iss…

Susan Howe, who was part of our reading group, wrote a poem for us. It will blow your mind. Clarissa, Little Dorrit, p's and q's (literally): Prison Sentences the-rambling.com/2021/06/11/iss…

Me exactly one year from today, I kid you not Wellesley College

I think everyone inside (and outside) academia would do well to read this powerful statement by Nikole Hannah-Jones and reflect on it, as a first step: naacpldf.org/press-release/…

Does reading involve looking at a surface or trying to see behind or inside it? And what would it mean to love a surface? New today at PB: Yoon Sun Lee muses on those novels determined to ignore their readers. buff.ly/3Jsyqad

Ok so it's 8/1 but don't despair! Instead make plans to come to UC Irvine on October 7-8 for the 79th meeting of The English Institute. Nobody wants to miss this extraordinary roster of talks, right?! Registration link to follow shortly. Watch this space, and share madly. xo

"By Other Means: The Cold War and U.S. Empire in Asia" This symposium organized by Yoon Sun Lee and Kent Puckett, with talks from Paul Nadal, Kelly Rich, Karl Britto, Penny Fielding, and others, will be open for zoom participants via this link. wellesley.edu/newhouse/event…

Also featuring the brilliant (and modest) Jed Jed Esty himself, as well as the fellows at the Newhouse Humanities Center. Please join us on zoom or in person if you're in the area!