“It is only too human that we wish our suffering to be gravid with significance, to indicate meaning beyond the apparently wasteful stranglings and strafings.”

"Solitude is an elemental necessity of intellectual life, but it has been replaced by a technocratic vision of learning." Joshua Hall on the work of literary critic Mark Edmundson: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/mark-edmundson-literary-criticism-american-university-humanities-essay/

If you’re in the Chicago area this weekend, come check out this awesome session on Philosophical Approaches to Woolf! #modernism #aesthetics

The editors are delighted to announce Tareeq Jalloh as the winner of the 2025 JoAP essay prize. #philsky #philosophy #essayprize Read the winning article 'Speech Acts and Unspeakable Raps' 👇 doi.org/10.1111/japp...

Modernism/modernity seeks a Book Reviews Editor (3-year term, 2026–2029). The role involves commissioning and editing reviews for both the print journal and Print+. Deadline to apply: March 16, 2026 Please share widely.

Had a nice time chatting with @shaneisland.bsky.social about “aesthetic” and internet aesthetics for this wonderful piece in @washingtonpost.com

We just rewatched. A totally tragic tale of unled lives, as wonderfully analyzed in Andrew H. Miller’s book on that theme.

ICYMI: "#Aesthetics in #Grief and #Mourning" Kathleen Higgins with Kate Warlow-Corcoran on grief as a rupture, limitations of language, art as continuity, the role of music in mourning, and the solace of suffering. #Philosophy Like & subscribe! www.youtube.com/watch?v=zE7L...

The short-form video has brought about a second age of orality. That’s partly because phones are addicting, and partly because America’s ruling class wants it that way.

@emmiemalone.bsky.social and @seantmurphyy.bsky.social gave killer papers on hardcore and emo thus morning. I feel lucky that I got to be on a panel with them. And it’s cool to remember that people are doing kickass work on things that I will be thinking about for a long time

‘We have also freed our study from the superfluous ballast of citations and references, for they lack any direct methodological significance in studies of a nonhistorical nature […]. For the qualified reader, they are unnecessary, and for the unqualified, useless’. Dang, Bakhtin goes hard. #Goals

Can't let the first anniversary of Edna O'Brien's death pass without this classic quote for The Paris Review Art of Fiction interview.

More needs to be said (outside Ireland) about Jack B. Yeats. His ‘Men of Destiny’ (1946) is below.

ndpr.nd.edu/reviews/scho... Here’s a review I wrote of an excellent edited volume investigating themes in Schopenhauer’s ethics. Not sure who of the authors I can shout out on here, but there’s at least @davidbatherwoods.bsky.social, @profcolin.bsky.social

There’s nothing that makes me laugh harder than this franchise, and I think it’s because there’s nothing quite like laughing with your friends; and that to me is the guiding truth of this series. Put differently, nothing says I love you like batting a ball at your best pal’s privates.

This is such a great interview for anyone looking for an overview of recent work on aesthetic value. Going right onto my aesthetics syllabus.

Come check out all the ASA sessions at the virtual Central later this month! We’ve got a great group presenting as part of the Group Sessions. aesthetics-online.org/news/691944/...

Deadline extended to Jan 20!

Please let students know about the upcoming Undergrad Phil Conf at SUU! Deadline: Jan 9. philevents.org/event/show/1...

I am sure some of you have loads of reccs for Cat!

“You never know when you’ll pick up something old, weird, and randomly incredible.” Check out the best (old) books we read this year. https://buff.ly/41xXkjw

X-aesthetics: Does your Spotify wrapped leave you feeling connected to other listeners? Alienated from them? Regretful in your year’s listening? Bored? Does it make you feel like a special or not very special aesthetic snowflake?

This emocrust album that just dropped this morning RIPS dishumanitar.bandcamp.com/album/s-t

I don’t really understand what is happening here: 500 followers in a day? And many look like fake accounts. I liked it fine when I only had 50 followers and they all were real people.

I’ve got too many thoughts about having too many thoughts #philsky

If you have an aesthetics/philosophy of art/art theory/lit theory/ paper idea kicking around, email me a ~500 word abstract for consideration at the American Society of Aesthetics session at the 2025 (all virtual) Central APA! Or tell someone you know! Deadline: 9/16 [email protected]

My article on the authenticity and queerness of rhinestone cowboy suits is now out online, and you can read it for free! academic.oup.com/jaac/advance...

academic.oup.com/bjaesthetics... Keep screaming!

Wishing a happy birthday to perhaps the best to every do it

SUU Undergraduate Philosophy Conference! Submission deadline, Jan 15 (likely to be extended). Keynote: Dr. Shen-Yi Liao (Puget Sound). Let your students know! philevents.org/event/show/1...

The Christmas book haul. The falconry memoir is delightful. Excited to learn from Kenji. Meanwhile, Cavell and Schelling will engage in the battle of the least penetrable prose.