In an interesting move, my institution now has a line item in our annual reports for “professional/academic blog contributions”. There remains a conservative hierarchy of valuation, though.
today i had a really ecstatic discussion about tumblr with one of my favorite professors. we were talking about feminism and the theoretical really, really for real this time merging with the personal.
she said she heard i was a “tumblr queen” and that she didn’t remember who told her this and was like “what’s your tumblr?” and i was like “i really don’t know if you should look at my tumblr” and told her the story about my dad (which i also told my therapist, who rolled her eyes and said “it’s good that you told him not read it”). we discussed “poached theory,” which is really the greatest term.
there was a moment of “it’s about the personal, but not the personal”—she is a for real deleuzian (with an exciting freudian streak)—and we both agreed that we disagree with the panic espoused by jodi dean (among others). losing control is the lure and that’s good.
she also said she has decided to stop feeling cold because she is interested in technology and i said “tumblr is warm” and she rubbed her arms and agreed.
then we sort of congratulated ourselves on being where everything is going, and she added, offhandedly, “you’re not going to get tenure from it or anything, but.”
but some guy who works at morgan stanley asked me out so maybe i can just marry rich. this rich person will just have to generously overlook the vaguely-informed poached marxism all over my tumblr, also my man-hating, but pretty much anyone is going to have to overlook that anyway. or like it.
related: look at how beautiful una chung’s website is. “machines: a critique of new media.” “gilles deleuze and the composition of living.” “technological imaginaries: aesthetics and politics of science fiction.” it’s so dreamy.