Hurricane

No, this is not a metaphor for scholarly writing. It happens that I am stuck in Spain another week because United Airlines cannot get me back, because of the effects of Hurricane Sandy on the Newark Airport. I was supposed to travel today. I already accomplished what I need to here, so I need to readjust and figure out what I should be doing. I guess there are worse places to be stuck, like in Newark itself.

Botany

I have made fun of botanical approaches to Lorca, but, really, botany is my main weakness as a reader of poetry. Espadañas and bulrushes are equally opaque to me. When I am reading a poem in Spanish, the only words I have to look up are names of plants or birds. Sometimes architectural or gastronomical terms.

Urinal

There was a urinal in Spain that promised I would save 6 liters of water if I used it. So I pissed in it twice in a row and saved 12.

More Spain Splain

An elderly Spanish professor (from Spain) (elderly then and now even more so) asked me in a campus visit why I didn't work on Brines instead of Claudio Rodríguez.

I was told by a cretinous guy from Spain that "García Lorca" was invented by American Hispanists.

Spain-Splain

As a North American scholar of Spanish literature, I have been often "Spainsplained." This is when a Spaniard explains things to me that I am an expert in, or offers up a cliché I have often heard as though I had never heard THAT one before, or is generally condescending. I have to say it doesn't happen as much as it used to, but it is noticeable when it does. It's least objectionable form happens when I am told: "You are not like those other American Spanish professors who come here and don't know anything." Or "Your Spanish is very good." The worst was when I was told: "Oh yes, you probably wrote one of those worthless dissertations people write just to get the degree..." In the middle is when people tell me "Lorca is a folkloric poet." !!!@%@#% I guess the equivalent in the US is when people ask me if I REALLY speak Spanish, if I have to know the language well to have the job I do (yes, in fact) or say "gee, you must like to read." [Blogging from Spain]

Against Digital Humanities

Finally.

http://mansplained.tumblr.com/

Academic men explain...