Summer Reading List

Over on Rough Theory, N. Pepperrell and I have been wallowing in our guilt over not being well-read enough (is anyone in academia ever satisfied by how much they know?).  Anyway, now seems like an opportune time to share my summer reading list.  These are the books I hope to read after I finish my thesis.  I know, I’m guilty of counting chickens before they’ve hatched, but I think it’s good to be optimisitic about the future.  I don’t list novels because I tend to consume them at a really high pace and I pretty much just read whatever catches my eye when I’m at the library, the bookstore, or spy something lying around the house.  Anyway, the books I want to read:

  1. Southeast Asia Over Three Generations: Essays Presented to Benedict R. O’G. Anderson.  I just bought this a couple of weeks ago and I’ll probably just skim it.
  2. Cultural Citizenship in Island Southeast Asia by Renato Rosaldo.  This one I bought a couple of months ago and I’ve also yet to read it.  I’ll probably just skim it too.
  3. Friction by Anna Tsing.  Something I got for myself Christmas 2005 which I actually have cracked open, but I’ve never really, you know, read it per se (more like randomly flipped through and lingered on occasional interesting bits).
  4. Europe and the People Without History by Eric Wolf.  Again, I’ve flipped through it, I’ve gotten the gist of it, but damned if I’ve ever actually read it through.  Another book from 2005.
  5. The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity by Jurgen Habermass.  I’ve actually read the introduction but not much else beyond that.  It’s yet another two year old book that I still haven’t gotten around to reading.  Damn you, graduate school!  Why can I never have the time to read all these books?  Confession: Sometimes I’m tempted to shelve it beside Madness and Civilization just to see what will happen.
  6. A Thousand Plateaus by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari.  I keep reading about this book in various articles and such so I figured I might as well see what it actually says.  One book review I read says that it builds upon the dynamic duo’s previous work, so does that mean I’ll have to read their other books before I get to this one?  I know I’ll probably have to read Capitalism and Schizophrenia at the very least.  I wonder, is that enough of a grounding to not feel lost?  I admit, I want to read D&G partly because the anime Ghost in the Shell: The Stand Alone Complex is apparently written by Deleuzians.  In one episode, a sentient robotic tank is seen reading a copy of Anti-Oedipus.  I’d really like to watch this series and get the Deleuzian references.

You know what?  This is more of a 2007 reading list, in which case I should have written this list in January.  The summer can’t be long enough for me to read all these meaty books.  Oh well, yet another reason for me to finish my thesis soon.

My life is an article from The Onion

Heroic Computer Dies To Save World From Master’s Thesis

WALTHAM, MA—A courageous young notebook computer committed a fatal, self-inflicted execution error late Sunday night, selflessly giving its own life so that professors, academic advisors, classmates, and even future generations of college students would never have to read Jill Samoskevich’s 227-page master’s thesis, sources close to the Brandeis University English graduate student reported Monday.

For it so falls out that what we have we prize not the worth whiles we enjoy it, but being lack’d and lost, why, then we rack the value, then we find the virtue that possession would not show us while it was ours.  (Tatewaki Kuno, age 17) Continue reading “My life is an article from The Onion”

In case anyone was interested

Here is the abstract of the paper I will present at the CASCA/AES conference at the University of Toronto in twenty-three hours and seventeen minutes:

The World Wide Diasporic Web: Blogging and its Role in the Experience of Transnationalism Among Filipinos Online

Transnationalism is the condition of being socially present in more than one country, while transnational migrants are those people whose everyday lives simultaneously unfold across borders.  But what is the role of the Internet–that so-called borderless space–in the experience of transnationalism among diasporic people?  Specifically, how is transnationalism experienced by Filipinos in global diaspora in the context of the new medium of weblogs, also known as blogs?  And is there such a thing as a transnational imagined community of Filipino bloggers?

I’m in the first day (yay!) of the second session (boo!) in the last slot (double boo!) before lunch (where’s my gun?).  It’s possible I’ll collapse from protein deprivation before my turn comes up.  But seriously, I need protein so bad I occasionally get headaches if I don’t get some on schedule.  Maybe I should smuggle in a burger to eat in between sessions?  Or perhaps I can bring a tub of popcorn to eat while I listen to the other presenters.

And guess what, the Comaroffs are giving the plenary talk.  Utter coolness.  Maybe I should ask them to sign my chest?  I hope my friend brings his digital recorder, I’m so totally getting a copy from him.  I wonder if I can post the recording for download or if there’s too much legal whatsit to consider.  I’ll have to ask.

Where’s Waldo?

After more than a month of silence, I return to this blog which once I updated so religiously.   Why have I been gone for so long?  Well, I have several reasons.

The first is that I was working on my thesis.  I swear, it’s like a turd that refuses to come out.  I strain and strain, but it resists my valiant efforts.  I think I used to write effortlessly, but I wonder if I manufactured those memories out of the haze of nostalgia.

The second reason is that I was working on a paper that I’m going to present at the annual conference of the Canadian Anthropology Society/Société Canadienne d’Anthropologie (CASCA) in–damn, it’s only three days away.  Where did the time go?  Not to worry, the paper’s finished.  It uses data from my thesis research but it’s not just a distillation of that project, its focus is slightly different.  I’ve titled it “The World Wide Diasporic Web: Blogging and its Role in the Experience of Transnationalism Among Filipinos Online”.  It’s about my search for Benedict Anderson’s imagined community among Filipino bloggers, which would mean that community would have to be transnational.  It’s also about governmentality and the presence of the state online, though I never actually use the g-word.  Anyway, I’ll put up the paper after CASCA.  If I decide to bring my laptop, I may do some live conference blogging, though it’s possible I’ll be too busy anyway.  Man, last year’s conference was fun.

The third reason is that I’m applying to do an overseas development internship in the Philippines under the auspices of the Canadian International Development Agency.  I don’t plan to do anything but paid internships since I certainly can’t afford six or more months of no steady cash flow.  Anyway, I’ve been researching different organizations and reading some stuff about development (so far it’s just one book by Colin Leys, one of the big theorists on the subject–signed by him, I might add).  Applied and development anthropology have always been one of my interests and I’ve got a few ideas about how they might be accomplished in this context, but I still need direct experience in development efforts.  Not to worry, I’m also planning to read plenty of critique of development stuff and have skimmed James Ferguson’s The Anti-Development Machine before.  I admit, I also want to visit the Philippines again and have someone else pay for the plane ticket, but I honestly am interested in this other stuff.

And the final reason I haven’t been updating this blog is because my brother just bought Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.  It’s a video game set in the early 1990s in a fictional city clearly meant to be Los Angeles.  Actually, it’s about the general West Coast experience and has analogues for San Francisco, San Diego, and Las Vegas, as well as ample representation of the hick towns just outside LA.  It’s really quite good, though I preferred the previous game set in Miami in the 1980s.  The music was certainly catchier, this one is mostly rap and hip hop.  It’s odd that there’s no grunge but I guess that’s too far north in Seattle.  I could quite easily analyze this game for the racial politics behind it–the main character is a black gangbanger from Compton (“Ganton”) who the player directs to commit multiple violent crimes and often to kill white police officers in LAPD uniforms; it takes place in the same period as the Rodney King beatings, the OJ Simpson trial, and the LA riots; and let’s not forget that most of the game’s players are white and middle class.  I could analyze all this but I almost always play the game to decompress and have managed to will away my higher faculties during playtime.  The more intensely I work, the more intensely I procrastinate, and there’s something somehow cathartic about killing cops over and over.  It sometimes feels like I’m just doing my thesis on the PS2, especially since there is an endless supply of cops and they just keep coming over and over until I eventually get killed by a SWAT team or someting.  I’ve yet to accomplish it, but if you make yourself enough of a menace the cops will call in the army to bring in their tanks, and since you can hijack almost any vehicle in the game (it’s called Grand Theft Auto, after all), then it’s sweet freaking rampage time pour moi.  I can’t wait until I get a tank.  Perhaps Zizek and Plato were right, there are only two kinds of people in the world, those who kill and torture and those who dream of doing so.

So that’s what I’ve been up to.  I’ve got several drafts of posts already lined up, so I’ll have a bunch of posts up soonish (I might wait until after CASCA to put them up).  Actually, one of them is titled “Why anthropologists are a bunch of wankers”, which I wrote when I was in the middle of my thesis-loathing period.  It’s actually got some serious analysis in there and I may still put it up sometime.  But, until next time, dear reader.

I opened my big mouth again

Me to my supervisor: I should have most of a full draft to give to you by the end of March.

Me to myself 5 minutes after sending the email: Eeeeaaaagghh!!

But there’s two weeks!  That’s not so bad, right?  I would have killed for two weeks when I was writing my proposal.  I’m sure I have more finished than I think.  I’ve been keeping my writing in separate files because I’m incapable of seeing my thesis all at once, for fear that the hideous sight will turn me to stone.

Well, nothing for it but to do it.  See you all in April.

Wanted: Sugar Daddy (inquire for details)

After reading this post, I have come to the realization that I would make a totally kickass housewife.  I already spend most of my days indoors in a state of living death, constantly thinking about my next meal.  With a working man to support me, I could live the life of luxury I’ve always wanted.  Let me outline my qualifications for the position of Stepford Wife:

First, I’m very demure and soft-spoken in person.  Why, it takes me months before I feel comfortable enough with new acquaintances to start calling them by their first names.  I remember once in Home Economics in high school I had scalding hot jam accidentally poured over my fingers.  It must have taken me a good 20 or 30 seconds  before I started screaming “FUCK FUCK FUCK!!” at the top of my lungs (actually, it was more like “FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!”).  Clearly, my self-control is inhuman.  Who else but the perfect hausfrau could push down their emotions so well?

I’m also quite vain and would almost definitely start shaving everyday again if I had a caveman to appease.  Ever woken up in the morning, taken a look at yourself in the mirror and said, “Holy god, I’m good looking”?  I have.  I also enjoy getting and putting on new clothes, so I’ll fit in with the other housewives at the beauty salon.  And guess what?  I have a relatively fast metabolism, so I can eat until I’m stuffed and still not look fat.  Freshman fifteen?  Pshaw!  I actually lost ten pounds my freshman year, none of it from dieting.

Furthermore, I’m experienced at doing household stuff like ironing and cleaning.  I went to a Catholic high school and used to iron my dress shirts and uniform pants myself, you know.  And cleaning?  Why, as long as there’s something on tv for the next couple of hours I don’t mind washing, drying, and folding the laundry.  I’m equally-versed in dishwasher use and in washing dishes in the sink, and I will almost never mistakenly use the toilet bowl to wash stuff in.  And speaking of the bathroom, I can get one clean lickety-split.  As for the kitchen, I’m a compulsive neat freak, so I’ll almost always keep the stove clean.

Finally, I think I make a decent cook.  I have a reasonably-sized repertoire of dishes I’m comfortable at making and which I’m constantly adding to.  None of it is typical white North American fare, either, and hardly any of it is to be found in restaurants.  Meatloaf?  I don’t even know how to make that.  I admit, I don’t know how to bake, but I’m thinking of learning how to do that soon, and I’m confident I’ll have no trouble in my education at all.

So you see, as long as I’m kept in bon-bons and tv series dvds, I will never leave your side.  You won’t have to worry again about being alone in the cruel world (unless you lose your job).  Also, I will totally let you borrow my porn if you get horny.  I ask you, reader, is this not wedded bliss?  What more could a man ask for?  What more?

PS

Sugar mamas are also acceptable.

How to be a modern Major General (Part I)

For someone writing his thesis for a Master’s in social anthropology, I don’t actually have as many anthropological readings in my references as you’d expect.  Look at all the disciplines represented in the books on my bookshelf:

  • Sociology.  This is partly because my department is a combined sociology and social anthropology department, which I rather like since I’m exposed to stuff I normally wouldn’t be.  Quite a lot of my migration readings were authored by sociologists, as in, for example, Stephen Castles and Mark Miller’s The Age of Migration (2003), which I’m using quite a lot.  However, the subdiscipline of migration studies is equally indebted to anthropology thanks to anthropologists’ work with diasporic populations.
  • Women’s studies/Gender studies.  I actually don’t have too many works from this discipline, but the fact that my supervisor is a Neomarxist feminist and the fact that I’m also quite partial to Women’s Studies means that such works inevitably are included in my reading list.  And, of course, the particular way migration from the Philippines is gendered also enters into why I’m reading Women’s Studies stuff, since maids and female nurses form a majority of the Philippines’ exported labour (and not to mention the mail-order brides).  So, que sorpresa, I have on my bookshelf Working Feminism (2004) by Geraldine Pratt, a Neomarxist examination of the context in which female Filipino migrants work in British Columbia.
  • Sociolinguistics and anthropological linguistics.  I’ve got this because I explicitly examine how language enters into the expression of identity.  Sociolinguistics is actually a rather marginal field of study in linguistics proper, as is also anthropological linguistics in anthropology.  Still, the intersection of politics and language interests me, so I’ve been digging into readings like Codeswitching: Anthropological and Sociolinguistic Perspectives (1988).  It’s kind of nice to be participating in the project of keeping anthropology holistic (or inventing it to be so), but more on this issue in a later post.
  • History.  This discipline should pretty much be on almost any reading list, since it’s hard to imagine a subject in social science research that doesn’t deal with history on some level.  In my case, I’m mostly dealing with the history of US colonialism in the Philippines and the history of international migration.  The most heavily historical text I’m reading right now is The American Colonial State in the Philippines: Global Perspectives (2003).  I’d forgotten how annoying footnotes can be when there isn’t a bibliography in the back of the book and you’re only looking for one specific reference, but ah well.
  • Area Studies, more specifically, Southeast Asian Studies.  I’ve only got a handful of readings from this (semi-?)discipline, but they’re all really useful in situating the Philippines within its regional context.  However, my foremost text from Southeast Asian Studies, Imagined Communities (1991), is such a classic examination of nationalism that I would still be using it if I were, for example, studying Trinidadians instead.  And let’s not forget that Anderson’s theory of print capitalism has implications for how community is manufactured online as well.
  • Internet Studies.  I don’t know if that’s even an actual name for the discipline, so new is it, and in fact I’m not sure if it’s even considered a discipline yet.  This (ahem) thingy can also be called Sociology of the Internet, but that’s kind of a misnomer since economists, anthropologists, psychologists, and people trained in other disciplinary backgrounds also contribute to the literature about the social context of the Internet, as well as reading and discussing each other’s work.  Perhaps this might all be called a sub-discipline of Media Studies, though I think situating the social study of the Internet under such immediately closes certain fruitful lines of research, or at least makes such investigation less likely to occur.  But whatever discipline it’s filed under, Lisa Nakamura’s Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet (2002) is very prominent in my thesis write-up.
  • Cultural studies.  Boy howdy, I definitely draw from this discipline.  Stuart Hall’s work on identity is central to my thesis.  Questions of Cultural Identity (1996) is the number 1 book in my reading list, especially the Introduction written by Hall.

Now that I’ve listed everything so forthrightly, I would have to say that the majority of my readings aren’t from anthropology at all.  I don’t feel like doing it right now, but stay tuned and I will perform one of the rituals people in anthropology regularly engage in: the reflexive dance of disciplinary disciplining.

Today’s paragraph

It is important not to succumb to the “giddy presentism” inherent in many studies of globalization, but instead keep in mind that what can be called “globalization” has occurred in other historical moments (Graeber, 2002). However, one must also note that the expansion of global connection in the modern era often coincides with the expansion of imperial domination by new and already-existing empires. The last period of heightened global interconnection, the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, when massive numbers of people and goods crossed borders, was also the period of “high imperialism”, when the great powers such as England and France seized new colonies and when new powers such as Japan and Italy entered the race for colonies (Go, 2003, p. 17).

Go, J. (2003). Introduction: Global Perspectives on the U.S. Colonial State in the Philippines. In J. Go & A. L. Foster (Eds.), The American Colonial State in the Philippines: Global Perspectives (pp. 1-42). Durham NC: Duke University Press.

Graeber, D. (2002). The Anthropology of Globalization (with Notes on Neomedievalism, and the End of the Chinese Model of the Nation-State). American Anthropologist, 104(4), 1222-1227.

I just need to write 2000 more of these and I’ll be done.

I fear to look, yet I cannot turn away

This is just one massive train wreck of a  theory-bashing post:

Dear academics,
Have you ever ran across something academic (paper, book, lecture) that you thought was complete and utter bullshit? And yes you can include postmodernism 🙂

Why did it have to happen when I was offline?  Now it’s too late to join in the snarking.  And look at this:

I personally have found that “theory” usually is shorthand for “jargon-laden writing,” and that “jargon” is quite often shorthand for “words I don’t know and can’t be bothered to look up.”

BURN!  That’s gotta hurt.  And what about this exchange?

M: People hate what they don’t understand [i.e., postmodernism].

S: Hold on. Hate what they don’t understand? I understand completely, and I think it’s bullshit.

R: You completely understand postmodernism? . . . Alright, I’m done now.

G: Oh please god explain it to me.  I think I might have an orgasm.

Really, it’s easy to forget that there are people out there who think theory is bunk when one’s bookcase is in danger of collapsing from the weight of the cultural studies books stored there.  But then some undergrad comes along shooting their mouth off and wackiness ensues.

Great bumper sticker quotes

[They] are prevented by diversity of language from conveying their sentiments to one another, so that a man would more readily converse with his dog than with a foreigner.  But the Imperial City has endeavored to impose upon subject nations not only her yoke, but her language, as a bond of peace . . . but how many great wars, how much slaughter and bloodshed have provided this unity?

St. Augustine, The City of God (c. 413 AD)