“I think that, as our society changes, at the very moment when it is in the process of changing, the author-function will disappear, and in such a manner that fiction and its polysemic texts will once again function according to another mode, but still with a system of constraint—one which will no longer be the …
Author Archives: ivan@ivantohelpyou.com
Introduction to Theory of Literature, Part 1
Lecture 2 Foucault, Barthes, and the death of the author. I am a writer (for hire) of commercial texts. An author of discourses subject to ownership. Am I alive? [Two weeks later.] Lecture 3 Complicated stuff, glad to have a guide. Envisioning a multimedia accompaniment to the ideas of hermeneutic circles and other hard-to-grasp philosophical …
Continue reading “Introduction to Theory of Literature, Part 1”
One to Many
Peter Thiel famously asks in interviews: “What important truth do very few people agree with you on?” The question asks for a belief going against overwhelming popular consensus – for example, Galileo’s support for the Copernican heliocentric universe. How do you answer if you’re not Galileo? An unscientific response to the question would take the …
Elephants in the Room
Now that I’m blogging, I need to publish more often. This poses more than a few challenges. First, I have a certain writing style. I’m picky about my word choices – for example, I would never let “poses more than a few challenges” make it through the ordinary filter. “Ordinary filter,” that’s out too. Cliché, …
My Yale Years
As a high school senior in 1987, I wanted to go to Yale but didn’t have the grades or perfect SATs or the right extracurricular activities or a good application essay or a chance in hell. What I did have was the belief that I belonged with the elite. My belief wasn’t entirely unjustified, as …
Track Changes
A man killed eighteen schoolchildren and a teacher. A man killed nineteen schoolchildren and two teachers. A man murdered nineteen schoolchildren and two teachers. A man of recruitment age murdered nineteen schoolchildren and two teachers. A man of recruitment age used a military weapon to murder nineteen schoolchildren and two teachers. A man of recruitment …
Notes on Still-Life Painting
I took comprehensive notes throughout the 2020-2021 academic year as a student in the Faigin Still-Life Painting Atelier at Gage Academy of Art. You can read edited versions of those notes here.
Selected student works
A selection of paintings created for the 2020-2021 Faigin Still-Life Atelier at Gage Academy of Art.