David Blake
@dhblake.bsky.social
Teacher, literary critic, cultural historian. Proponent of big ears, discerning eyes, and clear expression.
Views are sometimes my own … and sometimes the views of others which are worth entertaining for a moment or two.
@TCNJ
Views are sometimes my own … and sometimes the views of others which are worth entertaining for a moment or two.
@TCNJ
How did we begin 2025 watching Dylan go electric and now we are preparing to end it watching Springsteen go folk? Oh yeah, and some other shit happened as well. #DeliverMeFromNowhere #Springsteen #ACompleteUnknown #Dylan
October 29, 2025 at 12:04 AM
How did we begin 2025 watching Dylan go electric and now we are preparing to end it watching Springsteen go folk? Oh yeah, and some other shit happened as well. #DeliverMeFromNowhere #Springsteen #ACompleteUnknown #Dylan
Good news for independent literary arts organizations. The guidelines are pretty strict, but this fund promises to open some doors for writers and readers alike!
Enormous news for US literature. A new, Mellon-led, $50 million fund for nonprofit literary orgs and publishers. Closest thing we've ever had to it was Mellon and Wallace in 1991, which, in today's dollars, was still less than half this. Open call begins Nov 10. literaryartsfund.org/about/
About | Literary Arts Fund
The Literary Arts Fund advances support for the nonprofit literary arts field toward ensuring creative writers’ contributions to American literature for generations to come.
literaryartsfund.org
October 28, 2025 at 7:33 PM
Good news for independent literary arts organizations. The guidelines are pretty strict, but this fund promises to open some doors for writers and readers alike!
Since 1979, Peter Balakian has been a crucially creative and moral voice in American letters. It is good to see The New York Review of Books shining a light on his achievement.
“The pathos of beauty is that there may be no one there to appreciate it, which makes it a victim, like us, of death’s cruelty.” —Ange Mlinko on the poems of Peter Balakian and Angie Estes
Questions of Compression | Ange Mlinko
T.S. Eliot prophesied it: “I will show you fear in a handful of dust.” In May 2005, when Peter Balakian visited the monument to the victims of the
buff.ly
October 7, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Since 1979, Peter Balakian has been a crucially creative and moral voice in American letters. It is good to see The New York Review of Books shining a light on his achievement.
Reposted by David Blake
Probably a good time to revisit Manufacturing Consent.
September 19, 2025 at 11:07 AM
Probably a good time to revisit Manufacturing Consent.
Sometimes the Jeremiad is the most suitable rhetorical form. #NoKings #Princeton
June 14, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Sometimes the Jeremiad is the most suitable rhetorical form. #NoKings #Princeton
Amid lots of solid contenders, Fintan O'Toole is the most insightful critic I have been reading about the 2nd Trump presidency. I've learned something vital in every paragraph of every article he's published In the New York Review of Books.
“In the neoliberal order, exploitation was the vice that dared not speak its name. In his economic discourse, Trump speaks no other language.” —Fintan O’Toole
Forced Amnesia | Fintan O’Toole
In Hillbilly Elegy, his best-selling 2016 memoir of “a family and a culture in crisis,” J.D. Vance, now vice-president of the United States, gives an
buff.ly
May 12, 2025 at 12:44 AM
Amid lots of solid contenders, Fintan O'Toole is the most insightful critic I have been reading about the 2nd Trump presidency. I've learned something vital in every paragraph of every article he's published In the New York Review of Books.
Looking forward to Saturday's conversation with these two amazing scholars! Here's the link for registration:
slu.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
@melville-society.bsky.social
slu.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
@melville-society.bsky.social
May 7, 2025 at 3:00 AM
Looking forward to Saturday's conversation with these two amazing scholars! Here's the link for registration:
slu.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
@melville-society.bsky.social
slu.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
@melville-society.bsky.social
A great piece that deserves a wide audience
My father used to say, “When fascism comes to America, they’ll call it Americanism.”
by Siri Hustvedt
writersforda.substack.com
May 1, 2025 at 1:44 PM
A great piece that deserves a wide audience
For all those consultants and university administrators who thought STEM was the only investment worth making
The ability to see connections between problems drawn from very different domains is a hallmark of human intelligence.
Analogy and the Roots of Creative Intelligence
Cognitive scientist and poet Keith Holyoak examines the essential role analogies play in our capacity for creativity and problem-solving.
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu
March 25, 2025 at 4:47 PM
For all those consultants and university administrators who thought STEM was the only investment worth making
Reposted by David Blake
Why is everything so, so dumb
The US military has removed photos of the B-29 bomber “Enola Gay” — which dropped the first atomic bomb on Japan — apparently because it contains the word “gay,” which violates their new anti-DEI rules.
War heroes and military firsts are among 26,000 images flagged for removal in Pentagon's DEI purge
References to a World War II Medal of Honor recipient, the Enola Gay aircraft that dropped an atomic bomb on Japan and women and minorites are among the tens of thousands of photos and online posts ma...
apnews.com
March 7, 2025 at 3:20 AM
Why is everything so, so dumb
My take on Ahab, Tump, and the United States of Aggrievement. Moby-Dick remains my most valuable news source! #MelvilleMonday
Moby-Dick and the United States of Aggrievement
Like the white whale itself, Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick (1851) seems ubiquitous across time. For nearly a century, readers have turned to Captain Ahab’s search for the whale that took his leg to unde...
blog.oup.com
March 3, 2025 at 12:50 PM
My take on Ahab, Tump, and the United States of Aggrievement. Moby-Dick remains my most valuable news source! #MelvilleMonday
Reposted by David Blake
Everything is janky as hell in March 2025, but one thing you can depend on: #ScholarSunday threads! Here’s my 214th of great public scholarly writing, podcast eps, new & forthcoming books from the last week. Add more below, share widely, & enjoy, all! 🗃️
americanstudier.substack.com/p/scholarsun...
americanstudier.substack.com/p/scholarsun...
#ScholarSunday Thread 214
Published on March 2, 2025
americanstudier.substack.com
March 2, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Everything is janky as hell in March 2025, but one thing you can depend on: #ScholarSunday threads! Here’s my 214th of great public scholarly writing, podcast eps, new & forthcoming books from the last week. Add more below, share widely, & enjoy, all! 🗃️
americanstudier.substack.com/p/scholarsun...
americanstudier.substack.com/p/scholarsun...
Reposted by David Blake
There is nothing crazy about this. This horrific video epitomizes the logic of current meme-fascism: it's a colonization of the imagination that precedes and aestheticizes real neo-imperialist violence, dressed up in the glossy looks of stock imagery, influencer content and online scamming
1/
1/
Complete batshit lunacy on the president's Truth Social account. Yes, he really posted this.
February 26, 2025 at 5:58 AM
There is nothing crazy about this. This horrific video epitomizes the logic of current meme-fascism: it's a colonization of the imagination that precedes and aestheticizes real neo-imperialist violence, dressed up in the glossy looks of stock imagery, influencer content and online scamming
1/
1/
Reposted by David Blake
The Brooklyn Public Library has announced that any teenager in America is now eligible for a Brooklyn Public Library card.
Teens can sign out ebooks + audiobooks
The move is designed to combat censorship, with some titles listed as "always available."
www.bklynlibrary.org/media/press/...
www.bklynlibrary.org/media/press/...
Brooklyn Public Library Offers Free eCards to Teens Nationwide Facing Book Bans in Local Communities | Brooklyn Public Library
Librarians and Teen Volunteers Spearhead Books Unbanned Initiative to Combat Censorship
www.bklynlibrary.org
February 25, 2025 at 6:19 AM
The Brooklyn Public Library has announced that any teenager in America is now eligible for a Brooklyn Public Library card.
Teens can sign out ebooks + audiobooks
The move is designed to combat censorship, with some titles listed as "always available."
www.bklynlibrary.org/media/press/...
www.bklynlibrary.org/media/press/...
Always a welcome compendium of the week's writing!
Live from my childhood home in Charlottesville, I’ve just shared my 213th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Share widely & enjoy, all! 🗃️
americanstudier.substack.com/p/scholarsun...
americanstudier.substack.com/p/scholarsun...
#ScholarSunday Thread 213
Published on February 23, 2025
americanstudier.substack.com
February 26, 2025 at 1:14 AM
Always a welcome compendium of the week's writing!
Wonderful. Hold my beer, hold my flip
Listening to, rather than reading, Moby Dick during the diagram and whale encyclopedia chapters is weirder than realizing every chapter has different "hold my beer" energy. This is not a book. It is 25 genres in a trenchcoat.
February 25, 2025 at 1:17 PM
Wonderful. Hold my beer, hold my flip
If you don't his work already, Fintan O'Toole is an insightful, necessary voice.
“Trump’s imperialist ambitions are in some respects familiar from US history,” writes Fintan O’Toole. “What is new, however, is the fusion of different apocalyptic visions, one religious, the other techno-utopian.”
From Comedy to Brutality | Fintan O’Toole
In the 2020 disaster movie Greenland, the hero John Garrity (played by Gerard Butler), his wife (Morena Baccarin), and their young son are in a truck
buff.ly
February 24, 2025 at 11:30 AM
If you don't his work already, Fintan O'Toole is an insightful, necessary voice.
The NYT has a lot wrong with it these days, but this article was thoughtful and enlightening www.nytimes.com/2025/01/31/o...
Opinion | Something Extraordinary Is Happening All Over the World
Migration is central to our politics and our world, but nobody really understands it.
www.nytimes.com
February 3, 2025 at 3:37 AM
The NYT has a lot wrong with it these days, but this article was thoughtful and enlightening www.nytimes.com/2025/01/31/o...
During the Obama administration, Jen Rubin's columns drove me crazy. During the DJT administration, I understood how principled she was. When I dreamed of winning the lottery (who doesn't?), I thought I'd fund a Jen Rubin Courage Award. I will definitely follow her on Substack during DJT2.
BIG NEWS. I have left the Post. Corporate and billionaire media are failing to meet the moment. With @normeisen.bsky.social I'm launching @contrariannews.bsky.social. We'll have politics but also cooking, humor, film and even pets. Please subscribe and join the fight. contrarian.substack.com
The Contrarian | Substack
Unflinching journalism in defense of democracy. Click to read The Contrarian, a Substack publication. Launched 13 hours ago.
contrarian.substack.com
January 13, 2025 at 8:41 PM
During the Obama administration, Jen Rubin's columns drove me crazy. During the DJT administration, I understood how principled she was. When I dreamed of winning the lottery (who doesn't?), I thought I'd fund a Jen Rubin Courage Award. I will definitely follow her on Substack during DJT2.
Paging Diogenes ... I think we've finally found an honest man
incredible -- the NYT ran fluff "what i hope to see in 2025" blurbs from CEOs and economists, and then this guy
www.nytimes.com/2025/01/02/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/01/02/o...
January 5, 2025 at 4:45 AM
Paging Diogenes ... I think we've finally found an honest man
Just wait: Trump will now nominate him to be ambassador to Thailand
December 23, 2024 at 5:50 PM
Just wait: Trump will now nominate him to be ambassador to Thailand
174 years ago, Herman Melville wrote the following remarkable sentence in his study in Pittsfield, MA:
December 16, 2024 at 6:15 PM
174 years ago, Herman Melville wrote the following remarkable sentence in his study in Pittsfield, MA:
One of the best books on Melville ever. I am so glad to see it will be published in a new edition (I've got two previous editions myself) and am especially interested in the new introduction. We need a new James, and a new Melville, for our times!
Honestly once you learn to read the world through Moby-Dick, it takes over your brain
I get why my grandpa wrote a whole book about it while he was incarcerated
press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
I get why my grandpa wrote a whole book about it while he was incarcerated
press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
Mariners, Renegades and Castaways
A new edition of a major work of literary and cultural criticism restores C. L. R. James’s reflections about Moby Dick and political persecution. Political theorist and cultural critic, novelist, a...
press.uchicago.edu
November 27, 2024 at 5:25 PM
One of the best books on Melville ever. I am so glad to see it will be published in a new edition (I've got two previous editions myself) and am especially interested in the new introduction. We need a new James, and a new Melville, for our times!
An important interview in this notably humane book. There is a quiet, sobering beauty to the interviews and photographs in Job/Security. Many thanks to Goodwin and Schwarzschild for their work.
"You’re looking at people who are in an extremely precarious situation. The people who are being smuggled, the people who are crossing the border — they’re a lot of times being taken advantage of or victimized — their bodies are being commodified every step of the way."
On Joining and Leaving the Border Patrol
Author Francisco Cantú offers a poignant firsthand account of life along the U.S.-Mexico border.
buff.ly
November 27, 2024 at 5:23 PM
An important interview in this notably humane book. There is a quiet, sobering beauty to the interviews and photographs in Job/Security. Many thanks to Goodwin and Schwarzschild for their work.