Dan Walden
@dwaldenwrites.bsky.social
Philologist, critic, insufferable theatre queen. Assistant Prof. at the University of Tulsa
Reposted by Dan Walden
Just so you know, this is what 13-10 felt like.
November 5, 2025 at 3:06 AM
Just so you know, this is what 13-10 felt like.
Reposted by Dan Walden
The Wolvere was a stout carl for the nones;
Ful thyc he was with adamantine bones.
“The best ther is, bubb,” he wuld oft advyse,
“Bot that I do, hit ys nout verry nyce.”
Ful thyc he was with adamantine bones.
“The best ther is, bubb,” he wuld oft advyse,
“Bot that I do, hit ys nout verry nyce.”
adrian vermeule's research program insists that the constitution is a blueprint for a catholic theocracy, which is the legal academic version of a tenured english professor whose entire research program is insisting that the x-men are in canterbury tales
August 12, 2025 at 6:56 PM
The Wolvere was a stout carl for the nones;
Ful thyc he was with adamantine bones.
“The best ther is, bubb,” he wuld oft advyse,
“Bot that I do, hit ys nout verry nyce.”
Ful thyc he was with adamantine bones.
“The best ther is, bubb,” he wuld oft advyse,
“Bot that I do, hit ys nout verry nyce.”
Reposted by Dan Walden
there are people who suffered permanent brain damage from reading Wonkette in 2012
This might be the best paragraph ever written in human history.
From @chuckwendig.bsky.social’s Gentle Writing Advice.
From @chuckwendig.bsky.social’s Gentle Writing Advice.
January 17, 2025 at 8:24 PM
there are people who suffered permanent brain damage from reading Wonkette in 2012
Reposted by Dan Walden
It’s because a lot of liberals are homophobic. Their “support” of gay and trans people is theoretical / transactional and subject to change at any time
Seriously why are so many liberal memes homophobic. Like saying Trump or zuck is secretly gay isn’t helping anyone?
January 15, 2025 at 7:14 PM
It’s because a lot of liberals are homophobic. Their “support” of gay and trans people is theoretical / transactional and subject to change at any time
incisive, funny, and much-needed. callas could not have become spectacle were she not, first and foremost, a consummate and dedicated artist. i wish directors were interested in her artistry, but unfortunately they probably don't like how she shows them up
I saw the movie Maria, and I, uh, didn’t love it. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/ja...
Ben Miller | Undoing Maria Callas
Callas has not been represented well by others, on stage or screen. Terrence McNally’s trashy play Master Class is...
www.lrb.co.uk
January 14, 2025 at 6:12 PM
incisive, funny, and much-needed. callas could not have become spectacle were she not, first and foremost, a consummate and dedicated artist. i wish directors were interested in her artistry, but unfortunately they probably don't like how she shows them up
Reposted by Dan Walden
Will be worth making some time today or this weekend to read @dwaldenwrites.bsky.social's lovely review of David Bentley Hart's big book on mind, All Things Are Full of Gods. www.thebulwark.com/p/god-talk-d...
God Talk
David Bentley Hart’s exploration of our deepest and oldest questions rehabilitates a form that modern thinkers typically avoid: the philosophical dialogue.
www.thebulwark.com
January 3, 2025 at 1:35 PM
Will be worth making some time today or this weekend to read @dwaldenwrites.bsky.social's lovely review of David Bentley Hart's big book on mind, All Things Are Full of Gods. www.thebulwark.com/p/god-talk-d...
yes, the miraculous is not part of the logic of history. by trying to make it such you foreclose the miraculous entirely and also abandon your ethical duties. god redeems and raises up failure, but failure means having actually really tried to do something
November 25, 2024 at 4:23 PM
yes, the miraculous is not part of the logic of history. by trying to make it such you foreclose the miraculous entirely and also abandon your ethical duties. god redeems and raises up failure, but failure means having actually really tried to do something
optimist: the cup is half full
pessimist: the cup is half empty
philologist: Νεστορος : ε[ιμ?]ι : ευποτ[ον] : ποτεριον :
ͱος δ'α<ν> τοδε π[ιε]σι : ποτερι[ο] : αυτικα κενον
ͱιμερ[ος ͱαιρ]εσει : καλλιστε[φα]νο : Αφροδιτες
pessimist: the cup is half empty
philologist: Νεστορος : ε[ιμ?]ι : ευποτ[ον] : ποτεριον :
ͱος δ'α<ν> τοδε π[ιε]σι : ποτερι[ο] : αυτικα κενον
ͱιμερ[ος ͱαιρ]εσει : καλλιστε[φα]νο : Αφροδιτες
Optimist: the cup is half full
Pessimist: the cup is half empty
Religion scholar: the cup represents liminality
Pessimist: the cup is half empty
Religion scholar: the cup represents liminality
Optimist: the cup is half full
Pessimist: the cup is half empty
Semanticists: is this a cup or a bowl or what
Pessimist: the cup is half empty
Semanticists: is this a cup or a bowl or what
November 23, 2024 at 7:20 PM
optimist: the cup is half full
pessimist: the cup is half empty
philologist: Νεστορος : ε[ιμ?]ι : ευποτ[ον] : ποτεριον :
ͱος δ'α<ν> τοδε π[ιε]σι : ποτερι[ο] : αυτικα κενον
ͱιμερ[ος ͱαιρ]εσει : καλλιστε[φα]νο : Αφροδιτες
pessimist: the cup is half empty
philologist: Νεστορος : ε[ιμ?]ι : ευποτ[ον] : ποτεριον :
ͱος δ'α<ν> τοδε π[ιε]σι : ποτερι[ο] : αυτικα κενον
ͱιμερ[ος ͱαιρ]εσει : καλλιστε[φα]νο : Αφροδιτες
actually a crime that jerry hadley never got to do West Side Story for real because holy shit he sings the best "Maria" i have ever heard www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_AA...
Jerry Hadley - Maria - West Side Story
YouTube video by Virginia Abrahamse
www.youtube.com
November 21, 2024 at 3:38 AM
actually a crime that jerry hadley never got to do West Side Story for real because holy shit he sings the best "Maria" i have ever heard www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_AA...
rereading mary wollstonecraft, the OG feminist killjoy, and remembering why she's so much fun. "hmm what if instead of relegating women to innocence and idiocy we allowed them to cultivate intelligence and actual virtue?"
November 19, 2024 at 5:32 PM
rereading mary wollstonecraft, the OG feminist killjoy, and remembering why she's so much fun. "hmm what if instead of relegating women to innocence and idiocy we allowed them to cultivate intelligence and actual virtue?"
one of the perils of teaching in a great books program is that you start designing syllabi around the question "how can i make my students as insane as possible?" but you have to come up with a professional-sounding reason as well
November 17, 2024 at 12:21 AM
one of the perils of teaching in a great books program is that you start designing syllabi around the question "how can i make my students as insane as possible?" but you have to come up with a professional-sounding reason as well
Reposted by Dan Walden
ERIC GARLAND AS NATHAN DETROIT IN “GUYS & DOLLS:” time for some dame theory
November 16, 2024 at 11:29 PM
ERIC GARLAND AS NATHAN DETROIT IN “GUYS & DOLLS:” time for some dame theory
Describe yourself using 5 things that are probably in your purse(or pockets)/backpack at any given moment:
1) novel
2) book i assigned to my students
3) airpods
4) latest book by a friend
5) writing tablet
1) novel
2) book i assigned to my students
3) airpods
4) latest book by a friend
5) writing tablet
Describe yourself using 5 things that are probably in your purse(or pockets)/backpack at any given moment:
1) AirPods
2) Metro Pass
3) Short Story collection (usually by Borges)
4) Novel (RN by Yuri Herrera)
5) Moleskine
1) AirPods
2) Metro Pass
3) Short Story collection (usually by Borges)
4) Novel (RN by Yuri Herrera)
5) Moleskine
Describe yourself using 5 things that are probably in your purse/backpack at any given moment:
1) Archival notebooks
2) Headphones
3) Nutella biscuits
4) Blaise Pascal
5) A bottle of Beaujolais
1) Archival notebooks
2) Headphones
3) Nutella biscuits
4) Blaise Pascal
5) A bottle of Beaujolais
November 14, 2024 at 5:50 PM
Describe yourself using 5 things that are probably in your purse(or pockets)/backpack at any given moment:
1) novel
2) book i assigned to my students
3) airpods
4) latest book by a friend
5) writing tablet
1) novel
2) book i assigned to my students
3) airpods
4) latest book by a friend
5) writing tablet
absolutely no feeling of refreshment quite like having slogged through a reading, barely keeping up with what i assigned to my students amid my other responsibilities, and then hearing a student say "this was my favorite reading of the term." fountain-of-youth-level stuff
November 14, 2024 at 5:28 PM
absolutely no feeling of refreshment quite like having slogged through a reading, barely keeping up with what i assigned to my students amid my other responsibilities, and then hearing a student say "this was my favorite reading of the term." fountain-of-youth-level stuff
Reposted by Dan Walden
please don't upend your curriculum this week in order to have your students be your free therapists
November 7, 2024 at 9:06 AM
please don't upend your curriculum this week in order to have your students be your free therapists
one of the stupidest things that we continue to do as a society is equate public disgrace with legal punishment. the fact that somebody shouldn’t be jailed or shot doesn’t mean they should keep their job or social position. social censure is not “carceral”
there’s a certain kind of pity for sinners that often masquerades as Christian or anti-carceral sentiment, and yet it only comes out for a certain kind of sinner and a certain kind of sin (men accused of bad behavior toward women/POC). funny how that works!
November 3, 2024 at 7:13 PM
one of the stupidest things that we continue to do as a society is equate public disgrace with legal punishment. the fact that somebody shouldn’t be jailed or shot doesn’t mean they should keep their job or social position. social censure is not “carceral”
gonna say this over and over: there is no such thing as an “AI checker.” they do not work. you are asking a machine to make a philological judgment, a thing it cannot do. you can read the essays yourself, devise better prompts, or do blue book essays. those are the choices
Kid has an English assignment, where school has kids first submit essay to an "AI checker." Kid did not use AI. AI checker says the use of the word "devoid" magically turned essay into 18% AI written. Changing "devoid" makes it drop to 0%. We're spending time "un-AI-ing" an essay that has no AI.
September 1, 2024 at 2:39 PM
gonna say this over and over: there is no such thing as an “AI checker.” they do not work. you are asking a machine to make a philological judgment, a thing it cannot do. you can read the essays yourself, devise better prompts, or do blue book essays. those are the choices
it's also very funny because you've got all these very dour and restrictive evangelical colleges and then St. Olaf, the shining mecca of midwestern choir gays where the (insanely good) choir enjoys the kind of budget normally reserved for revenue varsity sports
This Fox News list of "America's Top Christian Colleges and Universities" is fascinating for many reasons, but maybe especially for the fact that it erases Catholicism from Christianity. i.e., schools like Georgetown and Notre Dame aren't mentioned at all.
April 18, 2024 at 3:58 PM
it's also very funny because you've got all these very dour and restrictive evangelical colleges and then St. Olaf, the shining mecca of midwestern choir gays where the (insanely good) choir enjoys the kind of budget normally reserved for revenue varsity sports
the ever-evolving diet and training technologies of hollywood mean that basically nobody has a realistic idea of what eating at maintenance calories looks like. no athlete looks like a movie star because movie stars on set are literally not eating enough food to live
lmao if these people saw an actual 'Dad bod' they would claw their eyes out like Sam Neill at the end of 'Event Horizon'
March 28, 2024 at 10:08 PM
the ever-evolving diet and training technologies of hollywood mean that basically nobody has a realistic idea of what eating at maintenance calories looks like. no athlete looks like a movie star because movie stars on set are literally not eating enough food to live
Reposted by Dan Walden
Reposted by Dan Walden
The Myth of "Consensual" Sex
August 23, 2023 at 7:54 PM
The Myth of "Consensual" Sex
i promise to be exactly as annoying on here as i was on twitter, but you gotta give me time to work back up to it
August 9, 2023 at 1:25 AM
i promise to be exactly as annoying on here as i was on twitter, but you gotta give me time to work back up to it