James
@jamesdraney.bsky.social
VAP in the Writing Program at Haverford College. Working on a book about the novel, interiority, and big data. https://tinyurl.com/yc6jdn9z
The big Other doesn't exi--
October 26, 2025 at 2:29 PM
The big Other doesn't exi--
Throwing this unsung classic into the canon of '90s films about Just Hanging Out
October 25, 2025 at 9:31 PM
Throwing this unsung classic into the canon of '90s films about Just Hanging Out
The 1990s were fun because every movie was about a prolonged postcollegiate Hang Out with your aimless friends
October 13, 2025 at 4:12 PM
The 1990s were fun because every movie was about a prolonged postcollegiate Hang Out with your aimless friends
even the signage is suffering from imposter syndrome
September 25, 2025 at 4:35 PM
even the signage is suffering from imposter syndrome
Earl Hines Plays Duke Ellington - 4-record set by Book-Of-The-Month Records. Recorded right before Ellington's death in the early '70s. There's an air of nostalgia in Hines's playing. One master honoring another.
September 14, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Earl Hines Plays Duke Ellington - 4-record set by Book-Of-The-Month Records. Recorded right before Ellington's death in the early '70s. There's an air of nostalgia in Hines's playing. One master honoring another.
Jonathan Crary, from Scorched Earth
September 11, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Jonathan Crary, from Scorched Earth
From William James's Principles of Psychology
September 5, 2025 at 8:55 PM
From William James's Principles of Psychology
Me: mom can we stop and get some classical music to relax/study to
Mom: we have classical music to relax/study to at home
What's at home:
Mom: we have classical music to relax/study to at home
What's at home:
September 5, 2025 at 12:21 AM
Me: mom can we stop and get some classical music to relax/study to
Mom: we have classical music to relax/study to at home
What's at home:
Mom: we have classical music to relax/study to at home
What's at home:
The lost poetics of TV static, 1982-2002 (The Ring, Videodrome, The Seventh Continent, Poltergeist)
August 24, 2025 at 7:20 PM
The lost poetics of TV static, 1982-2002 (The Ring, Videodrome, The Seventh Continent, Poltergeist)
Not a cell phone in sight. Just a nice walk on the beach. No podcasts, no FaceTime. Just thinking some thoughts and living in the moment.
August 7, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Not a cell phone in sight. Just a nice walk on the beach. No podcasts, no FaceTime. Just thinking some thoughts and living in the moment.
One significant yet unsung casualty of AI image generators: this kind of bright/clunky handmade Word Art sign.
August 5, 2025 at 6:45 PM
One significant yet unsung casualty of AI image generators: this kind of bright/clunky handmade Word Art sign.
You: discursive formations embedded in cultural products regulate the field of the sayable and thinkable, conditioning and even constituting social imaginaries
Me: yeah man Deep Impact (1998) really messed with my expectations about what tsunamis look like
Me: yeah man Deep Impact (1998) really messed with my expectations about what tsunamis look like
July 30, 2025 at 5:17 PM
You: discursive formations embedded in cultural products regulate the field of the sayable and thinkable, conditioning and even constituting social imaginaries
Me: yeah man Deep Impact (1998) really messed with my expectations about what tsunamis look like
Me: yeah man Deep Impact (1998) really messed with my expectations about what tsunamis look like
Tolstoy on the causes of war: "Man lives consciously for himself, but serves as an unconscious instrument for the achievement of historical, universally human goals... History, that is, the unconscious, swarmlike life of mankind, uses every moment of a king's life as an instrument for its purposes"
June 22, 2025 at 7:08 AM
Tolstoy on the causes of war: "Man lives consciously for himself, but serves as an unconscious instrument for the achievement of historical, universally human goals... History, that is, the unconscious, swarmlike life of mankind, uses every moment of a king's life as an instrument for its purposes"
"Max Beckmann's paining 'Death' is a beacon for endangered souls. It accepts the existence of a compromised society and yet does not rule out all meaning or value nor pretend these compromises should be ignored. It marks a spot where optimism is kept in check and nihilism is kept at bay" - Kentridge
June 8, 2025 at 12:40 PM
"Max Beckmann's paining 'Death' is a beacon for endangered souls. It accepts the existence of a compromised society and yet does not rule out all meaning or value nor pretend these compromises should be ignored. It marks a spot where optimism is kept in check and nihilism is kept at bay" - Kentridge
Tolstoy on individuals' "passions, regrets, humiliations, sufferings, bursts of pride, fear, rapture" as mere components in the "slow movement of the world-historical hand on the clockface of human history."
June 6, 2025 at 10:10 AM
Tolstoy on individuals' "passions, regrets, humiliations, sufferings, bursts of pride, fear, rapture" as mere components in the "slow movement of the world-historical hand on the clockface of human history."
Looking forward to participating in the "Large Language Models and Literature" ALCA panel organized by @aaronrhanlon.com and @ninabegus.bsky.social. May 30-31. 10.30 am - 12.15 pm Central Time.
May 29, 2025 at 9:27 AM
Looking forward to participating in the "Large Language Models and Literature" ALCA panel organized by @aaronrhanlon.com and @ninabegus.bsky.social. May 30-31. 10.30 am - 12.15 pm Central Time.
Nice to be back in a Blue State
May 26, 2025 at 5:34 PM
Nice to be back in a Blue State
Richard Powers on the English Dept. in the age of AI (From Galatea 2.2)
May 23, 2025 at 3:51 PM
Richard Powers on the English Dept. in the age of AI (From Galatea 2.2)
Kenner on the modernist novel as finite, enclosed lexical space. "It was [Flaubert] who defined the element of the novel as not the event but the word; just as it was Mallarmé who said that poems were made of words, not ideas." From "Art in a Closed Field"
May 16, 2025 at 4:16 PM
Kenner on the modernist novel as finite, enclosed lexical space. "It was [Flaubert] who defined the element of the novel as not the event but the word; just as it was Mallarmé who said that poems were made of words, not ideas." From "Art in a Closed Field"
From H.S. Thompson's "Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72" (Straight Arrow Books, 1973). Image by Tom W. Benton.
May 15, 2025 at 4:45 PM
From H.S. Thompson's "Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72" (Straight Arrow Books, 1973). Image by Tom W. Benton.
Cronenberg on media theory as eschatology
May 9, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Cronenberg on media theory as eschatology