Category Archives: Robert’s posts

J. Hillis Miller

Posted on February 14, 2021 by Robert Basil

Professor Miller was a genial man whose ardent advocacy of the “deconstruction” movement in literary and cultural criticism was notable for his uncommonly graceful prose style. His early book “Poets of Reality” was a revelation to me my first year … Continue reading →

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You got to dance with who brung you

Posted on February 2, 2021 by Robert Basil

A year or two ago a colleague who teaches business classes at my university suggested allowing students – whose term projects focused on opportunities in nations where English was not the predominant tongue – prepare their final reports/portfolios/presentations in Cantonese, … Continue reading →

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The mess of thinking

Posted on January 18, 2021 by Robert Basil

Inaccurate interpretations of a particular data-point can nonetheless provide metaphors that describe a lot.

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Picturing the news

Posted on December 30, 2020 by Robert Basil

Peter Maass of The Intercept asks a really good question: “Why have Americans seen relatively little imagery of people suffering from Covid-19? While there is a long-running debate over the influence of disturbing images of death and dying — whether … Continue reading →

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Being on paper

Posted on December 30, 2020 by Robert Basil

One of my favourite publishing ventures is the “Certain Days: The Freedom for Political Prisoners” calendars, “a joint fundraising and educational project between outside organizers in Montreal, Hamilton, New York and Baltimore, with two political prisoners being held in maximum-security … Continue reading →

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Detail

Posted on December 13, 2020 by Robert Basil

I seem to have come to the point where I no longer recall the exact word but I do recall exactly why only that exact word will do.

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Road to improvement

Posted on November 8, 2020 by Robert Basil

Published in 1903. Found near Haro and Bidwell, Vancouver.

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Continued enchantment

Posted on October 10, 2020 by Robert Basil

I’ve lived in Vancouver for almost 25 years and I’ve never, not for one moment, gotten over my luck. Recently, finally, I found an easy way to convey my continued enchantment to people:

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Communicators identifying threats

Posted on September 15, 2020 by Robert Basil

These are the “ideal changes” we should be looking for in American political journalism going forward, according to No Contest favourite Jay Rosen: * Defense of democracy seen as basic to the job * Symmetrical accounts of asymmetrical realities seen … Continue reading →

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Scholar Strike Canada

Posted on September 9, 2020 by Robert Basil

Here’s the schedule of events to be broadcast live and then video-archived. And here are some very illuminating resources. My university’s president and my dean both support the scholar strike, as do my teaching colleagues, of course. Scholar Strike originated … Continue reading →

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