Let me start by stating upfront how much I wanted to dislike this book. I caution students against biographical readings all the time. The author on whom I've done most of my research work, Thomas Pynchon, deliberately obfuscates attempts to read in this way through extreme privacy. I didn't like Max's style from the off (the dropping of the preposition after the verb "write" in its epistolary sense is an Americanism that I still can't forgive).

There is a proud tradition in many fields of the humanities of critical thinking. Linked to the Enlightenment Humanist tradition, this critique achieves its positivity (better citizens, better societies) through negation: we criticize and think critically because only in negating those wrong aspects of the world can we hope to put things aright.

Pleased to say that I'll be speaking at Westminster University on Wednesday 28 November, 4.00pm – 5.15pm in Wells Street, room 106. If you'd like to attend, please email Christopher Daley. The paper is entitled "'Opening children's eyes': Overloaded Forms and the Didactic Function". Please also see the programme for the rest of the series.

[<a href="http://storify.com/martin_eve/weird-council-mieville2012" target="_blank">View the story "Weird Council: #mieville2012" on Storify</a>] <strong> Weird Council: #mieville2012</strong> <strong> </strong> Storified by Martin Eve · Sun, Sep 16 2012 02:22:19</p> <div>@thecityhermit Not true!

The predominant intellectual trend of the past 200 years (or longer, actually) has been to relativize and historicize. Although it's possible to read this in a contradictory sense (historicizing is an anti-relativising move), these are also two sides of the same coin. In each case, the mask of universality is removed and that which seemed transcendental is shown as local and contingent; Marx, Freud, Einstein.

Yesterday, the 10th September 2012, I passed my Ph.D. Viva, straight-out, no corrections. It was an amazing experience. I'd been incredibly nervous for the preceding two weeks; lack of sleep, tension headaches and the rest. As the day approached this only got worse.

in my Ph.D. viva. By the time you read this, I will be... was originally published by Martin Paul Eve at Martin Paul Eve on September 10, 2012.

As is now common knowledge, the Finch report has recommended the Gold Open Access route and the government policy implementation has followed the advice that all publications from RCUK must be published in Open Access destinations (or in Institutional Repositories after a short embargo period). This includes the AHRC . It's important to ask, then: where are the OA venues for the humanities disciplines?

I'm very pleased to report that I'll be speaking to the Contemporary Fiction Research Seminar on Saturday the 13th October from 2-4pm. I hope to see as many of you as possible there! Conference Panel: Pynchon Now (Contemporary Fiction Research Seminar) was originally published by Martin Paul Eve at Martin Paul Eve on September 06, 2012.

I run Google Apps for Domains to handle my email. Recently, a friend was having trouble emailing me. I asked her to send me the source of the message. In there, I found this: My A records point to my server. My MX records point to Google Apps.

I've been a long-term user of Astrid and Producteev to manage my tasks list. When I went to reinstall Astrid today, I noticed that there was no longer a Producteev sync option. After much digging about on the forums, I found that it's been hidden. You can re-enable by going to Settings -> Misc -> Enable Third Party Add-Ons.