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
Pinned
James
@jamesdraney.bsky.social
· Feb 22
Here to discover, share, read, and think.
Reposted by James
Happy birthday to Alan Cumming, seen here in his brief but scene-stealing performance in Stanley Kubrick's EYES WIDE SHUT (1999).
January 27, 2026 at 6:37 PM
Happy birthday to Alan Cumming, seen here in his brief but scene-stealing performance in Stanley Kubrick's EYES WIDE SHUT (1999).
"When it's snowing, the outdoors seem like a room." - Berman
January 24, 2026 at 4:33 PM
"When it's snowing, the outdoors seem like a room." - Berman
Required viewing: Newfield on the present crisis.
FHI Short Residency | Christopher Newfield on the University System in the Knowledge Crisis
YouTube video by John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke U.
www.youtube.com
January 23, 2026 at 5:29 PM
Required viewing: Newfield on the present crisis.
"To be sure, prosaic creativity generally proceeds slowly, begins in narrow spheres, and is hardly noticeable. For that reason we do not see it, and think that innovation must come from somewhere else" - Emerson & Morson, Mikhail Bakhtin: Creation of a Prosaics (via Kate Briggs in The Long Form)
January 22, 2026 at 1:34 AM
"To be sure, prosaic creativity generally proceeds slowly, begins in narrow spheres, and is hardly noticeable. For that reason we do not see it, and think that innovation must come from somewhere else" - Emerson & Morson, Mikhail Bakhtin: Creation of a Prosaics (via Kate Briggs in The Long Form)
Reposted by James
comfort will be found in the pages of the New Left Review, which will explain away all recent geopolitical turbulence as merely the latest and predictable confirmation of the enduring truth of the Brenner thesis
January 20, 2026 at 5:49 PM
comfort will be found in the pages of the New Left Review, which will explain away all recent geopolitical turbulence as merely the latest and predictable confirmation of the enduring truth of the Brenner thesis
beautiful piece
“John seemed an extreme version of a kind of intellectual ideal. Wasn’t the freedom to read for much of the day one of the draws of graduate school, after all?” www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/...
The Last Intellectual | Michael Casper
Years after defending his dissertation, perhaps unable to adapt or evolve, he appeared stuck in an eternal limbo that would give any student the night sweats. On the other hand, John seemed an extreme...
www.nplusonemag.com
January 8, 2026 at 6:50 PM
beautiful piece
#MLA26: Looking forward to thinking about realism and distraction with these fine folks on Sunday afternoon. I'll be presenting a new paper on one of my favorite recent novels, @rosalindbrown.bsky.social's Practice (2024).
January 8, 2026 at 12:38 AM
#MLA26: Looking forward to thinking about realism and distraction with these fine folks on Sunday afternoon. I'll be presenting a new paper on one of my favorite recent novels, @rosalindbrown.bsky.social's Practice (2024).
I found an old box of records I bought at Amoeba in LA between 2006 and 2010; the median price was $4–$15. Even used records today cost roughly three times that.
January 2, 2026 at 5:58 PM
I found an old box of records I bought at Amoeba in LA between 2006 and 2010; the median price was $4–$15. Even used records today cost roughly three times that.
This year I watched 89 movies. Favorites include Safe (1995), Crumb (1994), Lost Highway (1997), and Strongroom (1962)
December 31, 2025 at 6:46 PM
This year I watched 89 movies. Favorites include Safe (1995), Crumb (1994), Lost Highway (1997), and Strongroom (1962)
I held fast to my 2025 resolution: I did not once use a self-checkout machine at the supermarket this year
December 30, 2025 at 6:41 PM
I held fast to my 2025 resolution: I did not once use a self-checkout machine at the supermarket this year
"The questionnaire kills warm-blooded animals. Come on! Instead: observe how they treat the waiter, how they talk about people who are absent, whether they slide their chair back when a toddler wobbles past. You are selecting a co-witness for the apocalypse. Choose for gentleness."
An Existential Guide to: Making Friends
Friends Friends What Glorious Friendly Friends!
theshadowedarchive.substack.com
December 30, 2025 at 5:36 PM
"The questionnaire kills warm-blooded animals. Come on! Instead: observe how they treat the waiter, how they talk about people who are absent, whether they slide their chair back when a toddler wobbles past. You are selecting a co-witness for the apocalypse. Choose for gentleness."
just purchased looking forward to listening
December 27, 2025 at 6:54 PM
just purchased looking forward to listening
Reposted by James
it's been almost 25 years
it's time for a spiritual successor of this type of film
it's time for a spiritual successor of this type of film
December 27, 2025 at 2:07 AM
it's been almost 25 years
it's time for a spiritual successor of this type of film
it's time for a spiritual successor of this type of film
Me, strolling around my parents' suburban neighborhood, pensive, lost in thought, keeping to myself:
Every single house : "Hello, You Are Being Recorded"
Every single house : "Hello, You Are Being Recorded"
December 24, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Me, strolling around my parents' suburban neighborhood, pensive, lost in thought, keeping to myself:
Every single house : "Hello, You Are Being Recorded"
Every single house : "Hello, You Are Being Recorded"
inspired by @acolton.bsky.social's Writing Through Writer's Block today: "...for writers struggling with perfectionism, procrastination, fear of failure, evaluation anxiety, or... predetermination that one is, inherently, a 'bad writer,' the fiction of writer’s block offers an invaluable resource."
Writing Through Writer’s Block
uipress.uiowa.edu
December 20, 2025 at 12:29 AM
inspired by @acolton.bsky.social's Writing Through Writer's Block today: "...for writers struggling with perfectionism, procrastination, fear of failure, evaluation anxiety, or... predetermination that one is, inherently, a 'bad writer,' the fiction of writer’s block offers an invaluable resource."
Steven Connor on Bachelard, via Michael Wood: ‘To think was always to break with what was given or immediate in experience. Thinking was what freed you from a life lived unreflectively from day to day, and so in a sense was a refusal of mere life.’
Michael Wood · Spellbound Gloaming: Bachelard’s Dreamwork
Gaston Bachelard is inviting us to go beyond what we think we know. That is, how to counter boring intuitions with...
www.lrb.co.uk
December 18, 2025 at 9:47 PM
Steven Connor on Bachelard, via Michael Wood: ‘To think was always to break with what was given or immediate in experience. Thinking was what freed you from a life lived unreflectively from day to day, and so in a sense was a refusal of mere life.’
new New Yorker caption contest just dropped
December 13, 2025 at 3:46 AM
new New Yorker caption contest just dropped
How Winnicott wrote: "What happens is that I gather this and that, here and there, settle down to clinical experience, form my own theories, and then, last of all, interest myself to see where I stole what. Perhaps this is as good a method as any."
December 11, 2025 at 1:27 AM
How Winnicott wrote: "What happens is that I gather this and that, here and there, settle down to clinical experience, form my own theories, and then, last of all, interest myself to see where I stole what. Perhaps this is as good a method as any."
kinda starting to crave book 2 of that Franzen trilogy
December 7, 2025 at 10:29 PM
kinda starting to crave book 2 of that Franzen trilogy
reading On the Calculation of Volume
December 6, 2025 at 3:39 PM
reading On the Calculation of Volume
“Collect and squirrel away in your soul certain odd moments when the Mystery winks at you,” Johnson once advised.
A Writer Who Dazzled on the Page but Lived for the Margins
www.nytimes.com
December 2, 2025 at 5:42 PM
“Collect and squirrel away in your soul certain odd moments when the Mystery winks at you,” Johnson once advised.
Elbow: “I think autobiography is often the best mode of analysis”
December 2, 2025 at 5:20 PM
Elbow: “I think autobiography is often the best mode of analysis”
anyone out there theorized the punk-kid-to-critical-theory-PhD pipeline?
November 30, 2025 at 8:05 PM
anyone out there theorized the punk-kid-to-critical-theory-PhD pipeline?