Silas Lapham
@silaslapham.bsky.social
Fulbrighter, American, African American, Southern literature. medium.com/@interminablerambling
[Opinions are my own]
[Opinions are my own]
Ágota Kristóf’s “The Illiterate” and the Loss of One’s Self
A few days ago, as I am wont to do on occasion, I walked through the stacks at my local library, immediately making a line towards the French literature section. I did this, partly, because I had just read Michael Rothberg’s…
A few days ago, as I am wont to do on occasion, I walked through the stacks at my local library, immediately making a line towards the French literature section. I did this, partly, because I had just read Michael Rothberg’s…
Ágota Kristóf’s “The Illiterate” and the Loss of One’s Self
A few days ago, as I am wont to do on occasion, I walked through the stacks at my local library, immediately making a line towards the French literature section. I did this, partly, because I had just read Michael Rothberg’s Multidirectional Memory: Remembering the Holocaust in the Age of Decolonization and wanted to see if I could find some of the works by…
interminablerambling.com
November 25, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Ágota Kristóf’s “The Illiterate” and the Loss of One’s Self
A few days ago, as I am wont to do on occasion, I walked through the stacks at my local library, immediately making a line towards the French literature section. I did this, partly, because I had just read Michael Rothberg’s…
A few days ago, as I am wont to do on occasion, I walked through the stacks at my local library, immediately making a line towards the French literature section. I did this, partly, because I had just read Michael Rothberg’s…
“Is it a racist story?”: Nate Powell’s “Cakewalk”
When I teach first year composition, I usually frame the course around personal narratives, allowing students to write about themselves. I find that this helps them get comfortable with writing and allows them to express themselves through their…
When I teach first year composition, I usually frame the course around personal narratives, allowing students to write about themselves. I find that this helps them get comfortable with writing and allows them to express themselves through their…
“Is it a racist story?”: Nate Powell’s “Cakewalk”
When I teach first year composition, I usually frame the course around personal narratives, allowing students to write about themselves. I find that this helps them get comfortable with writing and allows them to express themselves through their essays. As such, I try to choose at least one text that contains personal stories. This semester, I decided to add Nate Powell’s…
interminablerambling.com
November 25, 2025 at 1:03 PM
“Is it a racist story?”: Nate Powell’s “Cakewalk”
When I teach first year composition, I usually frame the course around personal narratives, allowing students to write about themselves. I find that this helps them get comfortable with writing and allows them to express themselves through their…
When I teach first year composition, I usually frame the course around personal narratives, allowing students to write about themselves. I find that this helps them get comfortable with writing and allows them to express themselves through their…
Reposted by Silas Lapham
One in five students in Charlotte missed school last week after ICE began its crackdown in the city. The stories of the terror and trauma ICE is causing our kids are horrific. Schools must be ICE-free zones.
www.washingtonpost.com/education/20...
www.washingtonpost.com/education/20...
In cities targeted by ICE, empty desks and school disruptions follow
One in 5 students in Charlotte missed school after a recent ICE crackdown began. It’s the latest city where schools felt the impact of Trump’s deportation effort.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 25, 2025 at 2:49 AM
One in five students in Charlotte missed school last week after ICE began its crackdown in the city. The stories of the terror and trauma ICE is causing our kids are horrific. Schools must be ICE-free zones.
www.washingtonpost.com/education/20...
www.washingtonpost.com/education/20...
A song that when @underapurplesky.bsky.social heard the lyrics recently she proclaimed, “That coulda been written today.”
Yep!
interminablerambling.medium.com/weve-got-an-...
Yep!
interminablerambling.medium.com/weve-got-an-...
November 25, 2025 at 1:39 AM
A song that when @underapurplesky.bsky.social heard the lyrics recently she proclaimed, “That coulda been written today.”
Yep!
interminablerambling.medium.com/weve-got-an-...
Yep!
interminablerambling.medium.com/weve-got-an-...
Reposted by Silas Lapham
Last night my boyfriend and I were at the store and right before us in line (and only I noticed it) was this very petite, middle aged white lady with two sons no more than 10. She was swiping the last money on her EBT card & then pulled out 6-7 debit/credit cards to pay & they all kept declining.
November 24, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Last night my boyfriend and I were at the store and right before us in line (and only I noticed it) was this very petite, middle aged white lady with two sons no more than 10. She was swiping the last money on her EBT card & then pulled out 6-7 debit/credit cards to pay & they all kept declining.
What are you reading this week for the holiday? I’m finally getting around to reading Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Just finished Saul Bellow’s novella “The Bellarosa Connection” which deals with the lingering impacts of the Holocaust and with cultural assimilation.
November 24, 2025 at 12:18 PM
What are you reading this week for the holiday? I’m finally getting around to reading Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Just finished Saul Bellow’s novella “The Bellarosa Connection” which deals with the lingering impacts of the Holocaust and with cultural assimilation.
Reposted by Silas Lapham
Didn’t know this @kerileighmerritt.bsky.social but that whole novel tackles Christian fascism! That’s the focus.
interminablerambling.medium.com/flashes-of-l...
interminablerambling.medium.com/flashes-of-l...
November 22, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Didn’t know this @kerileighmerritt.bsky.social but that whole novel tackles Christian fascism! That’s the focus.
interminablerambling.medium.com/flashes-of-l...
interminablerambling.medium.com/flashes-of-l...
Reposted by Silas Lapham
The play/book is about a interracial relationship.
November 21, 2025 at 4:16 PM
The play/book is about a interracial relationship.
Reposted by Silas Lapham
"Smith’s linking of Christian nationalism with fascism is important because Christian nationalism contains many aspects of fascist ideology."
Didn’t know this @kerileighmerritt.bsky.social but that whole novel tackles Christian fascism! That’s the focus.
interminablerambling.medium.com/flashes-of-l...
interminablerambling.medium.com/flashes-of-l...
November 22, 2025 at 3:26 PM
"Smith’s linking of Christian nationalism with fascism is important because Christian nationalism contains many aspects of fascist ideology."
Didn’t know this @kerileighmerritt.bsky.social but that whole novel tackles Christian fascism! That’s the focus.
interminablerambling.medium.com/flashes-of-l...
interminablerambling.medium.com/flashes-of-l...
November 22, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Didn’t know this @kerileighmerritt.bsky.social but that whole novel tackles Christian fascism! That’s the focus.
interminablerambling.medium.com/flashes-of-l...
interminablerambling.medium.com/flashes-of-l...
Well, it's finally happened. @underapurplesky.bsky.social and I talk about being "blessed." We look at a sermon that @b3nediction.bsky.social delivered in 2017 in relation to the present events in Charlotte and elsewhere.
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a...
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a...
Are We Really Blessed? The Beatitudes, Charlotte, and the Church We've Become
Podcast Episode · This Ain't It · 11/21/2025 · 48m
podcasts.apple.com
November 21, 2025 at 12:47 PM
Well, it's finally happened. @underapurplesky.bsky.social and I talk about being "blessed." We look at a sermon that @b3nediction.bsky.social delivered in 2017 in relation to the present events in Charlotte and elsewhere.
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a...
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a...
Reposted by Silas Lapham
🚨 ATTENTION PUBLIC SCHOLARS 🚨
As an end of year special #ScholarSunday thread, @americanstudier.bsky.social and I would like to share your favorite pieces from the year, especially if they're yours!
Did an essay or podcast episode blow you away with pride or brilliance? Please email us!
As an end of year special #ScholarSunday thread, @americanstudier.bsky.social and I would like to share your favorite pieces from the year, especially if they're yours!
Did an essay or podcast episode blow you away with pride or brilliance? Please email us!
Announcements
If you have a talk coming up, a book on its way, a podcast trailer to drop, or an accomplishment to celebrate, we want to help you share it!
blackwhiteandread.com
November 20, 2025 at 11:48 PM
🚨 ATTENTION PUBLIC SCHOLARS 🚨
As an end of year special #ScholarSunday thread, @americanstudier.bsky.social and I would like to share your favorite pieces from the year, especially if they're yours!
Did an essay or podcast episode blow you away with pride or brilliance? Please email us!
As an end of year special #ScholarSunday thread, @americanstudier.bsky.social and I would like to share your favorite pieces from the year, especially if they're yours!
Did an essay or podcast episode blow you away with pride or brilliance? Please email us!
Happy birthday Pauli Murray! Go read Pauli Murray! @filmmakerjulie.bsky.social thank you for helping me get into Murray’s work!
interminablerambling.medium.com/our-role-in-...
interminablerambling.medium.com/our-role-in-...
Our Role in the Relay of “Cosmic Composition”
Writing about how their time in Washington D.C. and at Howard University drew to a close in the early 1940s, Pauli Murray reflected on all…
interminablerambling.medium.com
November 20, 2025 at 1:29 PM
Happy birthday Pauli Murray! Go read Pauli Murray! @filmmakerjulie.bsky.social thank you for helping me get into Murray’s work!
interminablerambling.medium.com/our-role-in-...
interminablerambling.medium.com/our-role-in-...
Reposted by Silas Lapham
R.F. Kuang's "Yellowface" critiques the publishing industry, and it is more than just a novel about "literary theft." It is, for me, a novel that really deals with the ways that the publishing industry silences individuals.
medium.com/@interminabl...
medium.com/@interminabl...
The Stealing of One’s Voice in R.F. Kuang’s “Yellowface”
Is it literary theft when Harriett Beecher Stowe takes Josiah Henson’s real-life story of escaping enslavement and crafts Uncle Tom’s…
medium.com
November 19, 2025 at 4:24 PM
R.F. Kuang's "Yellowface" critiques the publishing industry, and it is more than just a novel about "literary theft." It is, for me, a novel that really deals with the ways that the publishing industry silences individuals.
medium.com/@interminabl...
medium.com/@interminabl...
R.F. Kuang's "Yellowface" critiques the publishing industry, and it is more than just a novel about "literary theft." It is, for me, a novel that really deals with the ways that the publishing industry silences individuals.
medium.com/@interminabl...
medium.com/@interminabl...
The Stealing of One’s Voice in R.F. Kuang’s “Yellowface”
Is it literary theft when Harriett Beecher Stowe takes Josiah Henson’s real-life story of escaping enslavement and crafts Uncle Tom’s…
medium.com
November 19, 2025 at 4:24 PM
R.F. Kuang's "Yellowface" critiques the publishing industry, and it is more than just a novel about "literary theft." It is, for me, a novel that really deals with the ways that the publishing industry silences individuals.
medium.com/@interminabl...
medium.com/@interminabl...
Well, someone doesn’t wanna wake up today.
November 18, 2025 at 1:06 PM
Well, someone doesn’t wanna wake up today.
Saw Better Lovers last Friday and Johnny Booth opened for them. Second time I’ve seen Johnny Booth, and they are 🔥 🔥
The end of “Collapse in the Key of Fireworks” hits!
youtu.be/fxkc4j0myiQ?...
The end of “Collapse in the Key of Fireworks” hits!
youtu.be/fxkc4j0myiQ?...
Johnny Booth - Collapse in the Key of Fireworks [Official Video]
YouTube video by JohnnyBoothTube
youtu.be
November 17, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Saw Better Lovers last Friday and Johnny Booth opened for them. Second time I’ve seen Johnny Booth, and they are 🔥 🔥
The end of “Collapse in the Key of Fireworks” hits!
youtu.be/fxkc4j0myiQ?...
The end of “Collapse in the Key of Fireworks” hits!
youtu.be/fxkc4j0myiQ?...
Reposted by Silas Lapham
The US has already killed more people in their military strikes against civilian boats in Latin America during the last two months (83, almost all civilians) than during the entire Grenada Invasion of 1983 (69 Grenadian and Cuban fighters).
November 17, 2025 at 2:15 PM
The US has already killed more people in their military strikes against civilian boats in Latin America during the last two months (83, almost all civilians) than during the entire Grenada Invasion of 1983 (69 Grenadian and Cuban fighters).
I taught R.F. Kuang’s “Yellowface” last month, and the discussion of “literary theft” and writing in general came up in very discussion. There’s a lot in Kuang’s book that makes us think about the writing process itself.
interminablerambling.medium.com/is-it-litera...
interminablerambling.medium.com/is-it-litera...
Is It Literary Theft?: Looking at Writing in R.F. Kuang’s “Yellowface”
I read R.F. Kuang’s Yellowface over the summer, with the intention of adding it to my “Lost Voices in American Literature” course. After…
interminablerambling.medium.com
November 16, 2025 at 2:03 PM
I taught R.F. Kuang’s “Yellowface” last month, and the discussion of “literary theft” and writing in general came up in very discussion. There’s a lot in Kuang’s book that makes us think about the writing process itself.
interminablerambling.medium.com/is-it-litera...
interminablerambling.medium.com/is-it-litera...
Finally reading Harry Crews and agree with @blacktopkid.bsky.social who says, “If Faulkner is Mozart and O'Connor is Ralph Stanley, then Harry Crews could be likened to Johnny Cash."
What are you reading this weekend?
What are you reading this weekend?
November 16, 2025 at 1:05 AM
Finally reading Harry Crews and agree with @blacktopkid.bsky.social who says, “If Faulkner is Mozart and O'Connor is Ralph Stanley, then Harry Crews could be likened to Johnny Cash."
What are you reading this weekend?
What are you reading this weekend?
Well, looks like @underapurplesky.bsky.social and I are gonna make this thing regular. Hard to believe this is episode 10 of This Ain’t It. In this episode, we ask, “Have women ruined the workplace?”
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/d...
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/d...
Did Women Really Ruin the Workplace?
Podcast Episode · This Ain't It · 11/14/2025 · 51m
podcasts.apple.com
November 14, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Well, looks like @underapurplesky.bsky.social and I are gonna make this thing regular. Hard to believe this is episode 10 of This Ain’t It. In this episode, we ask, “Have women ruined the workplace?”
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/d...
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/d...
When you start grading essays and a student starts with a line from Bikini Kill's "Rebel Girl" then moves into talking about Angela Davis, I get excited! The students know what's up! @kathleenhanna.bsky.social
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOCW...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOCW...
Bikini Kill - Rebel Girl
YouTube video by rp61productions
www.youtube.com
November 14, 2025 at 1:02 PM
When you start grading essays and a student starts with a line from Bikini Kill's "Rebel Girl" then moves into talking about Angela Davis, I get excited! The students know what's up! @kathleenhanna.bsky.social
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOCW...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOCW...
Reposted by Silas Lapham
14 November 1868 | Jewish woman Marie Ganz (nee Lahn) was born in today's Lithuania. In 1913 she emigrated to Norway.
She arrived at #Auschwitz on 3 March 1943 and was murdered in a gas chamber after arrival selection.
---
Gas chambers and crematoria of Auschwitz: https://youtu.be/-A05i25j9Ck
She arrived at #Auschwitz on 3 March 1943 and was murdered in a gas chamber after arrival selection.
---
Gas chambers and crematoria of Auschwitz: https://youtu.be/-A05i25j9Ck
November 14, 2025 at 12:00 PM
14 November 1868 | Jewish woman Marie Ganz (nee Lahn) was born in today's Lithuania. In 1913 she emigrated to Norway.
She arrived at #Auschwitz on 3 March 1943 and was murdered in a gas chamber after arrival selection.
---
Gas chambers and crematoria of Auschwitz: https://youtu.be/-A05i25j9Ck
She arrived at #Auschwitz on 3 March 1943 and was murdered in a gas chamber after arrival selection.
---
Gas chambers and crematoria of Auschwitz: https://youtu.be/-A05i25j9Ck
Reposted by Silas Lapham
I can’t second how great Alex’s art on the book is more
I've been teaching @pornsak.bsky.social & Alexandre Tefengki's "The Goos Asian" over the past few weeks, and seriously, Tefengki's art is amazing, especially some of the layouts throughout the series.
interminablerambling.medium.com/the-walls-th...
interminablerambling.medium.com/the-walls-th...
The Walls That Separate Us in Pornsak Pichetshote and Alexandre Tefengki’s “The Good Asian”
I first read Pornsak Pichetshote and Aaron Campbell’s Infidel about five years ago, and after reading it, I decided to teach it in my…
interminablerambling.medium.com
November 13, 2025 at 7:18 PM
I can’t second how great Alex’s art on the book is more