Scott MacKenzie
@henrythe5thelement.bsky.social
He/him. UMiss Prof. 18th-Century literature, political economy, scarcity, & porridge
literary studies is no longer that kind of boutique. Our object of study is now literacy, which includes culture, media, representation, language models, etc. When you think about it, and as your own career attests, information science is really a subfield of English😜
December 15, 2025 at 5:04 PM
literary studies is no longer that kind of boutique. Our object of study is now literacy, which includes culture, media, representation, language models, etc. When you think about it, and as your own career attests, information science is really a subfield of English😜
Oh, not to worry about that. I have said way too many shady things on your feeds. I guess where I took a big tangent from your point was about the object of study. Literature qua literature is a pretty stable object if you're studying it for literary effects, etc. What I didn't say so well is that
December 15, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Oh, not to worry about that. I have said way too many shady things on your feeds. I guess where I took a big tangent from your point was about the object of study. Literature qua literature is a pretty stable object if you're studying it for literary effects, etc. What I didn't say so well is that
important not to confuse your good fortune with a kind of Olympian perspective that literary scholars and practitioners cannot or will not participate in. I humbly suggest that interdisciplinary solidarity and respect is the best option for everyone in higher ed (except B-skool bros, I guess)
December 14, 2025 at 8:20 PM
important not to confuse your good fortune with a kind of Olympian perspective that literary scholars and practitioners cannot or will not participate in. I humbly suggest that interdisciplinary solidarity and respect is the best option for everyone in higher ed (except B-skool bros, I guess)
you didn’t intend to come across all Allan Bloom, but it does matter, which is why I sometimes have to jump up and down and have tantrums about some of your pronouncements. You are lucky to be able to reshape your own career and modes of scholarship—and you deserve your success—but it’s
December 14, 2025 at 8:20 PM
you didn’t intend to come across all Allan Bloom, but it does matter, which is why I sometimes have to jump up and down and have tantrums about some of your pronouncements. You are lucky to be able to reshape your own career and modes of scholarship—and you deserve your success—but it’s
woke-ism serves illiberal and even authoritarian kinds of intellectual rigidity, homogeneity, and narrowness. It’s grade A horse-shit, of course, but its consequences are very harmful for us and higher ed in general. That’s why I object to your misguided comparison between disciplines. I know
December 14, 2025 at 8:20 PM
woke-ism serves illiberal and even authoritarian kinds of intellectual rigidity, homogeneity, and narrowness. It’s grade A horse-shit, of course, but its consequences are very harmful for us and higher ed in general. That’s why I object to your misguided comparison between disciplines. I know
component of the discipline. For the most part we have tended to catch it from our detractors because we’re understood to be too radical and relativist and politicized and impossible to pin down. But if course that complaint has been folded into the established tradition of claiming that all our
December 14, 2025 at 8:20 PM
component of the discipline. For the most part we have tended to catch it from our detractors because we’re understood to be too radical and relativist and politicized and impossible to pin down. But if course that complaint has been folded into the established tradition of claiming that all our
seem like a department that insists on fostering genuine literacy, critique, and creative practice must be fundamentally conservative, but that’s a bad read. The theoretical and practical features of our work are continually reconceived and transformed as an intrinsic
December 14, 2025 at 8:20 PM
seem like a department that insists on fostering genuine literacy, critique, and creative practice must be fundamentally conservative, but that’s a bad read. The theoretical and practical features of our work are continually reconceived and transformed as an intrinsic
Are talking about would look like. My department works very hard on anticipating and responding to the conditions that affect our objects of analysis and the professional environments that students will be heading into. In the case of something as stupid and destructive as AI, it might
December 14, 2025 at 8:20 PM
Are talking about would look like. My department works very hard on anticipating and responding to the conditions that affect our objects of analysis and the professional environments that students will be heading into. In the case of something as stupid and destructive as AI, it might
That’s fine and all, but whether or not you’re aware that you’re dunking on literary studies, you’re trafficking in pretty silly generalizations. English departments are, in methodological terms, neither homogeneous nor static. I wonder what you imagine the kind of transformation you
December 14, 2025 at 8:20 PM
That’s fine and all, but whether or not you’re aware that you’re dunking on literary studies, you’re trafficking in pretty silly generalizations. English departments are, in methodological terms, neither homogeneous nor static. I wonder what you imagine the kind of transformation you
centrist trap of viewing literary studies as ideologically driven and fundamentally illiberal. No-one says that math departments need to reinvent their relationship to numbers every week. You're Also, you specifically may not simply substitute moral for political or vice versa.
December 14, 2025 at 12:58 AM
centrist trap of viewing literary studies as ideologically driven and fundamentally illiberal. No-one says that math departments need to reinvent their relationship to numbers every week. You're Also, you specifically may not simply substitute moral for political or vice versa.
Yes, but it's not different, because we're a discipline, not a vocational program. We continually attend to the job market, such as it is and our bedrock connection to literacy and critique means we are always working with and/or against what's coming next. Please don't fall into the reactionary-
December 14, 2025 at 12:58 AM
Yes, but it's not different, because we're a discipline, not a vocational program. We continually attend to the job market, such as it is and our bedrock connection to literacy and critique means we are always working with and/or against what's coming next. Please don't fall into the reactionary-
blame for the decline of higher ed. We're paying attention to our situation at least as carefully and thoughtfully as any discipline, at least partly because we're getting so consistently harassed about the same kinds of thing that you're cherry-picking. Please do not
December 13, 2025 at 4:34 PM
blame for the decline of higher ed. We're paying attention to our situation at least as carefully and thoughtfully as any discipline, at least partly because we're getting so consistently harassed about the same kinds of thing that you're cherry-picking. Please do not
Nope nope nope. Stop perpetuating that reactionary centrist stuff about literary studies being abstract and ethereal and disconnected from reality. We do literacy. Nobody is going after math departments for being hidebound about numeracy. A narrow patch of the humanities is getting most of the
December 13, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Nope nope nope. Stop perpetuating that reactionary centrist stuff about literary studies being abstract and ethereal and disconnected from reality. We do literacy. Nobody is going after math departments for being hidebound about numeracy. A narrow patch of the humanities is getting most of the
your prejudices with you, which might make you a tourist rather than traveler.
December 13, 2025 at 2:52 PM
your prejudices with you, which might make you a tourist rather than traveler.
The literary object is constantly reconstructed, but that's not relativism; it's language. Please also retract your very silly conflation of moral and political. Change is by no means invisible from within an given discipline and your interdisciplinary travels are admirable, but you're bringing
December 13, 2025 at 2:52 PM
The literary object is constantly reconstructed, but that's not relativism; it's language. Please also retract your very silly conflation of moral and political. Change is by no means invisible from within an given discipline and your interdisciplinary travels are admirable, but you're bringing
No Mr Ted. That is very incorrect. The version of literary studies that fixes its object in serene precision died long long ago. Language models didn't emerge to show us our errors; we have been telling you all along that language is, as Barthes said (in the 1960s) a tissue of quotations.
December 13, 2025 at 2:52 PM
No Mr Ted. That is very incorrect. The version of literary studies that fixes its object in serene precision died long long ago. Language models didn't emerge to show us our errors; we have been telling you all along that language is, as Barthes said (in the 1960s) a tissue of quotations.
Thanks, Mr Mansplain!
December 13, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Thanks, Mr Mansplain!
Uh, nope. Peter Thiel gives lectures on the anti-Christ; Ilya Sutskever leads “feel the AGI” chants; Marc Andreesen goes in with New Founding to set up a christian nationalist enclave. They went way past functional ideology. Now they do metaphysical theology with their own selves on thrones
December 10, 2025 at 3:28 PM
Uh, nope. Peter Thiel gives lectures on the anti-Christ; Ilya Sutskever leads “feel the AGI” chants; Marc Andreesen goes in with New Founding to set up a christian nationalist enclave. They went way past functional ideology. Now they do metaphysical theology with their own selves on thrones
Scott R. MacKenzie
May we also please note that the first paragraph suggests that, 1. students are not receiving guidance from instructors, and 2. what Grammerly provides is "guidance." Fucking fucking fuck off
May we also please note that the first paragraph suggests that, 1. students are not receiving guidance from instructors, and 2. what Grammerly provides is "guidance." Fucking fucking fuck off
September 26, 2025 at 7:24 PM
Scott R. MacKenzie
May we also please note that the first paragraph suggests that, 1. students are not receiving guidance from instructors, and 2. what Grammerly provides is "guidance." Fucking fucking fuck off
May we also please note that the first paragraph suggests that, 1. students are not receiving guidance from instructors, and 2. what Grammerly provides is "guidance." Fucking fucking fuck off
Dear faculty, we have inserted a deadly neurotoxin into your breakfast. But don't worry, we can neutralize the toxin with our new product that you probably should purchase.
September 26, 2025 at 7:24 PM
Dear faculty, we have inserted a deadly neurotoxin into your breakfast. But don't worry, we can neutralize the toxin with our new product that you probably should purchase.