steven
@stevenwatts.bsky.social
assistant professor of heathcliff the cat studies; writing about how books represent accumulation, growth, and their counterparts.
looking forward to either A. going to ASAP this year and being distraught I ever moved out of Madison or B. getting rejected from ASAP this year and seeing everyone's tweets and photos from Madison
December 19, 2025 at 8:42 PM
looking forward to either A. going to ASAP this year and being distraught I ever moved out of Madison or B. getting rejected from ASAP this year and seeing everyone's tweets and photos from Madison
one cool thing about Vollmann's Carbon Ideologies is they were written to be as blackpilled as possible and yet the 2010s numbers he cites are almost quaint compared to today's numbers
December 13, 2025 at 2:05 AM
one cool thing about Vollmann's Carbon Ideologies is they were written to be as blackpilled as possible and yet the 2010s numbers he cites are almost quaint compared to today's numbers
writing about one of the most compelling US novels of the decade & just discovered it is already out of print 😔
November 24, 2025 at 3:25 PM
writing about one of the most compelling US novels of the decade & just discovered it is already out of print 😔
after a month of moving, I have finally finished a book that I am writing about and not teaching. in 2 to 3 months maybe I'll finally be able to write again
November 10, 2025 at 4:40 PM
after a month of moving, I have finally finished a book that I am writing about and not teaching. in 2 to 3 months maybe I'll finally be able to write again
I was a mess when I applied to grad school and obviously no longer have any of my material. Any chance anyone has or can point me to good statements of purpose for applications to share with students?
October 1, 2025 at 2:54 PM
I was a mess when I applied to grad school and obviously no longer have any of my material. Any chance anyone has or can point me to good statements of purpose for applications to share with students?
ISLE let me be a real ecocritic and review Allison Carruth's very good new book
academic.oup.com/isle/advance...
academic.oup.com/isle/advance...
Novel Ecologies: Nature Remade and the Illusions of Tech. By Allison Carruth
The climate catastrophe is here: with that knowledge confirmed, the next major question is about how humans should respond. Do we, as the techno-utopianist
academic.oup.com
September 11, 2025 at 10:11 PM
ISLE let me be a real ecocritic and review Allison Carruth's very good new book
academic.oup.com/isle/advance...
academic.oup.com/isle/advance...
I get to teach video games for 1 hour/week this semester (in addition to the other 16 credits I'm teaching) which is really kind of the dream
September 9, 2025 at 5:00 AM
I get to teach video games for 1 hour/week this semester (in addition to the other 16 credits I'm teaching) which is really kind of the dream
liking Lesser Ruins so far because I too am an academic who has at times been obsessively into: coffee, house music, 16th century philosophy, and WG Sebald
July 27, 2025 at 3:37 AM
liking Lesser Ruins so far because I too am an academic who has at times been obsessively into: coffee, house music, 16th century philosophy, and WG Sebald
wrote a little bit about a counterintuitive use of perspective
stevenwatts.co/blog/perspec...
stevenwatts.co/blog/perspec...
Review of Vincenzo Latronico's Perfection (NYRB) — Steven Watts
My wife and I have been looking at purchasing a house lately. We never really thought we’d be in a position to purchase, but we live in one of the least desirable states in the country, in a town that...
stevenwatts.co
July 22, 2025 at 5:17 PM
wrote a little bit about a counterintuitive use of perspective
stevenwatts.co/blog/perspec...
stevenwatts.co/blog/perspec...
Reposted by steven
do y'all have any favorite pieces of writing where the writer is describing a painting?
July 2, 2025 at 1:49 AM
do y'all have any favorite pieces of writing where the writer is describing a painting?
Reposted by steven
SpongeBob-ass Angel of History
Dance You Monster to My Soft Song! by Paul Klee, 1922 #artbots #guggenheim
https://botfrens.com/collections/212/contents/137273
https://botfrens.com/collections/212/contents/137273
May 31, 2025 at 3:44 PM
SpongeBob-ass Angel of History
Too dumb to figure out how to read the ACLA schedule. If you're presenting and you are not in stream C, lmk, I'd love to virtually attend provided I can figure that out.
May 20, 2025 at 8:03 PM
Too dumb to figure out how to read the ACLA schedule. If you're presenting and you are not in stream C, lmk, I'd love to virtually attend provided I can figure that out.
neither close nor distant: third way reading. coming to, idk, probably like claremont grad university or something soon
May 15, 2025 at 6:41 PM
neither close nor distant: third way reading. coming to, idk, probably like claremont grad university or something soon
I've never encountered a book that took me longer to read on a per page basis than The Aesthetics of Resistance vol. 1, but I've finally finished it. On to vol. 2
May 12, 2025 at 6:45 PM
I've never encountered a book that took me longer to read on a per page basis than The Aesthetics of Resistance vol. 1, but I've finally finished it. On to vol. 2
no one talks about how The Rehearsal is an adaptation of Walter Benn Michaels' The Shape of the Signifier: 1967 to the End of History
May 7, 2025 at 1:39 AM
no one talks about how The Rehearsal is an adaptation of Walter Benn Michaels' The Shape of the Signifier: 1967 to the End of History
Mitch's essay is on 3 of my favorite things: Atlanta, Atlanta, and trap music (from Atlanta)
If you ever wanted to read about Donald Glover's "Atlanta," trap, and the Hollywood Dystopia that is Atlanta, then have I got the essay for you: asapjournal.com/feature/disn...
Disney Trap House, Or: Atlanta’s Atlanta
“A Grotesque Disneyland” When recalling the infamous Atlanta child murders of 1979–81, James Baldwin described the city as “a kind of grotesque Disneyland.” This unwholesome carnival arose from a fascination with “Black death,” which “has never before elicited so much attention.
asapjournal.com
May 6, 2025 at 10:09 PM
Mitch's essay is on 3 of my favorite things: Atlanta, Atlanta, and trap music (from Atlanta)
need to get a manuscript and book proposal together this summer if anyone has any advice for how a not very smart, easily distractable person can do such a thing
May 5, 2025 at 4:14 PM
need to get a manuscript and book proposal together this summer if anyone has any advice for how a not very smart, easily distractable person can do such a thing
the only way for me to do anything even remotely considered research these days is to drive 45 minutes one way to the nearest research university, bully an undergrad hiding in a back room of their library to give me computer access, download articles to email to myself, & then drive 45 minutes home
April 30, 2025 at 2:11 AM
the only way for me to do anything even remotely considered research these days is to drive 45 minutes one way to the nearest research university, bully an undergrad hiding in a back room of their library to give me computer access, download articles to email to myself, & then drive 45 minutes home
reading riot.strike.riot during my PhD coursework changed my perception of the kind of work I wanted to do so much that I even ripped the title of my diss straight from the book. then, the first time I met joshua was at a rally for the grad student unionization drive at my school
April 28, 2025 at 3:47 AM
reading riot.strike.riot during my PhD coursework changed my perception of the kind of work I wanted to do so much that I even ripped the title of my diss straight from the book. then, the first time I met joshua was at a rally for the grad student unionization drive at my school
cannot put this novel, about a hedge fund manager who finds a love of the sea and quits his hedge fund to invest in freight shipping BY a hedge fund manager who left that job to invest in freight shipping, down for even a second
March 28, 2025 at 3:08 AM
cannot put this novel, about a hedge fund manager who finds a love of the sea and quits his hedge fund to invest in freight shipping BY a hedge fund manager who left that job to invest in freight shipping, down for even a second
get to teach things fall apart and mrs dalloway this week
March 11, 2025 at 3:43 AM
get to teach things fall apart and mrs dalloway this week
vol 2 is about how knowing about and acting on the knowledge of climate change is futile in an economy that doesn't change & about how grad school steals years from you
March 5, 2025 at 1:59 AM
vol 2 is about how knowing about and acting on the knowledge of climate change is futile in an economy that doesn't change & about how grad school steals years from you
should have been grading but instead I spent 3 hours learning what linear regression is and how to do it in python
January 31, 2025 at 11:25 PM
should have been grading but instead I spent 3 hours learning what linear regression is and how to do it in python
In both Metaphor Refantazio and Percival Everett's James the protagonist speaks to a Classic Liberal Philosopher in a dialogue about core enlightenment precepts. Both texts were published in 2024, the last year of the Biden interregnum between Trump administrations. In this essay I will argue
January 11, 2025 at 2:38 AM
In both Metaphor Refantazio and Percival Everett's James the protagonist speaks to a Classic Liberal Philosopher in a dialogue about core enlightenment precepts. Both texts were published in 2024, the last year of the Biden interregnum between Trump administrations. In this essay I will argue