Links in the Time of Coronavirus, Vol. 25: March 16–April 15, 2022

Nuclear and Environmental

Max Fisher, “As Russia Digs In, What’s the Risk of Nuclear War? ‘It’s Not Zero.’”

William J. Broad, “How America Watches for a Nuclear Strike.”

Rod Buntzen, “This Is What It’s Like to Witness a Nuclear Explosion.”

Cara Buckley, “‘OK Doomer’ and the Climate Advocates Who Say It’s Not Too Late.”

Brad Plumer and Raymond Zhong, “Stopping Climate Change Is Doable, but Time Is Short, UN Panel Warns.”

John Vidal, “Energy Efficiency Guru Amory Lovins: ‘It’s the Largest, Cheapest, Safest, Cleanest Way to Address the Crisis.'”

Henry Fountain, “In a First, an Ice Shelf Collapses in East Antarctica.”


Ukraine

Jane Burbank, “The Grand Theory Driving Putin to War.”

Malachy Browne, David Botti, and Haley Willis, “Satellite Images Show Bodies Lay in Bucha for Weeks, Despite Russian Claims.”

“‘At Night I Dream of Mariupol’: Nine Accounts of Surviving a Russian Siege.” Continue reading

Links in the Time of Coronavirus, Vol. 24: February 16–March 15, 2022

Ukraine (Ordered by Date of Appearance)

Alexander Gabuev, “On Why Vladimir Putin and His Entourage Want War.”

Edward Wong, Julian E. Barnes, and Anton Troianovski, “US Says Russia Has a List of Ukrainians to Kill or Detain after an Invasion.”

Anton Troianovski, “Moscow Orders Troops to Ukraine’s Separatist Regions after Putin Recognizes Their Independence.”

“Ukrainian Officials Report Missile Attacks in Kyiv.”

Mike McIntire and Michael Forsythe, “Putin Faces Sanctions, but His Assets Remain an Enigma.”

Peter Baker, “Biden and Putin, Children of the Cold War, Face Off in New Conflict.”

Emma Ashford, “It’s Official: The Post-Cold War Era Is Over.”

Manveen Rana, “Volodymyr Zelensky Survives Three Assassination Attempts in Days.”

Michael Schwirtz, Andrew E. Kramer and Michael Levenson, “Russian Forces Pound Civilians, as Putin Likens Sanctions to a ‘Declaration of War.'”

Michael D. Shear, “Biden Bans Oil Imports from Russia, Calling It a ‘Blow to Putin’s War Machine.'”


Nuclear and Environmental

James M. Acton, “The Most Immediate Nuclear Danger in Ukraine Isn’t Chernobyl.”

David E. Sanger and William J. Broad, “Putin Declares a Nuclear Alert, and Biden Seeks De-Escalation.”

Continue reading

Links in the Time of Coronavirus, Vol. 23: January 16–February 15, 2022

Screenshot (1)

Nuclear and Environmental

Henry Fountain, “An Extraordinary Iceberg Is Gone, but Not Forgotten.”

Jacob Blumenfeld, “Climate Barbarism: Adapting to a Wrong World.”

Joshua Rothman, “Can Science Fiction Wake Us Up to Our Climate Reality?”


Ukraine

The New York Times, “Moscow Is Pessimistic about Reaching Accord with US on Ukraine, but Talk Continues.”

Julian E. Barnes and Helene Cooper, “US Battles Putin by Disclosing His Next Possible Moves.”

And Max Fisher, “On Ukraine, US, and Russia Wage Signaling War to Avert Actual War.”


Coronavirus

Apoorva Mandavilli, “Yes, Omicron Is Loosening Its Hold. But the Pandemic Has Not Ended.”

Steven Kurutz, “Too Young to Feel So Old.”

Alexander Provan, “The Great Equalizer” (from June 2020).

Continue reading

“Twenty-First-Century Forms” at MLA 2023

Richard Grossman, Torah Ball, 2011. Corundum sphere 5″ in diameter inscribed in Hebrew with the Ten Commandments currently buried inside Mount Princeton, Colorado, USA.

Given my ongoing interest in megatexts and other emerging hybrid and transmedia forms, I am organizing a second panel on emergent literary forms of the twenty-first-century for the 2023 Modern Language Association Convention in San Francisco, California (the first was at the 2021 MLA Convention). Please consider submitting an abstract to festb[at]hartwick[dot]edu by March 24, 2022. Here’s the CFP:

Twenty-First-Century Forms

If the novel and lyric poem might be considered residual forms, what literary forms are emerging in the twenty-first century? Panel on emergent literary forms: transmedia, digital, hybrid, remediated, megatexts, other. 250-word abstract, brief bio.

Spring Semester 2022: Syllabi

Hartwick SpringThis spring semester at Hartwick College, I’m teaching two classes, ENGL 213 Introduction to Creative Writing, as usual, and a brand new course, ENGL 352 Critical Game Studies. I’m especially excited about the latter, as this was a course I developed at the University of Pittsburgh in AY 2015-16 with the aid of a course development grant but that I have not had a chance to teach until now.

The syllabi:

ENGL 213 Introduction to Creative Writing, Spring 2022

ENGL 352 Critical Game Studies, Spring 2022

Links in the Time of Coronavirus, Vol. 22: December 16, 2021–January 15, 2022

January 15, 2022

Nuclear and Environmental

Elizabeth Weil, “California’s Forever Fire.”

Bill McKibben, “The Year in Climate.”

Jeff Goodell, “‘The Fuse Has Been Blown,’ and the Doomsday Glacier Is Coming for Us All.”

John Levi Barnard, Stephanie Foote, Jessica Hurley, and Jeffrey Insko, eds. “Infrastructures of Emergency,” special issue, part 2, Resilience 8, no. 3 (Fall 2021).

Rebecca Evans, “Is Geoengineering the Only Solution?: Exploring Climate Crisis in Neal Stephenson’s Termination Shock.”

Jack Healy and Mike Baker, “As Miners Chase Clean-Energy Minerals, Tribes Fear a Repeat of the Past.”

Continue reading

Links in the Time of Coronavirus, Vol. 21: November 16–December 15, 2021

Kentucky Tornado 2021

Nuclear and Environmental

The New York Times, “Postcards from a World on Fire.”

Keith Collins, Josh Williams, Denise Lu, “Before and after the Tornado: Devastation in a Historic Neighborhood.”

David E. Sanger and William J. Broad, “As China Speeds Up Nuclear Arms Race, the US Wants to Talk.”

Graham Readfearn, “Ocean Scientists Call for Global Tracking of Oxygen Loss That Causes Dead Zones.”

April Anson, “American Apocalyptic: A Conversation with Jessica Hurley.”

Douglas Dowland, review of Infrastructures of Apocalypse: Literature and the Nuclear Complex, by Jessica Hurley.

Matt Williams, “A Sun-Like Star Just Blasted Out a Flare That Would Be Devastating If It Happened Here.”

And Ben Smith, “A Comedy Nails the Media Apocalypse.”

Continue reading

Links in the Time of Coronavirus, Vol. 20: October 16–November 15, 2021

Nuclear and Environmental (and Apocalyptic)

Alex Traub, “Sunao Tsuboi, 96, Dies; Hiroshima Victim Who Lived to Tell His Story.”

Abigail Curtis, “Every Year, They Hike to Remember the Day the Rapture Didn’t Happen.”


Coronavirus

Shane O’Neill, “Is It Just Us or Does Everyone Have a Cold Right Now?”


Politics and National Security State

Jim Tankersley, “Biden Signs Infrastructure Bill, Promoting Benefits for Americans.”

Carol Rosenberg, “US Military Jury Condemns Terrorist’s Torture and Urges Clemency.”

Dave Philipps and Eric Schmitt, “How the US Hid an Airstrike That Killed Dozens of Civilians in Syria.”

Katie Benner, “Steve Bannon Turns Himself in on Contempt of Congress Charges.”


Hyperarchival

Ian Bogost, “The Metaverse Is Bad.”

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Links in the Time of Coronavirus, Vol. 19: September 16–October 15, 2021

Nuclear and Environmental

Min Hyoung Song, Climate Lyricism.


Coronavirus

Cary Funk and John Gramlich, “Ten Facts about Americans and Coronavirus Vaccines.”

Apoorva Mandavilli, “If You’ve Had COVID, Do You Need the Vaccine?”

Zeynep Tufekci, “The Unvaccinated May Not Be Who You Think.”


Politics and Economics

International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, “Pandora Papers.”

David Pegg and Dominic Rushe, “Pandora Papers Reveal South Dakota’s Role as $367bn Tax Haven.”

Raychel Gadson, “‘There’s No There There’: Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor on the Future of the Left.”

Continue reading