Don't Be Cruel

We're caught in a trap, I can't walk out, because I love you too much, baby

From the New Yorker

Today’s edition is really to I am the couple of people I have been in touch with in the past week or two who wanted me to see their Substack and check it out. Please remind me and send me a link (or better, place it in the Comments to get some views from my feed).

I’m sorry I forgot. Between a new Rx effecting my memory and the 100+ emails a day I get, I have been losing track of any promises I made and I want to keep my word.

Interesting piece in New York magazine¹:

Professor Justin McDaniel, the tenured chair of the religious-studies department at the University of Pennsylvania, has found a way to make his students read again. They don’t write papers or take tests; instead, he asks them to follow a strict set of behavioral constraints. They must give up their cell phones and other worldly distractions, including, in one course, sex.

At a recent reading group based on his influential class Existential Despair — where students gather one evening each week for seven or eight hours to read an entire novel start to finish in total silence, then discuss it in a darkened classroom — McDaniel welcomed a dozen former students and a couple of his friends to his apartment in Philadelphia. As his guests gathered, McDaniel reminded them of the first expectation for the night. “You cannot introduce yourself by anything about you,” he said. “I don’t want to hear any majors. I don’t want to hear any jobs. I don’t want to hear any impressive things about you at all.”

I used none of these teaching methods, except cell phone and laptop restrictions. To combat that, I would give my students a 5-minute “text” break, at least every hour. That seems to work well.

But had my own unorthodox ways to engage my students; my classes would be unpredictable enough the students showed up just to see what what happen next, whether it was walking the class over to an art gallery, having the class lesson set-up as a game show, having pizza deliveries show up at the class randomly, or conducting a drawing class from the front row of a comedy club. I also tried to make classes be entertaining. If you were one of my students and would like to comment, I’d like to hear from you—I taught for over forty years at School of Visual Arts, Pratt, N.Y.U., and other schools, since I graduated in 1984.

I stopped formally teaching at schools, but have scheduled a few speaking appearances and workshops this year, the next being at the Erma Bombeck Writer’s Workshop. Meanwhile, I’m going to suggest two items for those who may have been hoping for some writing advice;

Tiffany Yates Martin’s book Intuitive Editing is really great. For a sneak peek of Tiffany’s wisdom, go here to Jane Friedman’s blog.

Secondly, I think many cartoonists and writers may find this chat I had with writer Lou Carlozo for Qwoted helpful.

Thanks to everyone for the tremendous feedback and love for my two new books, Inspired by Cats and Footnotes from the Most Amazing Museums.

Example of readers helping us get the word out. Thank you Literate Lizard!

A note to the owner of Outsider Tart of England, who sells my books.

Finally, happy birthday to Elvis Presley. This is Elvis’ favorite room in Graceland.

From my new book Footnotes From the Most Fascinating Museums.

Thanks to friend Brian Carso for sharing this photo from the Clark Museum. And thank you Clark Museum!

1. If you subscribe to New York magazine, the whole article is here.