Novalis, Spinoza, and the Limits of Romantic Materialism - Northwestern University Press Offering an innovative and illuminating new reading of Spinoza and NovalisThis rigorously researched study reframes our understanding of the intellectual cur...

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My book "Novalis, Spinoza, and the Limits of Romantic Materialism" now has a cover, and it is available for pre-order, both in hardcover and (luckily) paperback.

midterm season

Campus, civil rights groups criticize agreement presented to Penn tying adherence to funding advantage “When an invitation is accompanied by consequences for not accepting it, it is in fact a threat, not an invitation,” the AAUP-Penn wrote.

“‘The compact represents a total violation of academic freedom, shared governance and an open democracy,’ [AAUP-Penn president Jessa Lingel] wrote. “So now we'll get to see what kind of university we have—one that stands up to tyranny or one that capitulates.” www.thedp.com/article/2025...

Your Excellencies, Your Worships, Your Honors, and Citizens, the Emperor and Autocrat of All the States, Ruler of Washington and Mar-o-Logo, the Chairman of Culture and Education, is cutting the beards!

creating yet another signal chat as a form of torture

Wait, is cheering for St Pauli illegal in the US? Or can get you fired? … asking for a friend.

Amazing, thank you!

Ok- technically, I’m writing on Tronti’s distinction about c mode of production and c society, seeing what it does for us today, and ended up veering into v3 and these debates. Will let you know if what emerges is relevant to your interests.

Wonderful, thank you!

Thanks so much! If you send me the articles you had in mind, I would very much appreciate it!

I had no idea!! Please do, thank you, that would be very helpful!

I have Pasquanelli’s book, but haven’t read yet. Anything specific I should look at? And, yes, re lit on platforms and what preceded — that is of central issue to me (but am new to this discourse, so pointers help)

I’m reading/ writing on v3, ground rent specifically. You mean the automatic fetish? Haven’t read, thank you!

Best literature on land, labor, money— as things that don’t have value (but can be sold, have a price). What you got?

AI chat bot resembles Plato's dialogues. Whatever you (Socrates) ask, it spits out the affirmation of whatever presupposition you smuggled in and ends with a QED, a definitive proof of what you always already knew.

I always find it strange when people refer to countries with gendered pronouns. Russian is she/her; England is she/her. Any they/them countries out there?

Or a Hungarian / Romanian / Albanian / Slovak person?

Signing my email up to "Christian Mingle" platform is, of course, a good prank. But whom did I piss off that much to warrant the punishment?

As an immigrant, there is nothing more that I hate than some immigrants--more established, more "white", more safe--turn on other immigrants.

no doubt, that's the function of the "limit" in the title

My book finally has a title: Novalis, Spinoza, and the Limits of Romantic Materialism, and it is now officially in production with Northwestern UP.

I mean, sure, I say what I think in public, but what is the snitching policy in these places?

getting invited to speak at a frat house because "a number of brothers of the fraternity" found my classes "nothing short of inspiring" -- was definitely not on my bingo card for this year

Is anyone translating this?

Ah, yes, of course, the classical distinction. I was asking specifically about the emergence of the "capitalist" society vs let's say bourgeois society (which Tronti correlates, interestingly, with the emergence of the working class vs the proletariat).

Can you elaborate? Capitalism and capital society? Or the society is only bourgeois? (In the sense of civil society?)

Tronti identifies a difference between capitalist mode of production and the emergence of "capitalist society" proper (applying only to the post-WWII). Has anyone done further work on this differentiation between "capitalist mode of production" vs "capitalist society"?

straight to the gulag

when you start naming your drafts not by month-day, but by the current year only...