Benjamin A. Railton's Blog, page 16

May 28, 2025: 2020s Blockbusters: Jurassic World

[Moviegoinghas unquestionably changed a great deal in recent years, but there is still aplace for the summer blockbuster, and I believe there always will be. So forthe unofficial kickoff of another summer season, I wanted to AmericanStudy ahandful of recent such blockbusters!]

On what’snot new in the recent Jurassic Parksequels/reboots/whateverwecallthemnow, and what is.

I bloggedabout the original Jurassic Park (1993) almost exactly a decade ago,as part of a 2015 Memorial Day BlockbusterStudying series. This post willdefinitely be in conversation with that one, so I’d ask you to check it out ifyou would and then come on back for today’s thoughts.

Welcomeback! Full disclosure: I haven’t seen the whole of any of the newer JurassicPark films, which kicked off with 2015’s mega-hit summerblockbuster Jurassic World and has continued through JurassicWorld: Fallen Kingdom (2018), Jurassic World Dominion (2022), andthe forthcoming Jurassic World Rebirth (2025). But I have seen lots ofclips and have read a lot about them, and it seems clear to me that they are continuingthe trend on which I focused in that 2015 post: drastically simplifying thecomplicated scientific ideas and multilayered characters that Michael Crichton’soriginal novel did feature, in favor of much more cartoonish heroes andvillains, lots of dino action, clever deaths, and thelike. I have little doubt that if the films did more of the former and less of thelatter, they not only wouldn’t be the blockbusters they are, but probablywouldn’t exist because the first one wouldn’t have been the success it waseither. But if we’re going to claim that we’re investigating ethical and moralquestions around science (to quote a wise man, “Yourscientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stopto think if they should”), I’d prefer that we do so with a bit morethoughtfulness than these films display.

Spoileralert: this isn’t going to be one of those final paragraphs where I make thecase for a radical re-viewing of my post’s topic. But there is one new elementto Jurassic World (and, I believe, its sequels) that I find moreinteresting: Chris Pratt’s characterOwen Grady, an ethnologist who has learned how to train and work with dinosaurs(specifically velociraptors, the franchise’s consistent breakout dinostars).That’s a pretty ludicrous concept, which of course makes it totally appropriatefor a series that has depended on such at every step. But does it also representsomething distinct for the series, it seems to be: an emphasis on dinos ascharacters in their own right, and even potentially heroic ones, rather than achallenge that our heroic characters must overcome (they’re not necessarilyvillains in the earlier films, a title reserved for the human bad guys, but Ithink “challenge” is an accurate term). If we’re gonna keep making blockbusterdinosaur films, reframing them as more clearly about the dinosaurs seems like avery good call.

Nextblockbuster tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Summer blockbusters, recent or otherwise, you’d analyze?

May 27, 2025: 2020s Blockbusters: Inside Out 2

[Moviegoinghas unquestionably changed a great deal in recent years, but there is still aplace for the summer blockbuster, and I believe there always will be. So forthe unofficial kickoff of another summer season, I wanted to AmericanStudy ahandful of recent such blockbusters!]

On twodistinct ways to contextualize the highest-grossing filmof 2024.

First ofall, there’s absolutely nothing surprising about the fact that Inside Out 2was 2024’s top-grossing film. As the above hyperlinked list illustrates, fiveof the year’s top ten films were animated, and a sixth (Mufasa: The LionKing) could certainly be defined as such as well (and at least represents asequel to an animated film; well, a prequel, but you know what I mean!). Moreover,the other four of the five top-grossing Pixar filmsof all time were likewise sequels, including Incredibles 2, FindingDory, and the third and fourth installments in the Toy Storyfranchise. While animated films might not fit our stereotypical definition of asummer blockbuster (at least not as well as did yesterday’s subject Top Gun:Maverick, for example), in truth there’s no surer thing in Hollywood thandrawing kids to the movies over the summer, and of course most such kidaudience members will require at least one adult ticket purchase to accompanythem. Moreover, while many films over the last few years have not made it totheaters at all, it seems to me that big-budget animated films are still likelyto have at least some form of theatrical run, making it even more probable thanever that such films will occupy prominent places in the roster of box-office blockbusters.

With allthose caveats aside, however, it’s still interesting to me that Inside Out 2specifically tops both of these lists (ie, is both 2024’s and Pixar’s highest-grossingfilm), and I think we can contextualize that striking success in a couple distinctways. I haven’t seen the film, but from what I can tell it is very much inconversation with a longstanding and consistently popular film genre: highschool dramedies, and especially high school dramedies focused on teenage girls’experiences. That is, by aging the original Inside Out’s protagonist RileyAndersen up two years and making her an incoming high school student in the sequel,directorKelsey Mann and her co-screenwriters Meg LeFauveand Dave Holstein made a very smart choice, taking what had been more of a children’sfilm initially and shifting it into that teen/high school setting and genre. Tocite just one example (of a film celebrating its 30th anniversarythis summer, which doesn’t make me feel ancient or anything), Clueless (1995)was one of the most unexpected summerblockbusters of the 1990s, raking in more than $10 million its openingweekend to put it just behind the far more conventional summer film Apollo 13in that weekend’s box office. Teenagers might be an even more reliable summeraudience than young kids, as they can get themselves to the movies—and these consistentteen hits indicate as much.

It wouldbe wrong to suggest that such teen hits always or only focus on femaleprotagonists—StandBy Me (1986) opened in August, to name just one male-centered teenblockbuster. But I do believe that a significant majority of these summer successesare more focused on female characters and thus (to be reductive about it I know)on appealing to women as a primary audience—and in the case of Inside Out 2,while of course its female protagonist was an existing character to whom thesequel understandably returned, I think it missed an opportunity to add in a teenageboy as (for example) a second protagonist with his own set of animatedemotions. I fully understand how fraught that idea might be in execution (asthe Dad of two still-teenage sons, believe me I fully understand it), but Iwould also note (as manyothers have as well) that one of the central stories of the last few yearshas been a two-part failureto engage with teenage boys’ emotional lives: a failure of our society as awhole to do so; and a concurrent failure of teenage boys to find healthyoutlets for doing so, leading far too many of them to the likes of JordanPeterson and Joe Rogan et al. Obviously those are issues way beyond any onefilm or even the medium as a whole—but if there’s gonna be an Inside Out 3,I’d love for it to take a stab at the complicated and crucial question of youngmen’s emotional lives.

Nextblockbuster tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Summer blockbusters, recent or otherwise, you’d analyze?

May 26, 2025: 2020s Blockbusters: Top Gun: Maverick

[Moviegoinghas unquestionably changed a great deal in recent years, but there is still aplace for the summer blockbuster, and I believe there always will be. So forthe unofficial kickoff of another summer season, I wanted to AmericanStudy ahandful of recent such blockbusters!]

On a problemand a possibility with our cultural moment of ubiquitous sequels.

A good bitof the frame for today’s post is parallel to what I wrote in this priorpost about The Force Awakens(2015), nostalgia, and multi-generational storytelling. So if you don’t mindchecking out that post and then coming back here, I’d appreciate it!

Welcomeback! I haven’t yet had a chance to see one of the biggestblockbuster films of recent years, Top Gun: Maverick, and I don’t know that I will as I believe theoriginal Top Gun (1986) is one of theworst blockbuster films ever made. That’s a personal opinion, ofcourse (although as that hyperlinked article reflects, I’m not alone in holdingit), but I do think it illustrates a larger problem with the genuinely ubiquitouspresence of sequels, prequels, reboots, and other uses of existingintellectual properties in our current pop culture zeitgeist. The more thiskind of cultural product dominates the landscape, the more of theseexisting/prior works filmmakers and creators will have to return to—and therequite simply aren’t that many 1980s films (or works from any decade/moment)that have enough going on to make a sequel or reboot worthwhile or meaningful. Idon’t think it’s my Star Wars fandomalone that distinguishes that film franchise, and its truly imaginativeand culture-changing storytelling across so many decades and so manydifferent media (into all of which a sequel like The Force Awakens slotted thoughtfully, as I argued in that priorpost), from a simplistic and vapid individual blockbuster film like Top Gun.

So no, Idon’t think we needed another Top Gunfilm. But from what I can tell (and again, haven’t seen it, so as always Iwelcome responses and challenges in comments!), Maverick does do one really interesting thing that is a positivepossibility when it comes to these ubiquitous sequels (and that does link it toForce Awakens and the entire recent Star Wars trilogy): it actively thinksabout time. That is, despite star TomCruise’s seeming agelessness, he is of course three and a half decadesolder than he was in the original film, and thus his character Pete “Maverick”Mitchell is likewise. Much like the smash hit TV show Cobra Kai (which Ialso haven’t seen, outside of clips here and there, but when does that stop anAmericanStudier?!), Maverick is thusable to not just continue the original story, but to reflect actively on thepassage of time, on themes of continuity and change, on the relationships(limiting and enriching alike) between the past and the present. Maybe I’mbiased because those are the kinds of questions that define every part of mywork and career, but I believe we all can benefit from asking them, of our popculture stories and our own identities and everything in between. If even sillyblockbusters can help us do so, then count me in!

Nextblockbuster tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Summer blockbusters, recent or otherwise, you’d analyze?

May 24-25, 2025: Malcolm X’s 100th: Malcolm in 2025

[May 19th marks the100th birthday of Malcolm Little, better known as Malcolm X. So thisweek I’ve AmericanStudied a handful of cultural representations of Malcolm,leading up to this special weekend post on what we can learn from Malcolm herein 2025!]

On threeof the many lessons from Malcolm X’s life and work worth learning from in ourown moment.

1)     Cross-Cultural Connections: I’ve written a fewtimes in this space (andelsewhere) about YuriKochiyama, the Japanese American activist who became so close to Malcolmthat she was famouslyphotographed cradling his head just after his February 1965 assassination. Kochiyama’sactivisms were consistently defined by cross-cultural connections, whether tothe Civil Rights Movement or Puerto Rican independence fighters or illegallyimprisoned Muslim Americans after 9/11. But her relationship with Malcolm Xlikewise reminds us that he too forged such cross-cultural connections, thathis work was undertaken in conversation and collaboration with others doing thework (despite the narrative of him as a separatist, which does reflect some ofhis views but is far from sufficient to understanding him). Now more than ever,we must all hang together, and I value all reminders of such solidarity fromacross our histories.

2)     Antisemitism: None of us are perfectly able toembody such solidarity, though, and in one key area Malcolm fell short, andindeed too often expressed the divisions and discriminations that are theopposite of solidarity. Due in part to his dozen years as a leader of theradical Nationof Islam (NOI), and in part to what seem to have been his personalprejudices, Malcolm consistently voiced and advocated for antisemitic ideas andnarratives, including not just through statements like“In America, Jews sap the very life-blood of the so-called Negroes to maintainthe state of Israel” but also throughdistributing The Protocols of the Elders of Zion to NOI members. In2025 America accusations of antisemitism are too often used as anexcuse for persecution of other endangered individuals; but that incrediblyfrustrating trend can’t allow us to dismiss the genuine presenceof antisemitic views and narratives in our moment and society, including ifnot especially among communities that should be allies of those facing suchhate.

3)     Human Heroism: Remembering that most frustratingside of Malcolm’s views helps us do what I argued throughout this week’s seriescultural works can also do: see such historical figures as human, with all thelayers (from the best to the worst of us) that that implies. Obviously thatdoesn’t excuse the worst, nor mean that we have to simply accept it withoutcritique or challenge; but at the same time, I’ve never encountered ahistorical figure who didn’t have layers that needed such critique andchallenge, and so we can and must engage them while still finding and focusingon figures whose best can inspire our own best. This concept of human heroismfeels to me like a parallel to others on which I’ve focused in recent years,from critical patriotism to critical optimism. I need to keep thinking aboutit, but I believe it has real value, and certainly can help us see a figurelike Malcolm X as a human hero.

Nextseries starts Monday,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Representations or other sides of Malcolm X you’d highlight?

May 23, 2025: Malcolm X’s 100th: One Night in Miami

[May 19th marks the100th birthday of Malcolm Little, better known as Malcolm X. So thisweek I’ll AmericanStudy a handful of cultural representations of Malcolm,leading up to a special weekend post on what we can learn from Malcolm here in2025!]

I’m goingto keep this post relatively short, as I haven’t yet had a chance to watchRegina King’s 2020film adaptation of KempPowers’s 2013 stage play OneNight in Miami. I hope to do so soon, as it looks like a fascinatingway to reimagine all four of its central historical figures as well as contextsrelated to race in America, the 1960s, celebrity and cultural impact, and more.But what I especially want to highlight here is something that I discussed abit in yesterday’s post on Selma but that it seems like this filmdevelops even further: the reminder that any historical figure, including ifnot especially one as individually iconic as Malcolm X, existed in socialcommunities. More exactly, One Night in Miami seeks to examine thefriendships between its four focal figures, and thus when it comes to Malcolmto consider how such relationships might have shaped as well as been shaped byhis personal, political, religious, activist, etc. interests and actions. Itcan be very hard with such icons to remember and engage with those human sidesof their lives and identities—but I believe cultural works are uniquelypositioned to help us do so, and I look forward to checking out this unique andcompelling such cultural work very soon.

Specialpost this weekend,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Representations or other sides of Malcolm X you’d highlight?

May 22, 2025: Malcolm X’s 100th: A Cameo in Selma

[May 19th marks the100th birthday of Malcolm Little, better known as Malcolm X. So thisweek I’ll AmericanStudy a handful of cultural representations of Malcolm,leading up to a special weekend post on what we can learn from Malcolm here in2025!]

On twoways to analyze Malcolm’s briefappearance in Ava DuVernay’s Selma (2014).

Just overten years ago, I wrotea piece about Selma and its representations of history for myTalking Points Memo column. While I didn’t address the film’s depiction ofMalcolm X in that column, I’m certainly continuing to consider thoseoverarching questions in this post, so in lieu of a first paragraph would askyou to check out that prior column and then come on back for those furtherthoughts.

Welcomeback! I know that my use of “distort” in that column’s title and main idea is acontroversial one, but I stand by my meaning: that our dominant narratives ofthe Civil Rights Movement, in cultural works as in every other layer ofcollective memory, have been those of white perspectives, and thus that we wereand remain long overdue for narratives shaped by Black perspectives instead(even if, per the example on which I focused there, Lyndon Johnson comes offlooking worse as a result). The film’s depiction of Malcolm X is shaped in aparallel but slightly different way: Selma’s central shaping perspectivesare those of Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife Coretta Scott King; so whenMalcolm X enters the story (played by Nigel Thatch, who has reprised the role in therecent TV series Godfather of Harlem), it’s through their eyes that wesee him, especially in thescene when Coretta convinces Malcolm to support her husband despite theirdifferences. That makes Malcolm’s role in the story the equivalent of whatliterary critics would call afoil—a supporting character (or other element of a text) who exists to shedlight on the main character through comparisons and contrasts.

That’s unquestionablythe case for Malcolm’s role in Selma, but I would also add this: Malcolmand Coretta’s conversation is one of many scenes in the film where multipleAfrican American characters discuss strategy, usually without any whitecharacters present; indeed, I would argue that the majority of the movie’sscenes feature such conversations. (Including the best scene by far and one ofmy favorites in 21st century cinema to date, between King and the youngJohn Lewis; it doesn’t seem to be online at the moment, but is well worthseeking out.) This might seem like a given in a film about one of the keycollective actions of the Civil Rights Movement, but I’m pointing it out becauseI believe it was truly groundbreaking in 2014, and is still a rarity (althoughother recent films such as Rustin[2023] have extended the tradition). Even the subject of yesterday’s post, SpikeLee’s Malcolm X biopic, due to its epic scope and multiple throughlines doesn’tmake such conversations a central element. Which means that even though Malcolm’sappearance in Selma is a brief one, it’s also groundbreaking in itscinematic depiction of his strategic thinking within the movement and inconversation with other movement leaders—making this a meaningful cameo to besure.

LastMalcolmStudying tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Representations or other sides of Malcolm X you’d highlight?

May 21, 2025: Malcolm X’s 100th: Lee’s Film

[May 19th marks the100th birthday of Malcolm Little, better known as Malcolm X. So thisweek I’ll AmericanStudy a handful of cultural representations of Malcolm,leading up to a special weekend post on what we can learn from Malcolm here in2025!]

Threeinteresting contexts for Spike Lee’s epic 1992 biopic.

1)     A Long-Gestating Script: One of my favoritethings about writing this blog is how much I learn from researching just aboutevery post, even on subjects about which I have some starting point knowledge(which isn’t always the case, to be clear). Case in point: I had no idea thatthe original screenplay on which Lee based his film had been written, or atleast started, in the late 1960s, by none other than James Baldwin (collaboratingwith the formerly blacklisted screenwriter ArnoldPerl). Baldwin was never quite able to crack the code of adapting Malcolm’sautobiography into a screenplay, and the project subsequently passed through anumber of other talented hands, from DavidMamet to DavidBradley among others. But when Lee took over as the film’s director (moreon that in a moment), it was Baldwin and Perl’sscreenplay to which he returned, and so this 1990s film truly had 1960sroots.

2)     An Alternative Director: If that long-gestatingscript was one reason why it look a good while to make Malcolm X,another was that a different Hollywood director was initially attached: NormanJewison, who had made Inthe Heat of the Night (1967) among many other acclaimed films over hislong career. A number of African American artists and critics, including SpikeLee himself, protestedthat move, however, arguing that a Black filmmaker should be the one todirect this marquee project. Producer MarvinWorth (who had been attached to the project since the days of Baldwin andPerl’s initial screenplay) ultimately agreed and asked Jewison to step down infavor of Lee, but it’s interesting to think about what version of the filmJewison might have made—and we have some indications of an answer when we lookat the civil rights film Jewison made with star Denzel Washington later in thedecade, TheHurricane (1999). At the very least, the two films make for aninteresting pairing!

3)     An Interesting Request: In any case, Lee diddirect the film, and the result (while to my mind a bit long and meandering attimes) is an impressive and important biopic, featuring a career highlight performancefrom Denzel (which is a competitive category to be sure). Shortly before thefilm was due to be released in late 1992, Lee put out a controversialrequest that students skip school to attend screenings (and that adultstake the day off from work, but the school idea received more pushback). As aneducator and a parent, I understand why people might have resisted the idea;but as an educator and a parent, I also agree with Lee that education and developmenttake multiple forms, and that cultural works have an important role to play inthose processes. Hell, my entire elementary school missed class for an assemblywhere we watched the “Thriller” music video/short film (true story); and whileI enjoyed those dancing zombies like everyone one, I’d say the best cinematicrepresentation to date of Malcolm X is a slightly more worthy reason to miss school!

NextMalcolmStudying tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Representations or other sides of Malcolm X you’d highlight?

May 20, 2025: Malcolm X’s 100th: An Opera

[May 19th marks the100th birthday of Malcolm Little, better known as Malcolm X. So thisweek I’ll AmericanStudy a handful of cultural representations of Malcolm,leading up to a special weekend post on what we can learn from Malcolm here in2025!]

On twodistinct and equally important ways to contextualize the opera X:The Life and Times of Malcolm X (1986).

As an Appendixto his collection SilentInterviews (1994; the Appendix begins on page 298 of that PDF), thenovelist and critic SamuelR. Delany included an extended November 1986 conversation with the composerAnthony Davis on the occasionof his then-new opera X. It’s a really wonderful and illuminatinginterview, and so in lieu of a full first paragraph I’d ask you to check thatout if you would, and then come on back for some further thoughts of mine.

Welcomeback! The starting point for Delany’s interview with Davis is a mutual recognitionthat Black people have long been subjects of operas, both aroundthe world and in the UnitedStates specifically, but very rarely have had the opportunity to compose suchcultural works (at least not ones that have seen the light of day). Perhaps thatgenuinely groundbreaking nature of Davis’s opera (which was co-written with twofamily members, as the libretto is by his and the story by his ) helps explain why it seems to have frustratinglyvanished in its own moment; certainly it helps explain why the opera has made atriumphantcomeback in the 2020s, although I shudder to think about its fate in the Ageof Trump. In any case, I have to believe that Malcolm would have loved that hewas the subject of such a controversial and crucial cultural work, even if hemight have sneered a bit at the upper middle class (if not upper class)pretensions of the genre overall (it seems that Malcolm sneeredat his co-author Alex Haley’s own such upbringing, anyway).

At thesame time, I think it’s vital that we not limit our lens on X to questionsof race and representation—there’s a reason, after all, why a good deal of the conversationbetween Delany and Davis focuses instead on the genre and traditions of opera,and on related questions of music, performance, staging, and more. I’ll admitto knowing very little about the apparently two-century history of American operas; and I have onlyrecently started to learn more about the pioneering African American composer WilliamGrant Still, who, along with his fellow and somewhat better-rememberedcomposer ScottJoplin, penned groundbreaking operas in the early 20th century. (Iwould add another groundbreaking early 20th century work, Zitkala-Ša’sSunDance Opera [1913], to that list as well.) All of which is to say, for thoseAmericans—and I would count myself in this unfortunate category, at least untilvery recently—who see opera as an almost entirely foreign art form, there’s along and fascinating legacy of American opera to be recovered and restaged, andX: The Life and Times of Malcolm X deserves a prominent place in that pantheon. 

NextMalcolmStudying tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Representations or other sides of Malcolm X you’d highlight?

May 19, 2025: Malcolm X’s 100th: The Autobiography

[May 19th marks the100th birthday of Malcolm Little, better known as Malcolm X. So thisweek I’ll AmericanStudy a handful of cultural representations of Malcolm, leadingup to a special weekend post on what we can learn from Malcolm here in 2025!]

On the inevitablelimits of autobiography, and why this one is especially vital nonetheless.

Forwhatever reason I haven’t written a lot in this space about TheAutobiography of Malcolm X (1965), but I have dedicated a number ofposts to the genreof life writing overall, and I hope every time I’ve done so I’ve made clearhow much mythmakingis inevitably part of such texts. From St.Augustine to RichardWright, BenFranklin to JamesFrey, and everywhere in between, any act of autobiographical writing—while withoutquestion engaged with identity in real and meaningful ways—entails a good bitof storytelling, of the crafting of a narrative that (like all narratives)features choices of what is included and what is excluded, what is emphasized andwhat is minimized, and perhaps most of all what is intended for an audience andfor what reasons. None of which is meant as a criticism necessarily, but Iwould be highly critical of anyone who argued or implied that in reading an autobiographicalwork we are definitively learning about the life or identity of the person inquestion—which doesn’t mean we can’t learn such things from them (and lots ofother things), just that we do so as we always do as readers of a text, throughanalysis and interpretation and critical engagement.

All of whichis not only true of, but also in one important way exacerbated in, MalcolmLittle’s autobiographical book. Because despite its title the Autobiographyisn’t exactly a piece of autobiographical writing—the young AfricanAmerican journalist and future novelist Alex Haley served as itsghostwriter, authoring the book out of a seriesof conversations and collaborations with Malcolm over the last few years ofMalcolm’s life. That Haley would go on to write his own very complicated pieceof autobiographically inspired fiction, Roots(1976), adds one further layer to the questions of the Autobiography’sgenre. But even without that additional detail, the very nature of the Autobiography’sdual and in atleast some important ways dueling authorships—a subject that, to hiscredit, Haley did not shy away from addressing, especially in theEpilogue he appended to the book when it was published a few months after Malcolm’sassassination—forces any reader to think critically about what is and is notpart of the book, about the motivations of each of these distinct authors and voices,about all the layers that are inevitably part of the genre but that, again, aretaken to another level by this uniquely composed autobiographical work.

So maybewe can’t be sure that we’re learning precise or at least simple truths aboutMalcolm X when we read his Autobiography—but along with all the thingswe can still learn about the man and his perspective, identity, and story, thereare of course lots of other meaningful lessons to be drawn from this monumentalwork. I think it’s quite telling, for example, that when Eric Holder was endinghis tenure as the first African American U.S. Attorney General in early 2015, herecommended that “every American” read The Autobiography of Malcolm X.Holder makes that case through Malcolm’s own evolutions, arguing, “To see thetransition that that man went through…from petty criminal, to a person who was severelyand negatively afflicted by race, to somebody who ultimately saw the humanityin all of us.” I would agree, but I would also complement that perspective withan emphasis on the layers of American history that the book forces us to examine,many of them the worst of our prejudices and discriminations and whitesupremacist violences and their effects. Malcolm’s own voice throughout hispublic activist life demanded that we look long and hard at the worst of us,and I believe his complicated and crucial book does the same.

NextMalcolmStudying tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Representations or other sides of Malcolm X you’d highlight?

May 17-18, 2025: What’s Next

Followingup the week’s semester reflections series, here are a few upcoming things—teaching-wiseand otherwise—I’m looking forward to!

1)     A Return to Honors Lit: I’ve got lots ofupcoming classes of course, including one over the summer (a quick version of AmericanLit II) and the usual balance of things in the Fall (a couple First-YearWritings and another Am Lit II, for example). But one for the Fall semester forwhich I’m especially excited is my return to our HonorsLiterature Seminar, after a number of years where other folks have taughtthat course. I gave brief thought to reinventing the syllabus a bit (somethingwe should always at least consider I believe), but at the end of the day I can’timagine a more relevant Fall 2025 subject than Americain the Gilded Age, and I’m really excited to work with another group of ouramazing Honors students to read and discuss and analyze literary, cultural, andhistorical texts from that all-too-familiar era.

2)     A Public Scholarly Website: When it comes tomy own scholarly work, I remain uncertain about when and whether I’ll return tobook-length projects, at least in writing—I’m definitely interested in another “season”of my podcast, as I discussed in that post (and for which I’d still lovesuggestions!). But I’m also excited about another scholarly project, one mywife and I have begun discussing: creating a public scholarly website that canhost each of our work in multiple forms, but also and especially serve as acommunity that can both share others’ existing work and offer folks a placewhere they can create and publish new work. Much more on that to follow, butplease let me know, here or byemail, if you have interest, ideas, anything you’d like to contribute tothat evolving conversation!

3)     Two Sons in College!: Do I need to say more?!Actually, I definitely do, but I’m drafting this post before we have a definiteanswer about where my youngerson Kyle will end up, and I’ll add a further note once that’s settled. Butwhat I can say no matter what is that, sad as the thought makes me in some waysof course, I’m also really excited to have both boys be part of thesecommunities and conversations, and to be able to share here all the placestheir education and lives take them.

Nextseries starts Monday,

Ben

PS. What’scoming up for you?