Edu-fuck-cated - Studyblr?

Essays

Here’s a (non-exhaustive) list of essays I like/find interesting/are food for thought; I’ve tried to sort them as much as possible. The starred (*) ones are those I especially love

also quick note: some of these links, especially the ones that are from books/anthologies redirect you to libgen or scihub, and if that doesn’t work for you, do message me; I’d be happy to send them across!

Literature + Writing

Godot Comes to Sarajevo - Susan Sontag

The Strangeness of Grief - V. S. Naipaul*

Memories of V. S. Naipaul - Paul Theroux*

A Rainy Day with Ruskin Bond - Mayank Austen Soofi

How Albert Camus Faced History - Adam Gopnik

Listen, Bro - Jo Livingstone

Rachel Cusk Gut-Renovates the Novel - Judith Thurman

Lost in Translation: What the First Line of “The Stranger” Should Be - Ryan Bloom

The Duke in His Domain - Truman Capote*

The Cult of Donna Tartt: Themes and Strategies in The Secret History - Ana Rita Catalão Guedes

Never Do That to a Book - Anne Fadiman*

Affecting Anger: Ideologies of Community Mobilisation in Early Hindi Novel - Rohan Chauhan*

Why I Write - George Orwell*

Rimbaud and Patti Smith: Style as Social Deviance - Carrie Jaurès Noland*

Art + Photography (+ Aesthetics)

Looking at War - Susan Sontag*

Love, sex, art, and death - Nan Goldin, David Wojnarowicz

Lyons, Szarkowski, and the Perception of Photography - Anne Wilkes Tucker

The Feminist Critique of Art History - Thalia Gouma-Peterson, Patricia Mathews

In Plato’s Cave - Susan Sontag*

On reproduction of art (Chapter 1, Ways of Seeing) - John Berger*

On nudity and women in art (Chapter 3, Ways of Seeing) - John Berger*

Kalighat Paintings  - Sharmishtha Chaudhuri

Daydreams and Fragments: On How We Retrieve Images From the Past -  Maël Renouard

Arthur Rimbaud: the Aesthetics of Intoxication - Enid Rhodes Peschel

Cities

Tragic Fable of Mumbai Mills - Gyan Prakash

Whose Bandra is it? - Dustin Silgardo*

Timur’s Registan: noblest public square in the world? - Srinath Perur

The first Starbucks coffee shop, Seattle - Colin Marshall*

Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Mumbai’s iconic railway station - Srinath Perur

From London to Mumbai and Back Again: Gentrification and Public Policy in Comparative Perspective -  Andrew Harris

The Limits of “White Town” in Colonial Calcutta - Swati Chattopadhyay

The Metropolis and Mental Life - Georg Simmel

Colonial Policy and the Culture of Immigration: Citing the Social History of Varanasi - Vinod Kumar, Shiv Narayan

A Caribbean Creole Capital: Kingston, Jamaica - Coln G. Clarke (from Colonial Cities by Robert Ross, Gerard J. Telkamp

The Colonial City and the Post-Colonial World - G. A. de Bruijne

The Nowhere City - Amos Elon*

The Vertical Flâneur: Narratorial Tradecraft in the Colonial Metropolis - Paul K. Saint-Amour

Philosophy

The trolley problem problem - James Wilson

A Brief History of Death - Nir Baram

Justice as Fairness: Political not Metaphysical - John Rawls*

Should Marxists be Interested in Exploitation? - John E. Roemer

The Discomfort You’re Feeling is Grief - Scott Berinato*

The Pandemic and the Crisis of Faith - Makarand Paranjape

If God Is Dead, Your Time is Everything - James Wood

Giving Up on God - Ronald Inglehart

The Limits of Consensual Decision - Douglas Rae*

The Science of “Muddling Through” - Charles Lindblom*

History

The Gruesome History of Eating Corpses as Medicine - Maria Dolan

The History of Loneliness - Jill Lepore*

From Tuskegee to Togo: the Problem of Freedom in the Empire of Cotton - Sven Beckert*

Time, Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism - E. P. Thompson*

All By Myself - Martha Bailey*

The Geographical Pivot of History - H. J. Mackinder

The sea/ocean

Rim of Life - Manu Pillai

Exploring the Indian Ocean as a rich archive of history – above and below the water line - Isabel Hofmeyr, Charne Lavery

‘Piracy’, connectivity and seaborne power in the Middle Ages - Nikolas Jaspert (from The Sea in History)*

The Vikings and their age - Nils Blomkvist (from The Sea in History)*

Mercantile Networks, Port Cities, and “Pirate” States - Roxani Eleni Margariti

Phantom Peril in the Arctic - Robert David English, Morgan Grant Gardner*

Assorted ones on India

A departure from history: Kashmiri Pandits, 1990-2001 - Alexander Evans *

Writing Post-Orientalist Histories of the Third World - Gyan Prakash

Empire: How Colonial India Made Modern Britain - Aditya Mukherjee

Feminism and Nationalism in India, 1917-1947 - Aparna Basu

The Epic Riddle of Dating Ramayana, Mahabharata - Sunaina Kumar*

Caste and Politics: Identity Over System - Dipankar Gupta

Our worldview is Delhi based*

Sports (you’ll have to excuse the fact that it’s only cricket but what can i say, i’m indian)

‘Massa Day Done:’ Cricket as a Catalyst for West Indian Independence: 1950-1962 - John Newman*

Playing for power? rugby, Afrikaner nationalism and masculinity in South Africa, c.1900–70 - Albert Grundlingh

When Cricket Was a Symbol, Not Just a Sport - Baz Dreisinger

Cricket, caste, community, colonialism: the politics of a great game - Ramachandra Guha*

Cricket and Politics in Colonial India - Ramchandra Guha

MS Dhoni: A quiet radical who did it his way*

Music

Brega: Music and Conflict in Urban Brazil - Samuel M. Araújo

Color, Music and Conflict: A Study of Aggression in Trinidad with Reference to the Role of Traditional Music - J. D. Elder

The 1975 - ‘Notes On a Conditional Form’ review - Dan Stubbs*

Life Without Live - Rob Sheffield*

How Britney Spears Changed Pop - Rob Sheffield

Concert for Bangladesh

From “Help!” to “Helping out a Friend”: Imagining South Asia through the Beatles and the Concert for Bangladesh - Samantha Christiansen 

Gender

Clothing Behaviour as Non-verbal Resistance - Diana Crane

The Normalisation of Queer Theory - David M. Halperin

Menstruation and the Holocaust - Jo-Ann Owusu*

Women’s Suffrage the Democratic Peace - Allan Dafoe

Pink and Blue: Coloring Inside the Lines of Gender - Catherine Zuckerman*

Women’s health concerns are dismissed more, studied less - Zoanne Clack

Food

How Food-Obsessed Millennials Shape the Future of Food - Rachel A. Becker (as a non-food obsessed somewhat-millennial, this was interesting)

Colonialism’s effect on how and what we eat - Coral Lee

Tracing Europe’s influence on India’s culinary heritage - Ruth Dsouza Prabhu

Chicken Kiev: the world’s most contested ready-meal*

From Russia with mayo: the story of a Soviet super-salad*

The Politics of Pancakes - Taylor Aucoin*

How Doughnuts Fuelled the American Dream*

Pav from the Nau

A Short History of the Vada Pav - Saira Menezes

Fantasy (mostly just harry potter and lord of the rings)

Purebloods and Mudbloods: Race, Species, and Power (from The Politics of Harry Potter)

Azkaban: Discipline, Punishment, and Human Rights (from The Politics of Harry Potter)*

Good and Evil in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lengendarium - Jyrki Korpua

The Fairy Story: J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis - Colin Duriez (from Tree of Tales)*

Tolkien’s Augustinian Understanding of Good and Evil: Why The Lord of the Rings Is Not Manichean - Ralph Wood (from Tree of Tales)*

Travel

The Hidden Cost of Wildlife Tourism

Chronicles of a Writer’s 1950s Road Trip Across France - Kathleen Phelan

On the Early Women Pioneers of Trail Hiking - Gwenyth Loose

On the Mythologies of the Himalaya Mountains - Ed Douglas*

More random assorted ones

The cosmos from the wheelchair (The Economist obituaries)*

In El Salvador - Joan Didion

Scientists are unravelling the mystery of pain - Yudhijit Banerjee

Notes on Nationalism - George Orwell

Politics and the English Language - George Orwell*

What Do the Humanities Do in a Crisis? - Agnes Callard*

The Politics of Joker - Kyle Smith

Sushant Singh Rajput: The outsider - Uday Bhatia*

Credibility and Mystery - John Berger

happy reading :)

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Hi I was just wondering if you could give me a few more examples of sarcastic/ironic phrases? Because that's how I speak so often in English that it feels weird to speak a language without my personality (if that makes sense) 💓💓💓

Hello,

You’re opening Pandora’s box here! Here are a few:

When someone has achieved something meaningless: T’es un as, un champion, un génie… Si tu n’existais pas ça, il faudrait t’inventer (If you didn’t exist, we’d have to invent you); C’est pas sorcier (It’s not witchcraft): You don’t need to be a magician to know how to do that,

When someone isn’t too bright: Il n’a pas inventé l’eau chaude/le fil à couper le beurre/la poudre (He hasn’t invented warm water / butterwire / powder), Il n’a pas la lumière à tous les étages (He doesn’t have the light on at every floor),

When someone tells you about something you don’t care about: Ça me fait une belle jambe (It makes my leg look good) ; (Ferme) ta gueule, pour voir? C’est mieux (Let’s see: try to shut the fuck up? (silence) That’s better),

Ce n’est pas demain la veille: It’s not tomorrow the day before (It’s not about to happen) ex: Maybe one day we’ll all live in peace but c’est pas demain la veille,

When someone is being fussy: Tu vas pas en chier une pendule?! (You’re not going to shit a clock, aren’t you?); C’est la fin des haricots! (That’s the end of the beans) : We all gonna die; C’est pas tout mais je vais y aller (That’s not all but i’m going to go): I’m bored to death, I’m off; Pleure, tu pisseras moins (Cry about it, you’ll have less to pee).

When someone gives you unpleasant news: C’est la meilleure de l’année (’it’s the best of the year’): that’s the dumbest/worst thing i’ve ever heard; Tu te fous de ma gueule?: you’re shitting me, 

When someone presses you to go to an event you don’t care for: Ah bah ça serait dommage de rater ça (That’s be a shame to miss that),

- Is that you? - Non, c’est le pape (It’s the pope),

Something called antiphrase ironique, very popular : saying ‘What a great day’ when it’s raining, ‘Fantastic’ when something breaks…,

And many more! All of my expressions posts.

Hope this helps! x 

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♥French vocabulary : mystery ♥

Le mystère = mystery

mystérieux = mysterious

un secret, une arcane = a secret

cacher, dissimuler = to hide

murmurer, chuchoter = to whisper

un masque = a mask

une mascarade = a masquerade

les ténèbres, l'obscurité = darkness (both nouns are feminine)

un voile = a veil

la poussière = dust

l'éternité = eternity (feminine)

éternel = eternal

un mensonge = a lie

mentir = to lie

le temps = time

une épine = a thorn

un fil = a thread

la magie = magic

un spectre, un fantôme = a ghost

expliquer = to explain

découvrir = to discover

un trésor = a treasure

un conte = a tale

la fumée = smoke

croire = to believe

douter = to doubt

un miroir = a mirror

la vérité = truth

Gucci Campaign (with Ignasi Monreal)

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things i wish i could tell my freshman self: a list of miscellaneous college tips from a graduating college senior

1. having a huge set of highlighters are overrated. it’s better to just go over your readings with a good pen and annotate/underline as you read because that means you engage, ask questions, and take in information better. 2. always. pack. your own. lunch. pack. your own. coffee. this will save you so much money.  3. when in doubt, sleep. sleeping is better than studying. if you don’t know tomorrow’s coverage, it’s better to go that test well-rested and a little confused than sleepy AND confused. just sleep. 4. putting too much pressure on yourself is unhealthy. overwork is often romanticized as “a good work ethic” or “being productive”, but honestly, you’re abusing your body. it’s better to reframe pressure or negative motivation (”you MUST get high grades” “it feels good when i stay up all night because it means i’m studying like hermione/rory/etc etc”) into something positive and healthy: “i’ll finish these readings before 12 so i can get some sleep!” “it’s my dream to _______, so i’ll do my best!” 5. make friends with someone in every class you have, so you can ask about missed work. if you can, make friends with the professor to show that you care. 6. there’s more to college than academics. honors and high grades aren’t everything. don’t be afraid to go out and have fun!

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10 books for beginners in French

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Un coup de

Un coup d’arrêt: end (official)

Un coup de balai: a sweep (donner+)

Un coup de barre: sudden fatigue (2PM type)(avoir+)

Un coup de bol/pot: a lucky strike

Un coup de cafard: fit of blues (avoir+)

Un coup de chaleur: heat exhaustion

Un coup de chance: stroke of luck

Un coup de chiffon: light dusting

Un coup de coeur: infatuation

Un coup de crayon: a pencil line

Un coup d’essai: a first attempt

Un coup d’état: a coup

Un coup d’envoi: a kick-off

Un coup de feu: a gunshot (tirer+)

Un coup de fil/téléphone: a phone call (passer+)

Un coup de foudre: love at first sight

Un coup de frein: sharp braking (donner+)

Un coup de génie: a stroke of genius

Un coup de grâce: coup de grâce

Un coup de gueule: a rant (passer+)

Un coup de main: (giving) a hand (donner+)

Un coup de maître: a master stroke

Un coup de mou: a sluggish period

Un coup d’oeil: a glance (jeter+)

Un coup de pied: a kick (donner+)

Un coup de pinceau: a brush stroke

Un coup de poing: a punch

Un coup de soleil: a sunburn (attraper/prendre+)

Un coup d’un soir: a one-night stand

Un coup de tête: a head-butt

Un coup de théâtre: a dramatic turn of event

Un coup de tonnerre: a clap of thunder

Un coup de vent: a gust of wind

Un coup de vieux: feeling old (ex: when your nephew doesn’t know what a floppy disk is)(prendre+)

Un coup du lapin: whiplash

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how to study with a mental illness!!!! aka a guide to simultaneously caring for yourself and your academics

(disclaimer: this is from purely personal experience and is not a substitute for seeking professional help. these are just personal tips as i was formally diagnosed with depression and anxiety in the third year of college, but had been showing symptoms even in high school. different methods help for different people, but i really hope some of these things can help a struggling student out, because one of the reasons i went on studyblr in the first place was that i felt really lost and anxious.)

1. done is better than none. sometimes an assignment you have to turn in would be objectively easy to complete, but it takes longer to do so because you’re afraid that the final product won’t be as good as you want it to be, or as good as a professor expects it to be. it’s hard to remove those expectations, but it is a little easier when you remember that getting some points (no matter how many they are) are better than getting a deduction for late submissions or not turning in the project at all. many people – including myself – suffer from perfectionism in university, but it is overall more important to complete something to the best of your own ability, and learn from the feedback on the project later on. more importantly, often, you’re doing better than you think you’re doing, so surprise yourself. you can do it. just start.  2.  keep careful track of your deadlines.  much of my undergrad anxiety came from the fact that i knew something was due, but couldn’t keep track of it, or didn’t want to confront it. it’s better to confront it because you have more time to do it slowly and thoroughly. as soon as you hear about an impending exam or paper deadline, keep track of it. personally, i use google calendar. from there, you can make smaller plans and break down your goals to make it more doable! 3. don’t be afraid to ask for help.  there used to be a huge stigma against mental illness, but thankfully, many educational institutions are much kinder and more considerate about it. if you really can’t meet a deadline or come to class, let your professor know. most professors are kind, reasonable people who genuinely care about you and your well-being. even one of my scariest professors granted extensions to a girl who was genuinely struggling with serious depression, and the college of law i’m in takes mental health very seriously to the point that they instruct faculty how to deal with such cases.  if you’re not able to talk to a professor, try to ask help from a classmate or a friend who can share notes or fill you in on how they accomplished a certain assignment. many people will be happy to help. you are not a burden, love. 4. be kinder to yourself.  mental illness is like any illness. it often keeps us from doing as well as we’d like to be because it’s a genuine and serious health problem. sometimes it helps to keep this in mind when we flub a report in class (as i did several tens of times in undergrad), get a bad score, say something ridiculous during recitation, or mess up a paper. it’s okay to do your best while you heal. you know you’re trying your best, and slow growth is still growth. 5. on that note, care for your other needs.  one of my happiest and most fulfilled semesters (even though it was my busiest) was when i had time to see a psychiatrist, run, pack lunches and fruit to school to eat healthy, and have a reasonable-ish sleep schedule. this was during my thesis semester. while i had to take an incomplete, and finish my thesis the next sem, because i was attending to my own needs, i felt like a living, breathing, learning, happy person. and i finished my thesis the next semester. it’s better to look after your own physical health and needs before your academics. 6. sometimes, it’s better to do nothing and rest. you deserve it.  part of the reason i’d been doing horribly in law school was that i didn’t sleep and it was making me mildly unbalanced and incredibly suicidal; not to mention the fact that i wasn’t really retaining any information or performing well. rest days are just as important as days when you study because rest IS productivity.  7. take your meds. see your psych or therapist if you have one. avail yourself of mental health services on campus if there are any. these genuinely saved my life at a time that i thought i was beyond saving. please go seek help if you can.  BONUS: MY STUDY SETUP ON A TERRIBLE MENTAL HEALTH DAY (like today) - i try to clear the space and clean up as much as possible. it makes me feel like i have things under control, and have my work things where i can see them. - i eat something healthy, like fruit, and get a lot of water. i keep a water jug on my desk because it clears my thoughts and helps me replenish the fluids lost from crying (1/2jk). it also really keeps up my strength for the study process. - i turn on a calming playlist, like a jazz or lofi or ghibli playlist. in another window, i turn on a rain sound video on a softer volume, and it helps center me. - it helps when you have a soft or calming scent to calm you down. i use a lavender room spray, and it makes me feel cozy and productive, but in undergrad, i used this tea-tree lavender mix and it smelled like sunny afternoons and guitar coffeshop playlists. it really is nice. - there are breathing exercises and gifs all over the internet. they help calm you down when things seem Too Much.  i really hope this helps, guys. don’t hesitate to message me if you’ve been having a hard time with school or life or anything. please, please care for yourselves. you can do it.  – sam

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Hi mum <3 do you any tag/post about curse words/expressions/slang? haha i promise to use it wisely! j'ai besoin de scold quelqu'un ;)

Hello dear,

I made those! Here's some more:

This is nonsense: Tu dis n'importe quoi (neutral)/Tu racontes de la merde (rude)

Shut the hell up: Ferme bien ta grande gueule

No one likes you: Personne ne t'aime

Chill: Calme ton cul

Random ways to express frustration without insulting anyone: Merde, Putain, Fait chier, Chier, Nique sa race, Nique sa mère, Chiottes, Ça me fait trop chier, Bordel, Putain de bordel de merde de sa race (as you do)...

Random insults that technically aren't rude (vocabulary) but still savage and efficient; doubting of someone's intelligence or worth: (agender) Face de rat, Banane + Benêt + Abruti + Neuneu (dumb) Cloporte, Andouille, Grosse quiche, Grosse tanche, Sale race; (f) Pouilleuse, Grande dinde; (m) Tête de noeud, Vaurien, Vieux con (older), Sale plouc, Gros porc (perv), Minable, Fils de chien, Pouilleux, Sac à vin (drunk)...

Same but actually rude: (a) Mange-merde, Enflure, Trou du cul, Raclure, Casse-couilles, Connard, Sac à merde, Sac à foutre, Sale merde, Grosse merde, Gros tas de merde, Lèche-cul (asslicker) ; (m) Sale bâtard, Crétin, Crevard (stingy), Couillon, Salopard, Tête de con, Connard, Sale boloss, Branleur (lazy), Ducon, Enculé de ta mère; (f) Grosse chienne, Pétasse, Connasse, Pouf/Poufiasse, Crevarde (stingy), Salope, Grognasse...

Bisous!

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French fairy tales

Princess Rosette, Marie-Catherine d’Aulnoy : FR / EN

The fair with golden hair, Marie-Catherine d’Aulnoy : FR / EN

The friendly frog, Marie-Catherine d’Aulnoy : FR / EN

Aurore and Aimée, Jeanne de Beaumont : FR / EN

Beauty and the beast, Jeanne de Beaumont : FR / EN

Bluebeard, Charles Perrault : FR / EN

Cinderella, Charles Perrault : FR / EN

Donkey skin, Charles Perrault : FR / EN 

Little red riding hood, Charles Perrault : FR / EN

Little thumb, Charles Perrault : FR / EN

Puss in boots, Charles Perrault : FR / EN

Sleeping beauty, Charles Perrault : FR / EN

The fairy, Charles Perrault : FR / EN

Blondine, Sophie Ségur : FR / EN

Ourson, Sophie Ségur : FR / EN

Sophie’s misfortunes, Sophie Ségur : FR / EN

The little grey mouse, Sophie Ségur : FR / EN

(You can download the Wikisource PDFs legally for free at the top of the page as they are part of the public domain)

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french news vocabulary 🇫🇷

à la une   on the front page

les achats de précaution   panic buying

l'actualité, les actualités   news

affolé (adj)   panic-stricken

allégué (adj)   alleged

un appel   appeal, call

une arme   weapon, gun

une arme blanche   knife

les armes de destruction weapons of mass destruction

assassiner   to murder

un assaut attack un attentat   attack

un attentat-suicide   suicide bombing

l'avortement   abortion

la banlieue   suburb

un bilan   death toll

blanchir exonerate

blessé (adj)   injured, wounded

une bombe   bomb

un bouchon traffic jam

braquer to hold up, point a gun at

la canicule   heat wave

un cas de force majeure   disaster (natural or man-made)

les Casques bleus   UN peacekeeping forces

un casseur   rioter

une catastrophe aérienne   air disaster

une catastrophe écologique   environmental disaster

une catastrophe naturelle   natural disaster

censurer to censure

un cessez-le-feu   cease-fire

un cible - target

le chômage   unemployment

un collecte au profit des sinistrés   disaster fund

coupable guilty

un coup d'état   overthrow

une coupure de courant   power outage

le crime   crime

un criminel, une criminelle   criminal

une crise   crisis

un cyclone   cyclone, hurricane

se déclarer - to break out (eg. a fire) 

déclencher to launch 

décréter to declare 

des dégâts   damage

le deuil   bereavement, mourning

un désastre financier   financial disaster

un désastre politique   political disaster

les drogues (fem)   drugs

un éboulement   rockslide

une élection   election

une émeute   riot

une enquête   investigation

une épidémie   epidemic

extrader   to extradite

un feu   fire

un flic (informal)   cop

flotter le drapeau en berne to fly flag at half mast

la garde à vue   police custody

être mis/placé en garde à vue   to be kept in custody, held for questioning

le gaz lacrymogène   tear gas

un glissement de terrain   landslide

une grève (faire la grève)   strike (to be on strike)

la guerre   war

la grippe aviaire   bird flu

la grippe porcine   swine flu

hexagonal   French

l'Hexagone   France

un immigrant, un immigré   immigrant

les impôts (masc)   taxes

un incendie   fire

une inondation   flood

inonder   to flood

un insurgé   insurgent

des intempéries   bad weather

IVG   abortion 

le kamikaze   suicide bomber

la loi   law

la lutte (literal/figurative)   struggle, fight

une manifestation   demonstration

le meurtre   murder

la mondialisation   globalization

une navette spatiale   space shuttle

un obus   explosive shell

opération escargot   rolling blockade

un ouragan   hurricane

une panne d'électricité   blackout, power cut

la peine de mort   death penalty

la pénurie   shortage, lack

la police   police

un policier   police officer

la politique   politics, policy

le politique   politician

poursuivre en justice   to sue

le pouvoir d'achat   buying power

présumé (adj)   alleged

un procès   trial

le réchauffement de la planète   global warming

la région sinistrée   disaster area

une réplique   after-shock, counter-attack

la retraite   retirement

un scrutin   ballot, election

un séisme   earthquake, upheaval

selon (prep)   according to

un sinistré, une sinistrée   disaster victim

un soldat   soldier

un sommaire summary

un sondage   poll

soupçonner to suspect

le suicide assisté   assisted suicide

les suites aftermath

un syndicat   union

le système de santé publique   health care system

un témoin   witness

une tempête   storm

le terrorisme   terrorism

tirer (sur)   to shoot (at)

les titres   headlines, headline news

une tornade   tornado

les transports en commun   public transit

un tremblement de terre   earthquake

une trêve   truce

tuer   to kill

un vaccin   vaccine

une victime   victim  (Note that this word is always feminine, even when referring to a man)

viser  to target

voter   to vote

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