Upcoming Talk: me at Urbana Champaign this week

by KARL STEEL

If you're in Illinois this week and not otherwise occupied submitting dead letters, why not come to Urbana Champaign on Thursday and see me talk about animals, or swing by Friday for a werewolf seminar?

The lecture's title, submitted back in August, has not much to do with the actual talk I'm delivering. Such is the way of the world. So falls ambition. In the midst of life we are in death, etc.

While the seminar's still on werewolves (and Derrida's Beast and the Sovereign), my talk (shhh, don't tell Rob Barrett) is actually called "Yvain's Herdsman, A Lion, and Several Dead Dogs: Rules for Being Human, and Some Ways Out." No one knows this yet but me. And you, now.

I'm really enjoying the chance to return to some material from my book and to do it better. We have 17th-century French Jansenists, codicology and l'animot, and some challenges to the logic of the pet. I'm VERY much looking forward to it, and thanks much to Rob and the tireless Charlie Wright for making this happen.