Maggie Fritz-Morkin
@emeffem.bsky.social
Medievalist/ italianist/ tennist, associate prof UNC-Chapel Hill, Boccaccio, prose and other cons. Up with the stars
Citing the Bible on my 1040 and suing the IRS for religious discrimination when I refuse to pay taxes
December 1, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Citing the Bible on my 1040 and suing the IRS for religious discrimination when I refuse to pay taxes
So many sirens in Chapel Hill tonight. Stay safe neighbors
December 1, 2025 at 5:25 AM
So many sirens in Chapel Hill tonight. Stay safe neighbors
November 30, 2025 at 12:49 PM
Thinking abt the last book of Castiglione’s Book of the Courtier, about leading the prince via virtuous example. At a certain point someone asks “but what if you have a bad prince? One who doesn’t want to be good?”
They don’t have a good answer (“then we’re fucked”)
…but Machavelli does
They don’t have a good answer (“then we’re fucked”)
…but Machavelli does
rich dudes got freakier after butlers fell out of fashion, like say what you will about having domestic servants but clearly it was some sort of moderating force on old rich dudes having a fancy man follow you around saying shit like "oh dear sir, that wouldn't be very becoming"
November 29, 2025 at 10:26 PM
Thinking abt the last book of Castiglione’s Book of the Courtier, about leading the prince via virtuous example. At a certain point someone asks “but what if you have a bad prince? One who doesn’t want to be good?”
They don’t have a good answer (“then we’re fucked”)
…but Machavelli does
They don’t have a good answer (“then we’re fucked”)
…but Machavelli does
Cahoot’s Macbeth (and Pavel Kohout’s subversive living-room theater) stunned me as an undergrad, and the idea of staging secret ad hoc plays has been on my mind lately as censorship looms larger. Who wants to come over and do the play as a tribute?
RIP Tom Stoppard
RIP Tom Stoppard
November 29, 2025 at 6:32 PM
Cahoot’s Macbeth (and Pavel Kohout’s subversive living-room theater) stunned me as an undergrad, and the idea of staging secret ad hoc plays has been on my mind lately as censorship looms larger. Who wants to come over and do the play as a tribute?
RIP Tom Stoppard
RIP Tom Stoppard
November 29, 2025 at 6:12 PM
If you bought nothing on #BlackFriday you get an extra #caturday
November 29, 2025 at 12:47 AM
If you bought nothing on #BlackFriday you get an extra #caturday
If your Black Friday tradition isn’t blasting the Nutcracker Suite and cleaning out your inbox are you even living
November 28, 2025 at 7:15 PM
If your Black Friday tradition isn’t blasting the Nutcracker Suite and cleaning out your inbox are you even living
Reposted by Maggie Fritz-Morkin
OK, who narced?
November 28, 2025 at 4:44 PM
OK, who narced?
Thanksgiving lost & found drama happening
November 27, 2025 at 10:33 PM
Thanksgiving lost & found drama happening
Don’t rread this without eyeball bleach or the shores of Lethe nearby
People are calling my lede here "appalling," "nightmare fuel," "actively evil," and "a desecration of the human spirit"
The Olivia Nuzzi and RFK Jr. Affair Is Messier Than We Ever Could Have Imagined
Inside the most important, and also least important, story of our time
www.theringer.com
November 26, 2025 at 3:08 AM
Don’t rread this without eyeball bleach or the shores of Lethe nearby
Reposted by Maggie Fritz-Morkin
Machiavelli: It is better to be feared than loved, but you must absolutely avoid being *hated.*
So many forget that last part.
So many forget that last part.
It is a bit alarming, when rereading Machiavelli's The Prince, that it lands as reportage rather than political theory. However, I find great comfort in the fact that they are really effing it up.
November 26, 2025 at 12:31 AM
Machiavelli: It is better to be feared than loved, but you must absolutely avoid being *hated.*
So many forget that last part.
So many forget that last part.
Reposted by Maggie Fritz-Morkin
The old craft brewing industry is dying, and the new craft brewing industry struggles to be born; now is the time of Monsters.
November 25, 2025 at 3:13 PM
The old craft brewing industry is dying, and the new craft brewing industry struggles to be born; now is the time of Monsters.
Our cat is absolute AI slop
November 25, 2025 at 3:31 AM
Our cat is absolute AI slop
If AI generated a picture of my cat sitting in my child’s lap, probably
November 25, 2025 at 2:23 AM
If AI generated a picture of my cat sitting in my child’s lap, probably
Reposted by Maggie Fritz-Morkin
Racism is so powerful in America it’s our greatest intellectual export
November 25, 2025 at 12:22 AM
Racism is so powerful in America it’s our greatest intellectual export
12yo watching The 6th Sense: “I see Deadpool”
November 25, 2025 at 1:56 AM
12yo watching The 6th Sense: “I see Deadpool”
Madonna Filippa (Decameron 6.7) really deserves to be seen in color. Who’s really on trial, the adulteress or the cuckold? Ludovico Ceffini sees how it is
November 24, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Madonna Filippa (Decameron 6.7) really deserves to be seen in color. Who’s really on trial, the adulteress or the cuckold? Ludovico Ceffini sees how it is
Very excited to see the print edition of my essay on Boccaccio's Madonna Filippa and the real medieval Italian women working in law. Come for the saucy prose, stay for the consent of the governed
#Boccaccio #Decameron #SixSeven #Medievalsky
works.hcommons.org/records/cwa8...
#Boccaccio #Decameron #SixSeven #Medievalsky
works.hcommons.org/records/cwa8...
Representing Gender in Court: Juridical Women in the Time of Boccaccio's Madonna Filippa (Decameron 6.7)
Giovanni Boccaccio's lawyerly adultress Madonna Filippa (Decameron 6.7) invites reflection on his attitudes toward women's bodily autonomy and participation in matters of law. Her character has genera...
works.hcommons.org
November 24, 2025 at 3:58 AM
Very excited to see the print edition of my essay on Boccaccio's Madonna Filippa and the real medieval Italian women working in law. Come for the saucy prose, stay for the consent of the governed
#Boccaccio #Decameron #SixSeven #Medievalsky
works.hcommons.org/records/cwa8...
#Boccaccio #Decameron #SixSeven #Medievalsky
works.hcommons.org/records/cwa8...
Reposted by Maggie Fritz-Morkin
I just followed the money
November 23, 2025 at 3:20 AM
I just followed the money
Reposted by Maggie Fritz-Morkin
Indeed who WOULD want to call sublime such things as shapeless mountain masses piled on one another in wild disarray, with their pyramids of ice, or the gloomy raging sea
November 19, 2025 at 10:30 PM
Indeed who WOULD want to call sublime such things as shapeless mountain masses piled on one another in wild disarray, with their pyramids of ice, or the gloomy raging sea
Reposted by Maggie Fritz-Morkin
I will never forget having to edit Jamal’s final, posthumous piece for the Washington Post, after he was murdered.
He was calling for free expression in the Arab world. You can read it here :
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/glo...
He was calling for free expression in the Arab world. You can read it here :
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/glo...
Opinion | Jamal Khashoggi: What the Arab world needs most is free expression
The Arab world needs a modern version of the old transnational media so citizens can be informed about global events.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 18, 2025 at 6:48 PM
I will never forget having to edit Jamal’s final, posthumous piece for the Washington Post, after he was murdered.
He was calling for free expression in the Arab world. You can read it here :
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/glo...
He was calling for free expression in the Arab world. You can read it here :
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/glo...
Reposted by Maggie Fritz-Morkin
First-year writing, esp in the age of AI, is hard but teaching my How to Read a Book class is satisfying in a specific way. The assignment I'm grading now asks students to design a new course unit, and so many are about reading as a means of cultivating attention in a world designed to fracture it.
November 18, 2025 at 1:11 PM
First-year writing, esp in the age of AI, is hard but teaching my How to Read a Book class is satisfying in a specific way. The assignment I'm grading now asks students to design a new course unit, and so many are about reading as a means of cultivating attention in a world designed to fracture it.
One counter AI-strategy is working in my Dante class: choice between creative and essay projects, PLUS essayists are required to do an oral defense (worth 1/6 of essay grade)
November 17, 2025 at 6:09 PM
One counter AI-strategy is working in my Dante class: choice between creative and essay projects, PLUS essayists are required to do an oral defense (worth 1/6 of essay grade)