Silas Lapham
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silaslapham.bsky.social
Silas Lapham
@silaslapham.bsky.social
470 followers 300 following 1.5K posts
Fulbrighter, American, African American, Southern literature. medium.com/@interminablerambling
[Opinions are my own]
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silaslapham.bsky.social
Happy birthday Pauli Murray! Go read Pauli Murray! @filmmakerjulie.bsky.social thank you for helping me get into Murray’s work!

interminablerambling.medium.com/our-role-in-...
Our Role in the Relay of “Cosmic Composition”
Writing about how their time in Washington D.C. and at Howard University drew to a close in the early 1940s, Pauli Murray reflected on all…
interminablerambling.medium.com
November 20, 2025 at 1:29 PM
Reposted by Silas Lapham
silaslapham.bsky.social
R.F. Kuang's "Yellowface" critiques the publishing industry, and it is more than just a novel about "literary theft." It is, for me, a novel that really deals with the ways that the publishing industry silences individuals.

medium.com/@interminabl...
The Stealing of One’s Voice in R.F. Kuang’s “Yellowface”
Is it literary theft when Harriett Beecher Stowe takes Josiah Henson’s real-life story of escaping enslavement and crafts Uncle Tom’s…
medium.com
November 19, 2025 at 4:24 PM
silaslapham.bsky.social
R.F. Kuang's "Yellowface" critiques the publishing industry, and it is more than just a novel about "literary theft." It is, for me, a novel that really deals with the ways that the publishing industry silences individuals.

medium.com/@interminabl...
The Stealing of One’s Voice in R.F. Kuang’s “Yellowface”
Is it literary theft when Harriett Beecher Stowe takes Josiah Henson’s real-life story of escaping enslavement and crafts Uncle Tom’s…
medium.com
November 19, 2025 at 4:24 PM
silaslapham.bsky.social
Well, someone doesn’t wanna wake up today.
A dog yawning with his tongue sticking out
November 18, 2025 at 1:06 PM
silaslapham.bsky.social
Saw Better Lovers last Friday and Johnny Booth opened for them. Second time I’ve seen Johnny Booth, and they are 🔥 🔥

The end of “Collapse in the Key of Fireworks” hits!

youtu.be/fxkc4j0myiQ?...
Johnny Booth - Collapse in the Key of Fireworks [Official Video]
YouTube video by JohnnyBoothTube
youtu.be
November 17, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Reposted by Silas Lapham
eseman.bsky.social
The US has already killed more people in their military strikes against civilian boats in Latin America during the last two months (83, almost all civilians) than during the entire Grenada Invasion of 1983 (69 Grenadian and Cuban fighters).
November 17, 2025 at 2:15 PM
silaslapham.bsky.social
I taught R.F. Kuang’s “Yellowface” last month, and the discussion of “literary theft” and writing in general came up in very discussion. There’s a lot in Kuang’s book that makes us think about the writing process itself.

interminablerambling.medium.com/is-it-litera...
Is It Literary Theft?: Looking at Writing in R.F. Kuang’s “Yellowface”
I read R.F. Kuang’s Yellowface over the summer, with the intention of adding it to my “Lost Voices in American Literature” course. After…
interminablerambling.medium.com
November 16, 2025 at 2:03 PM
silaslapham.bsky.social
Finally reading Harry Crews and agree with @blacktopkid.bsky.social who says, “If Faulkner is Mozart and O'Connor is Ralph Stanley, then Harry Crews could be likened to Johnny Cash."

What are you reading this weekend?
Cover of Harry Crews’ “The Knockout Artist” with a map of New Orleans.
November 16, 2025 at 1:05 AM
silaslapham.bsky.social
Well, looks like @underapurplesky.bsky.social and I are gonna make this thing regular. Hard to believe this is episode 10 of This Ain’t It. In this episode, we ask, “Have women ruined the workplace?”

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/d...
Did Women Really Ruin the Workplace?
Podcast Episode · This Ain't It · 11/14/2025 · 51m
podcasts.apple.com
November 14, 2025 at 3:37 PM
silaslapham.bsky.social
When you start grading essays and a student starts with a line from Bikini Kill's "Rebel Girl" then moves into talking about Angela Davis, I get excited! The students know what's up! @kathleenhanna.bsky.social

www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOCW...
Bikini Kill - Rebel Girl
YouTube video by rp61productions
www.youtube.com
November 14, 2025 at 1:02 PM
Reposted by Silas Lapham
auschwitzmemorial.bsky.social
14 November 1868 | Jewish woman Marie Ganz (nee Lahn) was born in today's Lithuania. In 1913 she emigrated to Norway.

She arrived at #Auschwitz on 3 March 1943 and was murdered in a gas chamber after arrival selection.
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Gas chambers and crematoria of Auschwitz: https://youtu.be/-A05i25j9Ck
A portrait photo of an older woman. She has dark hair and wears earings.
November 14, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Reposted by Silas Lapham
pornsak.bsky.social
I can’t second how great Alex’s art on the book is more
November 13, 2025 at 7:18 PM
silaslapham.bsky.social
Reading Audre Lorde’s “Learning from the 60s,” a speech she gave in 1982. Same tune again and again.
Can we really still afford to be fighting each other? We are Black people living in a time when the consciousness of our intended slaughter is all around us. People of Color are increasingly expendable, our government's policy both here and abroad. We are functioning under a government ready to repeat in El Salvador and Nicaragua the tragedy of Vietnam, a government which stands on the wrong side of every single battle for liberation taking place upon this globe; a government which has invaded and conquered (as I edit this piece) the fifty-three square mile sovereign state of Grenada, under the pretext that her I1o,000 people pose a threat to the United States. Our papers are filled with supposed concern for human rights in white communist Poland while we sanction by acceptance and military supply the systematic genocide of apartheid in South Africa, of murder and torture in Haiti and El Salvador. American advisory teams bolster repressive governments across Central and South America, and in Haiti, while advisory is only a code name preceding military aid Decisions to cut aid for the terminally ill, for the elderly, for dependent children, for food stamps, even school lunches, are being made by men with full stomachs who live in comfortable houses with two cars and umpteen tax shelters. None of them go hungry to bed at night. Recently, it was suggested that senior citizens be hired to work in atomic plants because they are close to the end of their lives anyway. Can any one of us here still afford to believe that efforts to reclaim the future can be private or individual? Can any one here still afford to believe that the pursuit of liberation can be the sole and particular province of any one particular race, or sex, or age, or religion, or sexuality, or class?
November 13, 2025 at 7:26 PM
silaslapham.bsky.social
Whenever I question whether someone reads my work or not, I get a text like this from my daughter. 😂
Daughter: Have you read The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver Need answer fast Please Hello Me: No. Mom has read some Kingslover Daughter: Ok My friend is obsessed with your bog posts Me: Why? Daughter: Cause she's interested in anlot of the stuff you write about Me: That's good and inspiring. I always like to hear about people who read it because I always fear people don't, like it makes no difference and it's just something I do for myself.
November 13, 2025 at 1:27 AM
silaslapham.bsky.social
Reading Flannery O'Connor's "A Late Encounter with the Enemy," her continued use of "black" at the end or the story reminded me son much of Ernest Hemingway's use of the "black grasshoppers" in "Big Two-Hearted River" & Ernest Gaines' use of "they" in "The Sky is Gray."

medium.com/@interminabl...
The Death of the Lost Cause in Flannery O’Connor’s “A Late Encounter With the Enemy”
Last post, I looked at the ways that Flannery O’Connor confronts the Lost Cause Narrative in “A Late Encounter With the Enemy.” Today, I…
medium.com
November 12, 2025 at 4:53 PM
silaslapham.bsky.social
Great talking about the continued importance of Lillian Smith in this momement with @kerileighmerritt.bsky.social & @b3nediction.bsky.social

@americanstudier.bsky.social @imaniperry.bsky.social @barackobama.bsky.social @michelenorris.bsky.social

interminablerambling.medium.com/the-importan...
The Importance of Lillian Smith’s “Killers of the Dream” 75 Years Later in 2024
The Importance of Lillian Smith’s “Killers of the Dream” 75 Years Later in 2024 This year marks the 75th anniversary of the initial publication of Lillian Smith’s Killers of the Dream, and as …
interminablerambling.medium.com
November 11, 2025 at 7:13 PM
silaslapham.bsky.social
The Political Power of Punk: Dead Kennedys’ “Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables”

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been reading some books from the 33 1/3 series, specifically Nick Attfield’s on Dinosaur Jr.’s 1987 album You’re Living All Over Me and Michael Stewart Foley’s on Dead Kennedys’…
The Political Power of Punk: Dead Kennedys’ “Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables”
Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been reading some books from the 33 1/3 series, specifically Nick Attfield’s on Dinosaur Jr.’s 1987 album You’re Living All Over Me and Michael Stewart Foley’s on Dead Kennedys’ 1980 album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables. Each has been thoroughly engaging, and Attfield’s writing serves, in a lot ways, as a master class on writing about music while Foley’s does an excellent job on detailing the national, state, and local politics and culture that lead to the formation of the Dead Kennedys and their debut album.
interminablerambling.com
November 11, 2025 at 2:00 PM
silaslapham.bsky.social
Callie is wishing me a happy birthday today! If you’d like to join Callie in helping me celebrate, consider donating to your local food bank. @weratedogs.com
Callie on a calendar This is Callie. She saw a caterpillar dogumentary last week. Has been trying to become one ever since. 12/10 doing a pretty good job
November 11, 2025 at 12:28 PM
silaslapham.bsky.social
Seeing all of the communist talk, and the call for an Anti-Communism week, I really want to k ow how many people don’t remember history? Plus, how many people know that this is a scare word? I know the answer, but still!

Lillian Smith pointed it all out back in 1949. When will people learn?
Lillian Smith, “It is equally hard for the rural white to believe that the southern liberals who champion their rights are not "Com-munists." They call them "Communists" if they fight demagoguery, if they work for higher wages, if they defend human rights, if they oppose war and segregation, if they believe in co-operatives and freedom of conscience and speech which communism does not believe in, and if they fight authoritarianism which communism depends on. The rural white looks with suspicion on southern writers who, loving the South where they were born and live, write honestly of it. It is as irrational as hating a doctor for telling you that you are ill, but many southern whites react in this way, partly because of the bargain and partly because, under the authoritarian system of white supremacy twisted up with Christian funda-mentalism, they have been taught to believe one is disloyal when one makes any criticism of things as they are, even when one criticizes great evil.”
November 9, 2025 at 9:02 PM
Reposted by Silas Lapham
silaslapham.bsky.social
Taught Flannery O’Connor’s “A Late Encounter with the Enemy” a few weeks back, and there is a lot packed in this story, especially calling out the Lost Cause narrative.

interminablerambling.medium.com/the-lost-cau...
The Lost Cause in Flannery O’Connor’s “A Late Encounter with the Enemy”
When I started thinking about my American literary survey course this semester, I knew I wanted to have a story by Flannery O’Connor…
interminablerambling.medium.com
November 9, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Reposted by Silas Lapham
americanstudier.bsky.social
Here it is, my 249th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the last week. Add more below in comments, please share as widely as possible, & enjoy, all! 🗃️

blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...
#ScholarSunday Thread 249 (11/9/25) – Black and White and Read All Over
Here it is, my 249th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the last week. Add more below in comments, please share as widely as...
blackwhiteandread.com
November 9, 2025 at 12:59 PM
silaslapham.bsky.social
Taught Flannery O’Connor’s “A Late Encounter with the Enemy” a few weeks back, and there is a lot packed in this story, especially calling out the Lost Cause narrative.

interminablerambling.medium.com/the-lost-cau...
The Lost Cause in Flannery O’Connor’s “A Late Encounter with the Enemy”
When I started thinking about my American literary survey course this semester, I knew I wanted to have a story by Flannery O’Connor…
interminablerambling.medium.com
November 9, 2025 at 2:06 PM
silaslapham.bsky.social
Good to hear @matthewboedy.bsky.social today.
November 8, 2025 at 4:33 PM
silaslapham.bsky.social
Better late than never. In this week’s episode, @underapurplesky.bsky.social and I talk about Zohran Mamdani, critical thinking, possums, and dogs!

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...
Socialism, Scare Words, and the Stories We Tell Ourselves
Podcast Episode · This Ain't It · 11/07/2025 · 52m
podcasts.apple.com
November 8, 2025 at 2:34 PM
Reposted by Silas Lapham
katmabu.bsky.social
This is the facility that I and many others have been protesting. We’ve been hit, thrown, gassed, and shot with pepper bullets but none of that holds a candle to what is being done to people *in* the actual facility.

Read this thread. Don’t look away. Keep your eyes and the pressure on Broadview.
lyndab08.bsky.social Lynda Lopez @lyndab08.bsky.social · 13d
A family friend was telling us about what her husband shared about his experience in Broadview before he was deported back to Mexico. She's been sharing to friends and family because she's just in disbelief & horror what her husband told her. She wasn't able to talk to him until he was in Mexico.
November 7, 2025 at 3:29 PM