Robert Basil

CMNS prof at University Canada West, retired from Kwantlen Polytechnic U. Author / editor / publisher + Vancouver flâneur. Stanford U. & Univ. Buffalo alum.

[Robert Basil @thebasil]

@JEVLloyd This might be the most poignant song to have such an upbeat sound.

[Thomas Basbøll @Inframethod]

This has the feel of Zeno's paradox to me. We're getting stronger and stronger evidence for something that will never happen. We're always "halfway" there!

[Robert Basil @thebasil]

@mssinenomine Oh, never mind, I am sorry. I figured it out.

[Robert Basil @thebasil]

@mssinenomine What is happening in a year?

[Joyce Carol Oates @JoyceCarolOates]

recalling years ago when my first husband & I were looking at houses & one of the most attractive was a single floor, virtually all glass, with skylights, & in each room a door to the outside; & when we asked the homeowner why so many doors he said he'd once lived in a two-story house in which there was a fire & he did not want to further explain.

[Robert Basil @thebasil]

@SocJustice_poet Congrats to your father - great photo!

[Gabrielle Peters 👩🏻‍🦽 @mssinenomine]

This is an extremely dense neighbourhood known for high number of residents who walk or wheel to get around. The speed limit on Comox is 30 km/hr. Community needs to know what happened here. Hoping person in hospital recovers.
https://t.co/gD9j8ns4rc

[Robert Basil @thebasil]

UB, English '82

[Robert Basil @thebasil]

@UBwomenshoops @anaya_c3 @GabbyMcDuffie_ @CarmanAlly Onward and upward to the grads!

[Robert Basil @thebasil]

@UBwomenshoops @anaya_c3 @GabbyMcDuffie_ @CarmanAlly Onward and upward to the grads!

[Louis Betty @louisbetty]

The purpose of the humanities is not to help students “learn critical thinking” or “reflect on the human condition.” While laudable goals, these are secondary and epiphenomenal to what was once the implicit but now abandoned objective of humanistic study: cultural transmission. If we in the West read Homer, Virgil, or Dante, for example, it is not to learn how to think but to know who we are. It is, fundamentally, an act of honoring our ancestral inheritance in view of civilizational continuity. The humanities as practiced today are an inversion of the humanities properly understood: the former seek not to preserve and honor the collective “we” but, rather, to destroy it. Any serious defense of the humanities going forward will need to drop the palaver about “critical thinking” or “humanity” (to say nothing of “empathy”) and start addressing the real issue: the hollowing out of cultural transmission in an era of largely self-inflicted civilizational decline.

[Tyler Austin Harper @Tyler_A_Harper]

👇 👇 👇

[Thomas Basbøll @Inframethod]

A great many things can be learned by reading and writing about them. Importantly, that's not what machines do.

[Thomas Basbøll @Inframethod]

"Essay mills will 'always be with us' but no one said we should teach students to use them responsibly." Hear, hear!

[Robert Basil @thebasil]

@dwaldenwrites A+ for all!

[Stanley Q Woodvine @sqwabb]

#Vancouver Fairview hit & run! Cyclist on 10th Av Bikeway, crossing Oak west was knocked off bike by old station wagon also travelling west on 10th as it turned south on Oak. Elder male driver of beige/brown panelled station wagon surely felt impact but didn't stop! No injuries.

[Robert Basil @thebasil]

@mollycrabapple So happy to hear this!

[kristin hersh @kristinhersh]

text from a friend at one of this week’s shows

[Robert Basil @thebasil]

@MattDowellTV C-

[Robert Basil @thebasil]

@sarahkendzior I am sending good Vancouver vibes your way, Sarah.

[Jaikaran @drakmog]

"passively accepting the end of mass literacy" is the line more people need to hear. the framing around AI in education has somehow made "kids should learn to read and write well" the radical position. if the default path leads to a generation that can prompt but can't compose, we've made a terrible trade. the typewriter idea is interesting because it forces the actual thinking back into the process.