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Ashok Karra

Ashok Karra

370 posts published

http://ashokkarra.com https://x.com/akarra https://www.facebook.com/akarra
A Quick Comment on Leo Strauss' "Restatement on Xenophon's Hiero" and the phenomenon of "Red Caesarism"
philosophy

A Quick Comment on Leo Strauss' "Restatement on Xenophon's Hiero" and the phenomenon of "Red Caesarism"

...some academics contend the United States has entered a "post-Constitutional" period where the emergence of a "Caesar" is necessary and/or deserved.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Oct 5, 2023 • 5 min read
Poetry and Nihilism: Confronting the Nothing
philosophy

Poetry and Nihilism: Confronting the Nothing

My aim is to introduce the concept of nihilism as a philosophical and academic matter.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Sep 27, 2023 • 4 min read
The "otherwise peaceful quiet:" Kyla Houbolt, "early"
poetry

The "otherwise peaceful quiet:" Kyla Houbolt, "early"

Busy-ness and its associated anxieties, I believe, can be an amplified effect.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Sep 25, 2023 • 3 min read
Eulogy for Jack Phipps
education

Eulogy for Jack Phipps

Jack Phipps was one of the best experiences of my time at CCHS.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Sep 21, 2023 • 3 min read
Writing Oneself: An Outline for a Short Talk
writing

Writing Oneself: An Outline for a Short Talk

It may not be auspicious to begin by admitting a mistake, but William Deresiewicz had it right at the end of "The Disadvantages of an Elite Education."

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Sep 18, 2023 • 4 min read
Find Your Voice
writing

Find Your Voice

How do I convince students to write like they will be heard?

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Sep 11, 2023 • 4 min read
Let's talk a bit more about the Burger King employee who got candy for working 20 years without calling in sick
american politics

Let's talk a bit more about the Burger King employee who got candy for working 20 years without calling in sick

Lincoln says that the fathers of the United States "conceived [it] in Liberty," "dedicated [it] to the proposition that all men are created equal."

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Aug 31, 2023 • 2 min read
On Burdens: Kay Ryan, "Atlas"
poetry

On Burdens: Kay Ryan, "Atlas"

"Extreme exertion / isolates a person / from help, / discovered Atlas."

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Aug 30, 2023 • 3 min read
About Me, 8/21/23
education

About Me, 8/21/23

Every semester I ask my students to talk about themselves. This semester I have a lot of high school students taking dual credit courses.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Aug 21, 2023 • 3 min read
Against Ableist Religiosity: On John Milton's Sonnet 19 & Nate Klug's "Milton's God"
poetry

Against Ableist Religiosity: On John Milton's Sonnet 19 & Nate Klug's "Milton's God"

I am thinking about service.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Aug 20, 2023 • 3 min read
On Texas Nationalism
american politics

On Texas Nationalism

I'm sitting at the bar, sipping a margarita, and chatting pleasantly with two older couples.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Aug 14, 2023 • 3 min read
Anxiety and Creativity: Bartolo Cattafi, "No Escape"
poetry

Anxiety and Creativity: Bartolo Cattafi, "No Escape"

"There's no escaping from this room," Cattafi intones, leading me to ask: this room? What room?

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Jul 22, 2023 • 2 min read
The 1st Amendment, "the right to be an asshole," and trust
american politics

The 1st Amendment, "the right to be an asshole," and trust

...Jonathan Katz talks about "the right to be an asshole."

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Jul 10, 2023 • 4 min read
Wisława Szymborska, "Puddles"
poetry

Wisława Szymborska, "Puddles"

Szymborska's riddling moral in "Puddles" fascinates both as a matter of craft and as a puzzle about our paranoia

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Jul 3, 2023 • 2 min read
Kyla Houbolt, "The Yellow Submarine"
poetry

Kyla Houbolt, "The Yellow Submarine"

Kyla Houbolt's "The Yellow Submarine" presents us with yellow everywhere.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Jul 2, 2023 • 3 min read
Heidegger's "Unfaith"
philosophy

Heidegger's "Unfaith"

...I want to look at some remarks of Heidegger which concern how faith relates to the question "Why are there beings at all instead of nothing?"

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Jun 21, 2023 • 6 min read
Isabella Mori, "Not So Pretty Haiku"
poetry

Isabella Mori, "Not So Pretty Haiku"

Mori achieves an affecting memoir of what COVID wrought.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Jun 17, 2023 • 3 min read
Introducing Heidegger's "Fundamental Question of Metaphysics"
philosophy

Introducing Heidegger's "Fundamental Question of Metaphysics"

...I was not convinced in the least that "Why is there anything at all?" was a good question.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Jun 8, 2023 • 5 min read
On the Prefatory Note of Heidegger's "Introduction to Metaphysics"
heidegger

On the Prefatory Note of Heidegger's "Introduction to Metaphysics"

In my early twenties, I was assigned Heidegger's Introduction to Metaphysics for a class. I did not get very far.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Jun 3, 2023 • 4 min read
Emily Dickinson, “A Letter is a joy of Earth” (1639)
poetry

Emily Dickinson, “A Letter is a joy of Earth” (1639)

Letters are not easy. I know this, but I write bad ones anyway.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra May 31, 2023 • 3 min read
Agnes Martin, "Praise"
art

Agnes Martin, "Praise"

It is a pink square with a texture like a paper napkin.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra May 25, 2023 • 5 min read
On the Problem of "Missing Out"
philosophy

On the Problem of "Missing Out"

We believe who we were could understand who we are.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra May 21, 2023 • 4 min read
Emily Dickinson, "As willing lid o’er weary eye" (1050)
poetry

Emily Dickinson, "As willing lid o’er weary eye" (1050)

...the evening would not be the evening, nor the day the day, if we did not labor and require rest.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra May 11, 2023 • 5 min read
Generational Conflict and the Question of Value
politics

Generational Conflict and the Question of Value

This moment feels more radical, as if the very possibility of change—I'm not even speaking of a specific change—were an affront to divinity.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra May 1, 2023 • 6 min read
Innocence and Experience: On Kay Ryan's "Crown"
poetry

Innocence and Experience: On Kay Ryan's "Crown"

The sacred as untouchable, inviolable, inaccessible makes sense to me.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Apr 29, 2023 • 3 min read
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