HeyJaredSaccades and Fixations
Phil Christman's public notebook--mostly about literature and the other arts, but also, frequently, about theology, politics, teaching writing, and university-related matters from a pro-labor perspective.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 20
- Latest publication
- Sep 29, 2026
- Audience
- Checking…
- Earliest in this view
- Aug 6, 2026
Latest issues
Fresh Hells at University of Michigan (opens the original)
Read excerpt
Longtime readers of this newsletter know that I used to write frequently about labor issues at the University of Michigan, where I work. In 2017-18, I was experiencing my first-ever contract campaign and spent 20-30 hours per week attending this or that union-related obligation. I took to this work with great enthusiasm, having spent two years in the South earlier in the decade enjoying the benefits of the freedom and dynamism enabled by right-to-work laws, which allow you to work, as the old jo
The NYT’s Top 100 TV Shows of the Twenty-First Century: A Response (opens the original)
Read excerpt
Twin Peaks: The ReturnIfYou Have WatchedAHundredWholeTV Shows(MeaningEveryEpisode)That Are JustFromThe Past Twenty-SixYears,And TheyAren’tAll BritishShowsThatHave </
Molecular Moral Forces 21: Angela Explains It All (opens the original)
Read excerpt
One thing we don't appreciate enough about Henry James is that he could be a hack when he needed to. For all that he symbolizes, for many people, a level of refinement and artistic seriousness and difficulty that it is supposed to be impossible or even (for obscure reasons) undemocratic to aspire to, Henry James wrote for a living, and when he needed to… Read more
Rich Bad Texts: Dave Sim’s CEREBUS (opens the original)
Read excerpt
Artists who seem bound for canonicity and then suddenly disappear from the rankings fascinate me. A recent example is Hal Hartley, one of the beloved indie filmmakers of the 1990s—as I remember it, his name was as bound up with the rise of the corporate-indie movie as was that of Quentin Tarantino, Whit Stillman, or Wes Anderson—and now it’s only people my age who seem to remember him. You wonder why this is, watching his films, until you get to Henry Fool, perhaps the quintessential ‘90s youth
If I Were Going to Defend Evangelicalism, Here’s How I’d Do It (opens the original)
Read excerpt
My corner of Substack is talking a lot about Bonnie Kristian’s evangelicalism book. It would be an exercise in futility for me to write about that book, for the following reasons: a) if it is overall similar to the excerpts that I have seen floating around, I will be totally unconvinced by it and will not like it;1b) if I then say anything, whatever I say, regardless of whether I’m right or not, will be taken as me shooting back at somebody who recently trashed my book, and that result will be t
Publishing over time
Last 90 days. Choose a month to open its work.
Recurring subjects
Named in the text we hold. One piece can cover several.
Audience
No verified audience measurement yet.
About this data
Counts cover the work we have indexed. Tone needs enough text and a confident classification. Excerpts and episode notes are not full articles or transcripts.
Identity or attribution wrong? Suggest a correction.