By Neal Hebert This weekend, to celebrate producing another 15 pages of dissertation (I'm at about 160, with all chapters save the conclusion about 60-75% done), I decided to allow myself a small reward: I started watching a new-to-me anime Attack on Titan, a Japanese animation that's made a huge... Continue reading

By Neal Hebert Image credit: Shreveport Times Although my research fits quite comfortably into the discipline of philosophy of art and aesthetics, my in-process PhD is in Theatre History and Historiography (much like fellow PhilPercs authors John Fletcher, my dissertation committee member, and our newest recruit Wade Hollingshaus). One of... Continue reading

By Neal Hebert Apologies for missing a few weeks of Wrestling Wednesdays - with the summer term starting, my constitution being roughly as hale as that of a hemophiliac Dauphin, and assorted stressors in the real world, I've had a rough few weeks. And things got worse with the death... Continue reading

By Neal Hebert Scott Bakker, writing for his excellent blog Three Pound Brain, recently posted several pieces critiquing semiotics under the collective title "More Disney than Disneyworld: Semiotics as Theoretical Make-Believe." Now, obviously, read part one and part two. They're good (although I'm still working through part two). They're so... Continue reading

By Neal Hebert In the comments to my first Wrestling Wednesday post, Justin teased out the idea - central to my in-process dissertation - that the globalization of professional wrestling changed the practice of wrestling in tangible ways: it used to be one thing, and now it's another thing because... Continue reading