… his richest contribution remains the “Gibbsville” stories, a number of which can be found in the Library of America collection. Although the stories bracket a unique period of American society, O’Hara’s themes remain timeless through his evocative character portrayals. The stories grapple with money and class, with O’Hara exposing the resentment, perversion, insecurity, and cruelty of humanity as it reaches, retains, or loses its aspirations.
Saturday, March 11, 2017
Looks that way …
… It’s Time to Read John O’Hara Again | The American Conservative.
Beautiful idea meets unbeautiful reality …
… Eve Tushnet: We'll Burn That Bra When We Come to It. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
In case you wondered …
… Why Teaching Poetry Is So Important - The Atlantic. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Don't they teach Shakespeare in school anymore? He wrote in verse. He addresses subjects of interest to all. You may have to show kids how to read it, since it may seem strange to them at first. There are plenty of poems that are immediately accessible. "i sing of Olaf glad and big." "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night." And yes, skip the explication.
Don't they teach Shakespeare in school anymore? He wrote in verse. He addresses subjects of interest to all. You may have to show kids how to read it, since it may seem strange to them at first. There are plenty of poems that are immediately accessible. "i sing of Olaf glad and big." "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night." And yes, skip the explication.
Something to think on …
That neither our thoughts, nor passions, nor ideas formed by the imagination, exist without the mind, is what every body will allow.
— George Berkeley, born on this date in 1685
Something to think on …
I have never stuck up for any criminal. I have merely asked for the orderly administration of an impartial justice... Due legal process is my own safeguard against being convicted unjustly. To my mind, that's government. That's law and order.
— Erle Stanley Gardner, who died on this date in 1980
Friday, March 10, 2017
Read the whole thing …
… The Cultured Life | The Weekly Standard. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
How, then, does one attain culture? Superior intelligence isn't the key. I have known high-level physicists and mathematicians—people whose IQs are doubtless stratospheric—who were, so to say, culture-proof. Even the most adroit teachers cannot hope to bestow culture on their students; the best they can do, if they are themselves cultivated, is provide a glimmer of what the real thing looks like. A university education is never sufficient in itself, though it can give its interested students useful guidance about where culture is available. In the realm of culture, as in all non-vocational education generally, we are all autodidacts—all, that is, on our own. No approved method for acquiring culture is available: There is no useful list of the 100 most important books, 200 essential musical compositions, 300 significant paintings, 400 hundred best films. So far as I have been able to determine, no Culture for Dummies has yet been published, though one may well be on the way. No guides, no lists, no shortcuts to attaining culture exist; nor will they ever.
Hmm …
… Mencken for Conservatives | The American Conservative. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
… no matter what may be said against [religion] on evidential grounds, it must be manifest that [it has] conditioned the thinking of mankind since the infancy of the race. … dismissing the thing itself as a mere aberration is a proceeding that is far more lofty than sensible. What has been so powerful in its effects upon human history deserves sober study, whether it be an aberration or not.
I know that Mencken had friends among the Jesuits. One of my own Jesuit preceptors used to accompany another, older Jesuit, who had known Mencken for years, on visits to the great man in the hospital near the end of his life.
Good question …
… If We Are Not Just Animals, What Are We? - The New York Times. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I am fairly confident that the picture painted by the evolutionary psychologists is true. But I am also confident that it is not the whole truth, and that it leaves out of account precisely the most important thing, which is the human subject. We human beings do not see one another as animals see one another, as fellow members of a species. We relate to one another not as objects but as subjects, as creatures who address one another “I” to “you” — a point made central to the human condition by Martin Buber, in his celebrated mystical meditation “I and Thou.”I am less confident in the picture painted by evolutionary psychologists, because it amounts mostly to speculation without much solid evidence. That there has been biological change over time is obvious, but I am not altogether sure if we really understand the mechanics of that change. Showing how a given hypothesis might explain it is not the same as demonstrating that it does explain it. And no, I do not subscribe to Intelligent Design theory.
Something to think on …
He who never hurries is always on time.
— Mikhail Bulgakov, who died on this date in 1940
Thursday, March 09, 2017
Sounds like a good idea …
…This Lent, rediscover Oxford’s forgotten poet | CatholicHerald.co.uk. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Whitman and us …
… Filmmaker Uses Whitman Poetry To Explore American Identity | Here & Now. (Hat tip, G. E. Reutter.)
Something to think on …
I'm a commercial writer, not an author. Margaret Mitchell was an author. She wrote one book.
—Mickey Spillane, born on this date in 1918
FYI …
… Best science-fiction and fantasy books to read in March - The Washington Post. (Hat tip, Dan Bloom.)
But, regarding the Kim Stanley Robinson book, it's worthwhile noting this again: Drastic cooling in North Atlantic beyond worst fears, scientists warn. (This is not to take anything away from Robinson's book, which I have not read, and sounds good. But it is fiction. And shoe be appreciated as such.)
But, regarding the Kim Stanley Robinson book, it's worthwhile noting this again: Drastic cooling in North Atlantic beyond worst fears, scientists warn. (This is not to take anything away from Robinson's book, which I have not read, and sounds good. But it is fiction. And shoe be appreciated as such.)
Consensus favorite …
… My Breakfast with Elizabeth Bishop. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
A “great” poet, however, offers a vision and body of work that provokes strong emotions and worthwhile reflection. Bishop is too self-absorbed to meet that standard. Moreover, with just a few memorable exceptions, her subject matter has such limited range that one can create a template for much of her poetry.
Stick with the OED …
… Why Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary is Trolling Trump - Acculturated.
Apparently, their real job doesn't interest them that much.
Apparently, their real job doesn't interest them that much.
Wednesday, March 08, 2017
Her own woman …
… What Camille Paglia Understands About the Trump Era.
Paglia was not surprised by the election results. “I felt the Trump victory coming for a long time,” she told me. Writing last spring, she’d called Trump “raw, crude and uninformed” but also “smart, intuitive and a quick study”; she praised his “bumptious exuberance and slashing humor” (and took some pleasure in watching him fluster the GOP).
What can't go on forever, won't …
… All hell broke loose at student protest -- and that's not OK (Opinion) - CNN.com.
See also: Liberal Professor Criticizes Middlebury Students, Defends Free Speech.
(Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
There's also this, from Peter Beinart: A Violent Attack on Free Speech at Middlebury.
See also: Liberal Professor Criticizes Middlebury Students, Defends Free Speech.
(Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
There's also this, from Peter Beinart: A Violent Attack on Free Speech at Middlebury.
Like many liberals, I consider it bigoted to oppose gay marriage. I consider it bigoted to support voting restrictions that disproportionately impact African Americans and Latinos. I consider it bigoted to deny trans students the right to use the bathrooms of their choice. I consider it bigoted to claim that Islam is inherently more violent than Judaism or Christianity. I consider it unconscionable to oppose government action against climate change.Well, I'm not as sure of anything as Beinart seems to be about all sorts of things (I'm with Norbert Wiener when it comes to science getting into bed with the government), but I sure agree with him on this.
God and the imagination …
… Wallace Stevens and the Limits of Poetry - The Catholic Thing. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
It has always seemed to me that the theme running through Stevens's poems is the quest for faith (shrewdly defined by John Henry Newman as being capable of bearing doubt).
It has always seemed to me that the theme running through Stevens's poems is the quest for faith (shrewdly defined by John Henry Newman as being capable of bearing doubt).
Something to think on …
I'm a commercial writer, not an author. Margaret Mitchell was an author. She wrote one book.
— Mickey Spillane, born on this date in 1918
Something to think on …
Taking things from one source is plagiarism; taking things from several sources is research.
— John McPhee, born on this date in 1931
Tuesday, March 07, 2017
Q & A …
… 'River On Fire' Explores Genius, Madness And The Poetry Of Robert Lowell : NPR. (Hat tip, G. E. Reutter.)
A Prayer
Certain events have
happened in my life that make me wonder about the existence of God. And I
know I'm not unique in that -- that's true of anyone's life -- even Christ
questioned God in His Agony. And I'm aware of the beauty and joy of creation,
nature and people and their souls. But when one's life utterly changes,
the work of so many years thrown away, useful in some ways for a greater understanding
of people, but sad and some basics of my life gone too, in ways far too
intimate to talk about here.
When my life changed, and
as I became Julie not Joe, and as my brain and soul changed to open up more and
to be better, there were those that thought I was crazy, good friends and
family who cared about me and what they thought this changed signified about my
mental health, that I might be insane. The conservative Catholic ones,
who still believe in Satan, wondered if I had been overcome by a demon too.
Sometimes the guilt never
ends, the guilt of being so different. But
I've been far enough along in life now to know that this is who I am, and I
have to cope with the fallout, as best I can, while causing harm to the least number
of people.
I cope in good and bad
ways. One of the bad ways is that I am
subject to crippling self-doubt -- is this what God would have me do? I can
and always could feel God, except when the cold dark grey blanket of depression
descends everywhere. When that happens I
feel the absence of God, the hole at my center of my presence lacking Presence,
and that leads to further agony.
When I was young, around
twelve I think, I had a dream. I was in
a pine woods, dressed in a priest's long black dress, with a collar, and I
recall my parents looking for me and being unable to find me in those woods,
and then finally finding me and being sad because of how I was dressed, and the
distance it put between us. I remember another dream around that time
too, a horrendously frightening angel, outside the windows on the Acme
supermarket in Narberth, when I used to go with my mom, waiting for me, for I
knew not what, but it wasn't going to be good.
Now I am in a place where
the federal and some state governments and many people view me as essentially
an unclear leper -- mentally ill, sexually deviant. Maybe they're right, maybe some of my friends
and family are right. Why would God create
someone so outside the norm?
I don’t know that. Why isn't for me or anyone really to
know. Your thoughts are not God’s
thoughts, Isiah said. I know is that each
of us need meaning to live too. And my meaning
is simply to do what God would have me do, since I was twelve and had those
dreams, while being as God created me to be.
And every so often there is a brilliant flash of something that I understand. A friend of mine told me last night that he
has had to choose between personal happiness and helping people. It's that simple maybe.
On Saturday afternoon, I
got a handwritten letter. Addressed in pencil. It was also stamped with the words -- INMATE
MAIL -- it says on the outside of the envelope.
Her tale -- she is trans in a guy's prison - is horrific. Maybe I can help her. At some cost of time and money, taking away
from things that actually would make money.
And maybe not, but I won't know that until I can summon the personal courage
to confront more persons and more groups about dignity for her, a trans sister.
But if I do thing just
right, I think of it as trying to engage in so many patterns in so many
lives, in a constantly good way, recognizing
that each moment may have something some greater meaning too. And that is a joyous time. The joy of Christ. But it's too easy to fall away. Even Paul said the spirit is willing the flesh
is weak. And I am all too familiar with that.
But Christ said that we
shouldn't worry. Do not worry little
one.
It's just that I have seen
the dead sparrows, lying there, on the sidewalk, and I have seen the innocence
of youth die, and I have seen the suffering of inmates, and I worry for
myself. The edge is so thin sometimes the
worry turns into depression unable to move to accept anything from the world, and
sometimes it turns into shrieking demons, and I don't know if they are real or
not, but Satan does exist I know and his legions.
So right now is it best to
help the prisoner, do not worry about what I eat or where I live or the crippling
abandonment? My fear is that I am cursed
by God because I am violating fundamental precepts of His in my life, the thundering
Old Testament God, and the cursing New Testament Christ, who threatened and killed
the fig tree because it didn't bear fruit, and warning of being cast out with
wailing and gnashing of teeth because I am trans and that is so different.
And even worse I am helping
my fellow trans people. Like the prisoner
and so many with so many needs. And even
me...oh my god I can’t even pee by law in a woman's bathroom in some
places. See me below. I'm the one in the middle. Some states, like North Carolina, want me to
pee with the guys on either side of me. Really?
All that's left sometimes
is the promise of the old woman who touched His cloak and was healed or the
widow who kept knocking until the door was answered. (And sometimes I knock annoyingly and almost
angrily like Mary at the wedding of Cana, like God it's time to show up now,
and I used to feel guilty about that as well until my grandmother and mother both
told me they did it too.)
But ultimately I get
dragged back into this fight for basic dignity for the shunned. Because I'm one too. It is elemental, stripping me to basic things,
literally and in so many ways. It is an awesome
thing. I am challenged daily, in my life
and in others who reach out to me. So
maybe I can be a fool, like Paul being a fool for God (although I wonder how
Paul would greet me? hmmmm...) and trusting
with the faith that moves mountains and not worrying about where I lay my head
or my food and clothing, or spilling my soul here in this prayer, but it is sometimes
shaken, all too often. I believe Lord help
my disbelief. Because You are all I have
now. And even that happened to You, there
in the Garden. Wow.
The cosmic electrician at work …
… Your brain loves poets, but may not know it | Health24. (Hat tip, G. E. Reutter.)
Something to think on …
Love takes up where knowledge leaves off.
— Thomas Aquinas, who dies on this date in 1274
Listen in …
… Episode 208 – Barbara Epler | Virtual Memories.
“We try to find things that move the walls in our brain about what fiction and poetry can do.”
Grammar check …
… Nouns and Verbs and Obama Do Not Agree | The American Spectator. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Supposedly after immersing himself in Dreams, [Jonathan] Raban called Obama “the best writer to occupy the White House since Lincoln.” [Joe] Klein called Dreams “the best-written memoir ever produced by an American politician.” And the Guardian’s reviewer esteemed the book the fifth best nonfiction book “of all time” — yes, “of all time”!And he won the Nobel Peace Prize preemptively and prematurely.
Monday, March 06, 2017
Mystical psychotherapy …
… Roberto Assagioli: Synthesis of the Kundalini Ascent | Media for Freedom. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Disorienting power …
… A Former Student Approaches the Life of Elizabeth Bishop - The New York Times. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
… this polite, famously reticent poet, formerly in the background of a poetic era dominated by her close friend Robert Lowell, has shouldered virtually everyone else aside, including, in a remarkable (if only temporary?) adjustment of rankings, Lowell himself. Just as remarkable is the fact that so much of the attention Bishop has received is focused on what she badly wanted to keep out of sight: her life story.
Afloat in Manhattan …
… New York 2140: A novelist's vision of a drowned city that still never sleeps. (Hat tip, Dan Bloom.)
Well, maybe not: Drastic cooling in North Atlantic beyond worst fears, scientists warn.
Well, maybe not: Drastic cooling in North Atlantic beyond worst fears, scientists warn.
Climatologists who have looked again at the possibility of major climate change in and around the Atlantic Ocean, a persistent puzzle to researchers, now say there is an almost 50% chance that a key area of the North Atlantic could cool suddenly and rapidly, within the space of a decade, before the end of this century.Post bumped.
Hmm again …
… Polymath Stephen Wolfram Defends His Computational Theory of Everything - Scientific American Blog Network. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Horgan: Can the methods you describe in A New Kind of Science answer the question of why there is something rather than nothing?Then I guess it isn't a theory of everything we're talking about, after all.
Wolfram: Not that I can see so far.
Hmm …
…Sinclair Lewis, American Prophet | Literary Hub. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
In his 1966 essay “Lewis’s Satire—A Negative Emphasis,” Daniel R. Brown offers an argument for Sinclair Lewis’s continued relevance: “The illiberality he exposed has not disappeared from the United States. Racial and religious bigotry, puritanical viciousness, business cheating and duplicity have not vanished. It is a serious mistake to dismiss Lewis’s novels as charming and quaint books filled with interesting if out-dated thoughts of American life.” Brown is right.Well, golly gee, sounds like America is inhabited by human beings. And Lewis is not exactly an elegant stylist.
Beauty out of chaos …
… The American Scholar: “Time to Plant Tears” - Dana Gioia. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Marshall … tells Bishop’s story with admirable clarity and economy. Most biographers are better at gathering material than presenting it; their narratives often bog down in a morass of research notes. Marshall has a novelistic gift for crafting a narrative sensitive to both the inner and outer realities that shape a life. This double perspective is necessary in understanding Bishop’s contradictory existence, so outwardly quiet and inwardly tormented.
A dilemma or dilemna over dilemna or dilemma?
There is a website about this-- what is the proper spelling of dilemma? I started on another post with the title "A Dilemna" but the spell checker insisted it was "Dilemma." I'll find a new word...dilemma somehow looks diminished, the two m's robbing it of the power that the "mn" gave it I think. (Parenthetically, I must never use the word...otherwise some spell checker here or in Word or whereever would have found it somewhere and the same issue would have come up then and I would have remembered it...and where is "spell checker" from anyway...sigh...so many questions...)
Something to think on …
Mental events such as perceivings, rememberings, decisions, and actions resist capture in the net of physical theory.
— Donald Davidson, born on this date in 1917
Sunday, March 05, 2017
In case you wondered …
… George Saunders: what writers really do when they write | Books | The Guardian. (hat tip, Dave Lull.)
We often discuss art this way: the artist had something he “wanted to express”, and then he just, you know … expressed it. We buy into some version of the intentional fallacy: the notion that art is about having a clear-cut intention and then confidently executing same.The actual process, in my experience, is much more mysterious and more of a pain in the ass to discuss truthfully.
A slow and careful reading …
… Patricia Duncker - The Eyes Have It | Literary Review | Issue 451. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Davis demonstrates the truth of D H Lawrence’s observation on Eliot’s work, ‘It was she who started putting all the action inside.’ If a crucial passage from an early text proves vital to a later argument, Davis will discuss it again, and that passage then seems entirely new and different. Davis’s organisation of his study manages to be both chronological and thematic. This book is filled with echoes.
Something to think on …
How often I have found that we grow to maturity not by doing what we like, but by doing what we should. How true it is that not every 'should' is a compulsion, and not every 'like' is a high morality and true freedom.
— Karl Rahner, born on this date in 1904
Saturday, March 04, 2017
W.G. Sebald
I've written on the blog before about my admiration for W.G. Sebald, and for the mark his work made on the history of contemporary literature. When I first read Sebald, I pretty much took on everything -- from Austerlitz and The Emigrants, to The Rings of Saturn and After Nature. The one book that I didn't read was On the Natural History of Destruction, Sebald's essays on the literary culture of Germany following the Second World War.
Over the past week, I've read those essays -- and as in the past, I found Sebald's writing mesmerizing. Of the four essays assembled here, the first and the third, I think, achieve a sort of transcendence. The former asks why German writers failed to address their country's destruction toward the end of the Second World War. The latter, meanwhile, focuses on the Jewish writer Jean Amery, and Amery's assertion that the experience of German Jews is something less to be reconciled or resolved, and more to revealed, over and over again. "The unremitting denunciation of injustice," writes Sebald, should be our primary interpretative lens; it should be how we process the Holocaust.
As always, Sebald's writing is defined by its lucidity, and by the incorporation of images -- the effect of which is to reinforce the gravity of his essays. Sebald strikes me in this collection as a man unafraid of the truth: around German amnesia, for instance, or around the foundations of the modern German state (built with the "well-kept secret of corpses"). Sebald wonders why so many Germans acted as if "nothing had happened" in the period stretching to 1947. That no real literary tradition emerged around the shared experience of domestic destruction suggests that the experience "had not registered in the consciousness," he writes, "of the reemergent nation."
Sebald concludes that the "self-imposed silence" around Germany's experience in the Second World War owed something to the sense at the time that destruction -- however traumatic -- amounted to progress, and that, by assuming the destruction to have been warranted (as if a punishment), German writers closed one chapter and opened another. The result was silence, but also resurgence.
Sebald's essays are as relevant now as when they first appeared in 1999. I can't recommend them enough.
A fundamental paradox …
… blog.kennypearce.net: Idealism and Christian Theology: Introduction. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Footfalls in the memory …
… The American Scholar: The Life Unlived - André Aciman. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Something to think on …
The art of writing is to explain the complications of the human soul with the simplicity that can be universally understood.
— Alan Sillitoe, born on this date in 1928
Friday, March 03, 2017
Well worth knowing …
… First Known When Lost: For Mary Coleridge.
I find it very comforting to spend time in the company of Mary Coleridge. She is thoughtful, sensitive, sensible, and self-effacing. These are qualities that I admire in any poet -- and in any person.I first learned of Mary Coleridge from reading First Known When Lost. I have since bought a volume of her poems. She is indeed good company.
Q & A …
… Civil rights era poet shares how he aims to create civility in today’s society | Wiser With Age. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
“I’m a baseball person, and I look at my life in terms of innings – now, I’m going through the 7th inning stretch,” explains Miller. “When you reach your 70’s, you still have your life ahead of you. Jazz musicians are still performing in their 80’s, and that should be a guide for all of us. As an artist, you are not dependent on an employer. [Your art] never stops until you die.”My kind of guy.
I have observed this myself …
… Hay Festival video: On the power of cab drivers. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Out of fuel …
… ANTHONY BURGESS CENTENARY: FAITH AND THE FUEL OF CONVICTION OF A CONFIRMED CATHOLIC WRITER. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The archbishop, [Burgess] wrote, “left me to struggle with my soul in my own way, knowing that my intellectual engine was in order; what it lacked was the fuel of conviction”.It is faith one needs — the strength to bear up under doubt — not conviction.
Yes, It Must Be...
Area Man Accepts Burden Of Being Only Person On Earth Who Understands How World Actually Works
...It was only after years of listening to people voice their shocking misconceptions about workplace etiquette, taxes, the relative merits of various makes and models of cars, and common grammar mistakes did Krause reportedly realize that he was the only living person endowed with such knowledge and that no one anywhere understood the world as unerringly as he did.
According to Krause, his duty to enlighten the other 7.4 billion inhabitants of the planet follows him wherever he goes. Whether he is eating dinner at a restaurant with his family, walking through the breakroom at work, or spending time with friends, he told reporters that he must always be ready to rise to the occasion, imparting at a moment’s notice insights regarding what makes a good movie, whether a particular football player should be traded, or the superiority of certain rideshare apps over others...It's Onion Friday!
Something to think on …
Let the mind be, along with countless other things, a landing strip for sacred visitations.
— James Merrill, born on this date in 1926
Thursday, March 02, 2017
Just matter, never mind …
… Is Consciousness and Illusion? (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Perhaps a better approach would be to take experience as given and see where it leads, as opposed to trying to explain it away from the outset, which also, by the way, involves regarding the thought process by which one explains it away as an illusion.
Much talk in this piece about memes, which Dennett defines as follows: "They are a kind of way of behaving (roughly) that can be copied, transmitted, remembered, taught, shunned, denounced, brandished, ridiculed, parodied, censored, hallowed."
Well, do they exist independently somewhere, or are we just talking about styles, fashions, forms, memories, etc. that catch on and get passed along? Is the sonnet a meme? Is metrical language? Oh, I get it, we have a culture because … we have cultural practices and artifacts. When I last checked, evolution had to do with biology. What is the precise biological component of memes? Is there any?
If I understand [Dennett], this requires us to interpret ourselves behavioristically: when it seems to me that I have a subjective conscious experience, that experience is just a belief, manifested in what I am inclined to say.But in that case we can only compare one belief to another. There is no point in wondering if one is true or the other not. Both just are. Even if our belief changes, it is not we who have changed it. We don't do anything. We just happen, whatever that means.
Perhaps a better approach would be to take experience as given and see where it leads, as opposed to trying to explain it away from the outset, which also, by the way, involves regarding the thought process by which one explains it away as an illusion.
Much talk in this piece about memes, which Dennett defines as follows: "They are a kind of way of behaving (roughly) that can be copied, transmitted, remembered, taught, shunned, denounced, brandished, ridiculed, parodied, censored, hallowed."
Well, do they exist independently somewhere, or are we just talking about styles, fashions, forms, memories, etc. that catch on and get passed along? Is the sonnet a meme? Is metrical language? Oh, I get it, we have a culture because … we have cultural practices and artifacts. When I last checked, evolution had to do with biology. What is the precise biological component of memes? Is there any?
Wednesday, March 01, 2017
Mark thy calendar …
… Bryn Mawr-Wellesley Book Sale Coming to PDS March 17-21 | Town Topics. (Hat tip, Virginia Kerr.)
Not really …
… zmkc: Out of Step.
I haven't seen La La Land, but my wife and a couple of her friends did. None was impressed, and one walked out.
I haven't seen La La Land, but my wife and a couple of her friends did. None was impressed, and one walked out.
Happy birthday …
… Richard Wilbur: A Critical Survey of His Career – Dana Gioia. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
See also: Birthdays.
See also: Birthdays.
Something to think on …
All novels are about certain minorities: the individual is a minority. The universal in the novel — and isn't that what we're all clamoring for these days? — is reached only through the depiction of the specific man in a specific circumstance.
— Ralph Ellison, born on this date in 1914
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