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Showing posts from December, 2010

Reflecting on "Auld Lang Syne"

Reflecting on "Auld Lang Syne" via Books Inq.

World's Worst Invasive Mammals

World's worst invasive mammals Oddly, I often don't think of mammals in this category.  On the other hand, the whole list seems undoubtedly true and pervasive. via Books Inq.

Greeting the New Year in Poetry

Let's start with an epitome: Kobyashi Issa New Year's Day New Year's Day-- everything is in blossom! I feel about average. Tr. Robert Haas  Then we have the inimitably cheerful Thomas Hardy At the Entering of the New Year   and, of course, what would a change of year be without The Darkling Thrush For those making resolutions we have Rainer Maria Rilke's Archaic Torso of Apollo My own haiku: The new year comes in the old goes out; nothing stops the baby's crying. (I claim it for my own--but I will readily say that it is so engrained in memory that I may have stolen it from some great writer of haiku and forgotten.  If anyone reads this and recognizes the real author (if, indeed, I am not he), please let me know.) Then we have Robert Herrick sending A New Year's Gift to Sir Simon Steward And we can depart the subject where we entered--with Issa's quiet wisdom New Year's Morning Kobiyashi Issa  New Year's morning: the du

Happy Belated 100th

Paul Bowles--Born 30 December 1911, with a video of Paul Bowles reading. And another remembrance

Beginning a New Year of Reading

Suggestions for those casting about for a new year of reading I'm fortunate--I have a list as long as my arm of things to read now and in the coming months.  Right now I am reading and hope to finish today (because it is quite short) Andrew Holleran's Grief .  And immediately on its heels Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan , and perhaps I'll be able to force my way through Ms. Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad , although, I must admit, I don't hold out much hope on that one. Other posted Reading Plans

Next--James Hynes

Oh, this was not the book to end a year on. And with that inauspicious beginning, I'll back up to recommend this book highly to everyone.  It has been a sleeper and so there hasn't been enough written about it to prepare me for its high-powered impact.  And I will say no more about that because I want you all to endure and enjoy the surprise the probably shouldn't have been such a surprise. Kevin, from Ann Arbor, has gone to Austin to interview for a job there.  On the way he meets a young lady who entrances him and whom he stalks through Austin.  (She must be the most completely oblivious person in the world because they have several near encounters along the way, but she never seems to recognize or note him.)  After an accident ends his stalking (not in a really predatory sense), he chances upon another woman who helps to repair the damage and has lunch with him.  Woven throughout this seeming nothing of a story line is the history of Kevin's relationships with ot

Chillingly True and Relevent

"Our Masters"  an excerpt from G. K. Chesterton

An Appreciation of the KJV

400 Years of the KJV via Books Inq. When I want to be lost in the sheer majesty of language, in the deep history of our literature, in mastery and beauty--there are few places to find it better than in the KJV.  Admittedly, if one wishes to study, analyze, and otherwise participate in scholarly Biblical research, it may not be the best.  But it certainly is more ear-considerate than many of the thundering, thudding, thunking modern translations.

Hemingway on Pound

Hemingway writing Archibald MacLeish on Ezra Pound

MA Visits the Year in Books

Mark Athitakis notes the year in books And I would have made a point of this one even if Yiyun Li were not at the top of the list.

Pursuing the Peloponnesian Wars

With Thucydides, pursuing the Peloponnesian Wars

Stanley Fish on the Grace of God in True Grit

Stanley Fish comments on True Grit And if Stanley Fish commenting on the grace of God isn't an odd enough combo for you, then you are truly in Yves Tanguy land.

The Year in Short Stories

Collections of Short Stories Of course Yiyun Li is mentioned and lauded, otherwise, why bother?

Night Elie Wiesel

Inspired by a review I looked at yesterday, I took this book up (again?--I honestly can't recall if I've read it before, though I'm certain I've held it in my hands and nearly certain I've read it--but upon rereading remember almost nothing of it) and swiftly finished.  It is a short book.  Very short.  And like Frankl's but in some sense a mirror image of it, a powerful book.  Elie Wiesel was a 14 year old boy living in Hungary when the Hungarian Holocaust occurred.  Now, I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say that for the majority of the war, the Hungarian Jews had a measure of protection from the Holocaust.  The ruler of Hungary refused to go along with the German plan with regard to the Jews.  That isn't to say that life was easy or without hardships or prejudice, but until 1944, the Hungarian Jews knew little or nothing of the holocaust.  That all stopped suddenly, dramatically, in 1944 when a new government, a more cooperative governmen

Leads to Interesting Places

"Declaration on the Notion of 'The Future'" And the complete manifesto from the International Necronautical Association  Two Excerpts of interest 6. To phrase it in more directly political terms: the INS rejects the idea of the future, which is always the ultimate trump card of dominant socioeconomic narratives of progress. As our Chief Philosopher Simon Critchley has recently argued, the neoliberal versions of capitalism and democracy present themselves as an inevitability, a destiny to whom the future belongs. We resist this ideology of the future, in the name of the sheer radical potentiality of the past, and of the way the past can shape the creative impulses and imaginative landscape of the present. The future of thinking is its past, a thinking which turns its back on the future. . . . . 25. A footnote on Ballard: When, in 2006, a range of writers, scientists, artists, architects, and misc. were asked to contribute a sentence each to Hans

Reading Woolf Night and Day

Night and Day , an early novel, considered

Old News, But New to Me--On Not Getting an African Nobelist

"The Laureate's Curse"

Thomas Bernhard in Translation

Considering Thomas Bernhard

Three Percent Looks at HMH in Translation

A nice analysis of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt offerings in translation And the HMH Lit in translation blog

A Revolutionary Resolution

Resolving for New Year's?  You couldn't do much better than this.

Chesterton on Film

Alec Guinness Playing Father Brown and Chesterton Himself. GKC's voice comes as something of a surprise to me.

Considering Pym?

Barbara Pym considered If you haven't read her, you may want to pick up a novel and give it a whirl.  You might be pleasantly surprised.

Poetry is Politics

Poetry Out Loud examined. via Books Inq. The best multicultural education one can get is a grounding in the classics of one's own culture--the ability to understand how literature works at a base level in a vernacular that is comprehensible to the individual.  This was my training--and though I am occasionally mystified by my forays into other cultures, I can claim that I'm occasionally mystified by my forays into my own--it is all equal.  While much should be done to redress the historic discrimination that has kept out of our hands works of quality by women and minorities--it seems a shame to make that one of the overriding criteria for a selection of work.

Black Swan

A review of Black Swan via Books Inq. Sounds interesting, when I first read about it, I thought All About Eve in Ballet or, to cite one of my very favorite all time terrible, horrible, big bad movies Showgirls Goes Classical .  Apparently more than that (as what could not be?) and intriguing--but not one I'm going to race out to see.

Requiring Some Time--Life and Meaning I and II

Life and Meaning Redux Via Books Inq. Caveat Lector--good stuff but not necessarily easy going.

Vincent Buckley on the Personality of Christ

The Strange Personality of Christ Interesting and intriguing observations.  Read it!  Read them!

"Gods Must Die to Live"

C. S. Lewis on Pagan Gods and otherwise via Books Inq.

Shakespeare's Sonnets

Reading Shakespeare's Sonnets One that I must have--but know I sha'n't find in my library--any generous spirits want to send it to me? Ha!  Thought not.

Rome v. Bilbilis

Martial's Latin with multiple English renditions.  

Dickens's Great Book

Great Expectations in all the myriad forms

In Memoriam: Denis Dutton

Dennis Dutton One Dennis Dutton Two--A TED Talk

Forcing Oneself to Face the Blank Page

Writing Naked, Superglue, and the programmed Freedom for eight hours of sanity.

Twelve Books of 2010

Twelve Books of 2010 Agreement on A Fine Balance, East of Eden, and The Imperfectionists, partial agreement with caveat on Insignificant Others.   Agreement on the merits, but not necessarily on all aspects of the analysis (a notable demurral on the interpretation of The Imperfectionists --but then, a book well-written admits of many possible views.)

"And Now for Something Completely Different. . . "

The Mummies perform Justine live From what little one can make out of melody and lyrics, one assumes that this is Durrell's Justine not DeSade's--although from the assault on the ears, one could easily infer the latter as well.

Why Books Still Matter

The Lost Art of Reading --Why Books Still Matter Sometimes, it seems, we go out of our way to try to show that something we enjoy or appreciate still matters, and yet the attempt in itself almost makes itself redundant.  Of course it matters, but we're preaching to the choir, for the only person likely to read a book about why books and reading matter is a person who is already convinced that they do.  Such a manifesto is unlikely to persuade the nonreader, because said person won't pick it up.  So, it is interesting.  But whatever adds dignity, vision, peace, and harmony to human life matters--and certainly reading CAN do that, even if it does not always.

The Fallen Angels Do Not Weep

"Just Like the Rain, I'll Always Be Falling. . . " A delightful couple of lines: "I holp no palmers whon thot thay bay seck; No elvysh poppets twang may turvy rhyme; Their ferney hawls I longen for to wreck" I don't want to call them mock-medieval because the person composing them certainly has the credentials to produce a rounded medieval rhyme.  Nevertheless, the ringing Chaucerian laughter of the last line, which echoes that "thanne longen folkes to goon on pilgrimage// and palmeres for to seken straugne strondes"  from the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales certainly marks an allusiveness worth examining.

One of the Great and Neglected Golden Age Mystery Authors

Shelf Love discovers Michael Innes Highlights of his work (for me) consist of Hamlet, Revenge!, Lament for a Maker, Hare Sitting Up , and Silence Observed --although all of them are quite good in a quiet, English, golden-age way.

"All Our Joy Is Enough"

Geoffrey Scott--"All Our Joy is Enough"  Lovely.

A Novel Around Tristan and Isolde

The Metropolitan Case a novel with Tristan and Isolde at the center. As one who learned to love Wagner early on in life, this sounds fascinating.  I'm given to understand that Wagner, like Lovecraft, Poe, and some others (perhaps even Mozart) is a taste acquired early on, and after a certain age, while appreciation may set in, true love is lost to one who hasn't already fallen.

Magazines Less Digital?

Magazines less digital?  I don't think so, but here's one who does.

Another Review of Bound to Last

Another review of Bound to Last. See my own, here.

Picture Perfect Paris

Picture Perfect Paris--looks wonderful

Greg Schultz on Craft in Fiction

Craft in Fiction via Brandywine Books

Beginning our Farewells to the Year

John Clare's "The Old Year"

Hessel v. Houellebecq

And the winner is French Resistance Author Stéphane Hessel

Kindle Dethrones Potter

Amazon's best-selling item EVER?  The Kindle

Literary Themed New Year's Eve Dinner Menus

Yep--literary themed menus redux

Beautiful and (for those not caught in it) Amusing

Time-Lapse Snowstorm

How to Lose a Fond Memory

Losing a fond memory revisiting childhood reading.

Naguib Mahfouz considered

The Palace Walk reviewed

"I'm gonna send them two-by-two"

Review of the year in lists of two

For the Snow-Bound

John Greenleaf Whittier's "Snow-Bound" for the snow-bound.

Gratitude redux

Life itself is the gift. . . gratitude in focus Later, via Books Inq. Living Gratefully

Another View of Less-Than-Perfect

The Imperfectionists reviewed My own review is here.

A Sound-Byte from Gaddis

No matter how little, it is always worth hearing from Franzen's bête noire --William Gaddis

The Rosetta Stone

Try to ignore the "Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade" feeling of some of the narration.

Orson Welles Twice

Freedom River Les Miserables

Facing Night

Elie Wiesel's Night examined A powerful novel--spare, taut, uncompromising.  Truly one of the essentials--perhaps best balanced by a does of Victor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning or perhaps Imre Kertesz's Fatelessness (if you're made of sterner stuff than am I).

Five E-Book Trends

Summarized Five E-Book Trends the full monty

More on Full Dark, No Stars

I have been thinking over a couple of ideas that cropped up while reading the book.  I propose to discuss two here: why, exactly, I found "Fair Extension" as disturbing as I did and Stephen King's disingenuous distinctions. Let's start with disingenuous distinctions.  Mr. King states in the afterward something to the effect that literary fiction is ultimately about extraordinary people in ordinary events and that he has ever fashioned his fiction from ordinary people facing extraordinary events.  Neither half of this generalization is true although one understands the underlying distinction he is trying to make.  Let's start with the first half--extraordinary people in ordinary times.  In the course of a blog entry, it isn't possible to consider every case of literary fiction; however, let's just take a few.  Let us consider for a moment Leopold Bloom.  In what way can we say that Mr. Bloom is an extraordinary person--what attributes does he have that ma

Martian Sunset and Phobos in Transit

Martian Sunset and Phobos in Transit Eclipse, while probably technically correct, seems strong for a body that would never fully block even the tiny Martian sun.  But interesting watching nevertheless.

Poem of the Week--Grevel Lindop

"My Grandmother's Opal"

Gratitude as a Way of Life

Gratitude as a Way of Life One of the key components to happiness in life is the ability to be grateful for what we have--not in comparison to others, not with respect to some place we would like to be--but here and now being thankful for what is in our lives.  It is, at times, very difficult because our thoughts are clouded by disordered desires.  But gratitude helps to align those desires, put them in perspective, and order our living accordingly. And another via Books Inq.

A Conversation with Father James Schall S. J.

Advent Conversation via Books Inq. Fr. Schall is well-known for his writing about literature (particularly G. K. Chesterton and other such) as well as other Catholic Matters--he's a favorite of mine for many things.

"Sky for Roof, Mountains for Walls"

A lovely poem by Andrew Young

Confused by Bolano? Join the Club.

The Savage Detectives reviewed

LoA Story of the Week--"Horsefeathers Swathed in Mink"

"Horsefeathers Swathed in Mink"

Elegantly Old School

"Elegantly Old School" Or how to revive common courtesy and knit society back together again.  What was once common courtesy is now a rare and somewhat precious (in both senses of the word) thing.  I think about the rules we were taught for writing letters--and then I see how we commonly do e-mails.  The address line is determined to be salutation enough.  If we leave comments, we rarely trouble ourselves to acknowledge the individual behind them.  I know the electronic is metaphor for the new conversation in which we commonly do not acknowledge the speaker--but then, because we are present and evidently attentive, there is little cause to. Courtesy, acknowledging the presence of one another, saluting the spark of the divine that travels within each one of us, is the stuff of which civil society is made--and it isn't a set of elaborate rules about whether or not one is required to wear elbow-length gloves or use the fish fork before the ice-cream knife (although tho

How True Grit Made the Best Seller Lists

How True Grit hit the big time (first time around) I read this book a long, long time ago and remember really loving it--not being able to read it fast enough.  I guess it was one of the first generation of YA fiction.  I'm not certain I would find it so compellingly readable now--but I'm told the new film clings more closely to the contours of the book, and that comes as welcome news.

Harry Potter Actress Threatened with Honor Killing

Harry Potter Actress Threatened with Honor Killing via North Face What is a shame is that a small number of practitioners of a faith, any faith, should so color our perception of the faith as a whole.  I know that as a Christian, I'm not particularly fond of abortion clinic bombers, cults in the style of David Koresh, or even (in a much different vein) a great many televangelists--all of these detract from the dignity of a truly noble and humanizing faith.  So, too, with these stories as they emerge.  I'm glad they emerge to cast light on what should not be left in darkness and so exemplify and spotlight what ought to change; however, it saddens me to think that as a result a great many will have reinforced conceptions, misconceptions, and prejudices about a system of belief. 

Full Dark, No Stars--Stephen King

I received Mr. King's latest opus as a Christmas gift and finished it this morning. The book lives up to the title, and one can only hope that it serves as a form of therapy or hope for Mr. King, for if not, the darkness is very dark indeed. For the most part, it is fairly standard King fare, rats (hearkening back to very early work in his first short story collection, which in turn hearkens back to H. P. Lovecraft's "The Rats in the Walls"), a tale of rape, near-murder and revenge, a story about a marriage--with secrets, and a Needful Things extension, which is, perhaps the ugliest and most deeply disturbing story in the book. Indeed, it was this tale that actually caused a gut-churning nausea--not because of the details--which, in fact, were mild in the realm of Kingian detail, but the very concept of the story was deeply disturbing to me.  It truly exemplified Roethke's famous line, "Dark, dark my light and darker my desire." All  of the storie

Long List of Jewish Books of the Year

Long list of best Jewish Books of the year. And a comment on the list

Advent Ghost Stories

"The Night After Christmas"   There are several that you may want to take in after you read this one.

One of My Heroes: Francis Collins

Francis Collins Interviewed via Books Inq.

A Christmas Poem

The Burning Babe St. Robert Southwell As I in hoary winter's night stood shivering in the snow, Surprised I was with sudden heat which made my heart to glow ; And lifting up a fearful eye to view what fire was near, A pretty babe all burning bright did in the air appear ; Who, scorchëd with excessive heat, such floods of tears did shed As though his floods should quench his flames which with his tears were fed. Alas, quoth he, but newly born in fiery heats I fry, Yet none approach to warm their hearts or feel my fire but I ! My faultless breast the furnace is, the fuel wounding thorns, Love is the fire, and sighs the smoke, the ashes shame and scorns ; The fuel justice layeth on, and mercy blows the coals, The metal in this furnace wrought are men's defilëd souls, For which, as now on fire I am to work them to their good, So will I melt into a bath to wash them in my blood. With this he vanished out of sight and swiftly shrunk away, And straight I callëd unto

The Scorch Trials--James Dashner

The Scorch Trials is a young adult novel, follow-up to The Maze Runner .  While the puzzle and quest are neither as intricate nor as interesting as in the first book, the systematic and unremitting cruelty of WICKED continues. The teens from The Maze Runner are forced out into the Scorch to cross one hundred miles of desert in two weeks.  The stretch leads past a city of abandoned people--quarantined victims of The Flare, called Cranks, in various states of psychological and physical collapse.  And of course, if that were not enough, other elements are stacked up against the success of the trial. The story is high energy and charges along at a good pace, though there are elements about it that would cause me not to recommend it for most young people.  They'll find it themselves, surely, and they don't need my advice about what is good for them.  However, as an adult gift-giver, these would not be in my long list of literature for young adults--this set in particular because

Christmas Greetings to All!

A day early, but as I don't plan to be on tomorrow to extend these seasonal greetings--a favorite carol: Noel nouvelet, Noel chantons ici, Devotes gens, crions a Dieu merci! Chantons Noel pour le Roi nouvelet, Noel! Chantons Noel pour le Roi nouvelet, Noel nouvelet, Noel chantons ici! L'ange disait! pasteurs partez d'ici! En Bethleem trouverez l'angelet. Chantons Noel pour le Roi nouvelet, Noel! Chantons Noel pour le Roi nouvelet, Noel nouvelet, Noel chantons ici! En Bethleem, etant tous reunis, Trouverent l'enfant, Joseph, Marie aussi. Chantons Noel pour le Roi nouvelet, Noel! Chantons Noel pour le Roi nouvelet, Noel nouvelet, Noel chantons ici! Bientot, les Rois, par l'etoile eclaircis, A Bethleem vinrent un matinee. Chantons Noel pour le Roi nouvelet, Noel! Chantons Noel pour le Roi nouvelet, Noel nouvelet, Noel chantons ici! L'un partait l'or; l'autre l'encens bem; L'etable alors au Paradis semblait. Chantons N

For the Catholic Taoist

For the Catholic Taoist--and I thought I was the only one.

Larkin on Snow

"Your Life Walking into Mine"

The PoMo Drops Off the Deep End Again

Or so it sounds from this review of Stanley Fish's How to Write a Sentence

Year's Best American Novel

Year's Best American Novel

A Considerable List of Notables

via A Commonplace Blog, a considerable list of the year's notable books

Some Religion for Christmas

Some Religion for Christmas via Books Inq.

Ted Chiang

Ted Chiang interviewed

Favorite Books of the Year

Another list, and one with some interesting entries-- Favorite books of the year. via Books Inq.

Seamus Heaney Considered

Seamus Heaney Reviewed by Joseph Bottum via Books Inq.

Personal, but Really, Really Lovely

A personal thanks to the blogger at Zen Leaf for sharing her "Anniversary."

Triffids reconsidered

John Wyndham's unread best seller "I really got hot when Janette Scott fought a triffid that shoots poison and kills. . . "

Season's Readings

"I Sing of a Maiden" Little Women

Literary Encounters a L'Australia

Literary Encounters a L'Australia

Book Munch Book of the Year

A somewhat disappointing list and a very disappointing winner. If that's the best of the year, I would have to mourn for the state of literature that should have this at the apex.

Winter Solstice Lunar Eclipse

Winter Solstice Lunar Eclipse video Flying home last evening, I was privileged to see the ochre full moon reflecting off of the water on Florida's east coast.  It was glorious, gorgeous, wonderful, and mysterious.  So, beautiful.  I missed this eclipse, not realizing that it was to happen--so this video is a wonderful "catch-up."

Amy Hempel Interviewed

Hempel on Lish and Hannah

More Solstice Celebration

With haiku, poetry, and aphorism

Net Neutrality Not Neutrality

On Net Neutrality

Wallace Stevens Plays in the Snow

"The Snowman"

Achebe's Achievement

Things Fall Apart considered Along with Nectar in a Seive, Things Fall Apart was one of the few "multicultural books" to which I was exposed in my early formal education. It is my contention that a thorough grounding in the pale patriarchy's canon made possible for me to access multicultural reading (take a look at the sidebar).  All of that said, this is one of those titles that deserve again and again a place within the canon of great works.

More from Moore

Brian Moore: Lies of Silence

"Solstice Song"

"Solstice Song" Celebrating that shortest of days--the "beginning of winter"  though many have had it well-begun for some weeks now.

Critique of Criminal Reason--Michael Gregorio

NOTE:  R/T, Bea, Ron, you may not want to read what follows the break if you plan to read the book.  While I will try to be discrete, it may prove impossible to discuss the book without giving away some sense of it. I saw that Fred had recommended this to R/T, and being something of a reader of mysteries, I thought I would take it up myself.  Let me start unabashedly.  Despite some problems I had with the book, which I'll detail below, overall, I enjoyed it tremendously. The story:  A young magistrate from Nowhere, Germany is summoned by the king to Königsberg to investigate a series of murders that has the town terrorized.  On the even of possible Napoleonic invasion, many officials are convinced that these are the work of terrorists, designed to undermine the morale of the town and make it easy pickings for Napoleon's forces.  As our intrepid investigator looks deeper into the crimes, they begin to proliferate and he finds. . . well, let's not go there. Possibly one

Not Your Mother's Narnia

Sarah Palin is reading C. S. Lewis, and, predictably being attacked for it This WSJ article speaks of one of the main themes of Dawn Treader--the importance of reading the right books, including fiction. Posted from my iPad while waiting for a commuter flight to Miami--don't know how much more I'll be able to get to today.

An Atheist Looks at the Good of Faith

An Atheist Looks at the Good of Faith via Books Inq.

Brief Biographies

Brief Biographies of those who left too soon. Including my second favorite composer: Felix Mendelssohn.  (My favorite in the realm--Claude Debussy).

A Professor to HIs Students: On Creative Writing

On Creative Writing What more recommendation can you have than this beginning: TO: My ungrateful students RE: An inspirational letter Oh, read it anyway. You may not need this postscript as much as I need to give it to you.

Treasures from the Vatican Library

Treasures from the Vatican Library--a slideshow

"Like A Bad Lobster in a Dark Cellar"

Reviewing Dickens's Christmas Tales

Poem of the Week: Thomas Traherne

"Shadows in the Water" Thomas Traherne gave us the Centuries of Meditations, which were, by my recollection one of those "lost" and refound collections.  Worth your attention and careful reading.

Another Seasonal Read

Secunda Pastorum This one sounds utterly fascinating.

Countee Cullen on the Nativity

Christus natus est One of the great crimes of the twentieth century is the virtual disappearance of Countee Cullen from the record of its poetry.  The power, integrity, and beauty of his opus is worth looking for and looking into.  A few years back a Collected Poems was published--I think it is out of print, but it's worth picking up if you should find a copy.

30 Dumb Inventions

30 Dumb Inventions of the Twentieth Century via Books Inq.  and Paul Davis on Crime

Why Euphemism?

Euphemania reviewed This sounds like one of those really interesting books I would never pick up if not recommended by so redoubtable a source as Biblioklept, with whom I do not agree on everything, but whose wide-ranging and eclectic interests never fail to intrigue--I have found many, many good things to read and see through the blog.

Barbara Pym: Because It's in My Reading Stack

Excellent Women reviewed I hope we see a reevaluation and reemergence of Ms. Pym whose works I have long admired from afar and have only recently begun to explore close-up.

An Update on Mistry's Masterpiece

Underbelly provides us with an interesting look into the world that Mistry so superbly chronicled in his (to date) masterpiece A Fine Balance . Do yourself and the world a favor--if you have not yet read it, pick up Mistry's powerful, humane, beautiful, and terrible masterpiece and read it.  Internalize it, and then act upon it.  This is the way the world is, despite Ms. Greer's denial of it.

A Tribute to Captain Beefheart

Captain Beefheart (RIP) , whose magnum opus Trout Mask Replica , occupied many (far too many) of my college hours seeking first to understand, then to decide whether or not I liked it, then to figure out how it had ever made it out into the world of music at all given the less that liberal allowances of the recording industry even at that time. Later: F rank at Books Inq.  has rounded up a number of tributes

On the Problem of Evil

Evil as It Appears to Atheists and Theists from which I derive the quotation du jour: " Metaphysics is the finding of bad reasons for what we believe upon instinct, but to find these reasons is no less an instinct. "  F. H. Bradley

Consider then the Rubaiyat. . .

Fred looks, in some detail, at Quatrain XXXV--very much worth a peek.

Traveling with Edith Wharton

In Morocco reviewed I note this book with particular delight because, until today, I was in complete ignorance of it.  Now I can delight in looking forward to an Edith Wharton of which I had been unaware.

LoA--Story of the Week--Mark Twain

The Christmas Fireside (for Good Little Boys and Girls) Knowing as I do Mr. Twain, I doubt I shall read this until well after the Christmas season--but for those for whom the Twainian brand of cynicism comes as a restorative, I offer LoA's seasonal offering.

Bound to Last Sean Manning (ed.)

The wonderful folks at Da Capo books offered me a review copy of one of their most recent, and, after all, who am I to turn down a free book--I took them up on the offer and I'm pleased that I did. Bound to Last: 30 Writers on Their Most Cherished Book is an unusual volume.  It's comprised of a series of thirty essays about, predictably books.  But this is really about books, not content, not story, not literature.  And as a result some unusual volumes find their way into the collection.  For example, Rabih Alameddine highlights as his most cherished book a battered paperback edition of Harold Robbins's The Carpetbaggers . Shahrihar Mandanipour looks to a Farsi translation of Das Kapital . Victoria Patterson, not surprisingly, considering the power of her own work, looks to William Trevor: The Collected Stories .  Perhaps the most touching of all of these is Karen Green's tribute to her late husband via The Collected Stories of Amy Hempl , and perhaps it is touching be

Wow! Kevin Gave Me an Early Christmas Gift

Mr. Interpolations (with whom, I promise, I will eventually talk about Flannery O'Connor) politely requested a gift from a number of bloggers, most of whom were already on my list.  but one who was not turned out to be a real gift.  Check out Carvana de Recuerdos . Kevin from Canada Nonsuch Books Thanks Kevin, hope you like your gift when you open it.  If not, the exchange counter is open and I'm more than happy to offer something more slimming or entallating or embulking--whatever.

The Other Wilkie Collins

Wilkie Collins wrote a number of worthwhile the most famous of which are The Moonstone and The Woman in White , reviewed here. Both are worthy of the attention of anyone who appreciates Victoriana or the classic mystery.

More on Lewis

Consider then, The Last Battle

The Murse Dilemma

How to carry your iPad/minicomp Thanks TSO! Personally, I carry it is in shoulder bag that I originally bought at the Smithsonian or AMNH.  I bought it with the thought that Son might use it, but he had no interest.  But it's a great little rugged green canvas field bag with lots of places for writing implements, bottles of vinegar, chisels, (tools of the geology trade) and an ample compartment of specimen bags, tags, and or/journals, iPad, present reads.  I've used it for some time now and have occasionally given thought to the spectacle I present when I lug this thing into Church (I have the Liturgy of the Hours on the iPad).  But you know what--what other people think about you is none of your business anyway--so I lug away.

Why Narnia is NOT an Allegory

What is and why Narnia isn't

The Last Book I Loved

Andrew Holleran's Grief observed. via Mark Athitakis

Haiku of the Japanese Masters

Haiku of the Japanese Masters

Joyce Carol Oates on her collection

Joyce Carol Oates on Sourland

The Fullness of Time is Upon Us

Praying the O Antiphons You will recognize most of these if you are familiar with "O Come, O Come Emmanuel." (via Dark Speech upon the Harp)

Nabokov's Bent

A look at Bend Sinister   Warning--some spoilers.

13 Underrated Books of 2010

13 Underrated Books I haven't read many of these--but James Hynes is on my list, if only for his absurd success with The Lecturer's Tale .  However, I would put a little asterisk next to Ms. Orringer's opus and note that while I found the writing and language engaging, one member of my bookgroup (rightfully, I think) appiled Ayelet Waldman's epithet of bore-geous writing to it.  For me there was a sense of displacement in time--too much modern sensibility seemed to pervade the thoughts and actions of people in the 1930s.  It could be that the story derives from real life, there seem to be adapted elements--but even if so, it is real life that has been interpreted in the light of a completely changed culture and as a result, I never felt fully engaged because I was constantly pulled away by the tension between the story being told and the sensibility of the telling.

Two Lovely Chinese Snow Poems

Chinese Snow Poems

A Triolet to Make Your Day

"Triolet (Shipwreck Song)"

Saul Bellows Epistolary Output

Letters: Saul Bellow reviewed

Google's Ngram

Ngram--see how word usage has changed For a nice experiment use virtue, profit as the key and the dates 1920-2000.  Then, change the first date to 1800.

Who Is the Virtuous One?

Which one is doing God's will?  An interesting question and answer.

Tournament of Books

Tournament of Books, the longlist and one handicapping

He's with Oprah, and So Am I

"I'm with Oprah on this. . . " I'm not heavily into the talk-show circuit.  I'm not the world's number one Oprah fan; however, I do deeply admire her commitment to reading and her encouragement to millions of viewers to read.  Yes, I'm sure there are some less-than-sterling books in the reader list.  However, there have also been William Faulkner  (and we should note here that it was no less that four separate works), Anna Karenina , and now Charles Dickens. What harm is there in making literature fun?  So what if only 1% of the readers ever fully plumbed Faulkner's depths?  That's 1% more than there would have been otherwise.  And more than that, millions picked up and tried a book that they might not have tried on their own.  So to Oprah's book club, I give two thumbs up and a whistle. (After all, she and I are really in the same business.  I blog about books to encourage my few readers to indulge--I think that may be the impulse of man

LIu Xiaobo's Writings to be Translated

2012: Liu Xiaobo's Writings to be translated. via Books Inq.

Two New Journals

Dappled Things new number is out Online Free Sample of Gilbert Magazine --Appreciate

Considering Nicholson Baker

The Mezzanine considered- -go to the root directory and scroll down for more when you're done with this one.

A Richard Wilbur Tribute

Richard Wilbur Considered

Amazing Science

Science Photography in 2010

Wuthering Expectations on the best of 2010

Best of 2010 from Wuthering Expectations

What PDK Learned from UKL

What Philip K. Dick Learned about women from Ursula K. Leguin

Yes on Willeford

No on Vonnegut, yes on Willeford I didn't agree on Vonnegut, but I could see a good case for Charles Willeford (and several others).

"Ink in the Blood"

Hilary Mantel on illness-- "Ink in the Blood." Available only as an e-book at this point.

Happy Birthday Ms. Austen

Happy 235th!

"Heart of Darkness"

"Heart of Darkness" reviewed. I suspect that it is not possible to read and understand 20th century literature if you have not encountered and truly worked with "Heart of Darkness."  There are few touchpoints as volatile and as encompassing as this masterwork.  I think of Naipal's A Bend in the River amongst other works that would not exist without it.

Another Dickens Christmas Number

"The Wreck of the Golden Mary" reviewed

The Coalescence Cascade

Water at 10,000 frames/sec

Alan Bennett's Novella

The Uncommon Reader --a Novella considered The Queen reads.

Aleksandar Hemon Considered

The Lazarus Project --Aleksandar Hemon I was unable to finish this book--not because it isn't well written, not because it isn't good, as to those things I cannot say because I never managed to become engaged.  And as engagement is a reciprocal process, I am as much at fault for what I would not leave behind as the author is for what he would not advance.

A View of "The Wasteland"

Particularly notable is the then-royal-family's view of Eliot's masterwork.

A Year of Memorable Reading

The Year in Reading--Kafka, Woolf, Joyce, etc.

In the Epicurean Mode

"Why Death is not an Evil"--Epicurus v. Silenus

What Eyecatching Covers! On Poetry!

Eyecatching covers and at least two titles of note (the others may be as well, but I admit ignorance in this case--Larkin and Plath I know.  Perhaps I need to make the acquaintance of others).

Lest We Forget

Lanzman's Shoah 25 years later The human mind can hold horror only so long and must look away.  But it is important to look back--no matter how diluted the experience, we need the reminders of what we are capable of, lest we set out on the path to repeating the past.  It is far too easy to do when you depersonalize.

Losing Your Reality

The Succubus Vlado Zabot This one sounds as though it could be quite interesting.

Reading Uncomfortably

Eternal Discomfiture from the year in reading

Music as a Spiritual Practice

Spirituality for Agnostics: Music as a spiritual practice via Books Inq.  (I think)

Season's Readings: Ewwwwwww!

The Corrections? Really?  Is it possible to choose anything less seasonal, more profoundly antiseasonal?  As much as I did enjoy The Corrections , I certainly would NOT recommend it in this season.  And were I to recommend a novel along similar lines it would, without doubt, be Rohinton Mistry's Family Matters.

MA on Spiderhead

Mark Athitakis on George Saunders's "Escape from Spiderhead" Spoilers alert, but the article is worth reading.

Martin Luther on Christmas

Martin Luther on Christmas For all of his profoundly unlikeable traits, most particularly his anti-semitism, there are times when Martin Luther gets it exactly write and says it in inimitable fashion.

Online Universities and Courses

Online Universities and Courses

Shirley Jackson on "The Lottery"

Shirley Jackson on "The Lottery" An excerpt: Curiously, there are three main themes which dominate the letters of that first summer—three themes which might be identified as bewilderment, speculation, and plain, old-fashioned abuse. . . People at first were not so much concerned with what the story meant; what they wanted to know was where these lotteries were held, and whether they could go there and watch. I remember reading the story in sixth or seventh grade and then seeing a short film made from it.  Ever since Jackson joined the imperishable and unmatchable ranks of my then- (and still to some extent now-) hero Edgar Allan Poe, although her talent is quite differently oriented--unique.

RIP--A Litany of Lost Writers

RIP--A litany of authors who left us in the last year- -at least we have their children as a constant reminder.

London Review of Books Celebrates the Wake

Parsing Quashed Quotatoes   for commentary Michael Wood on the Wake

Authors read Authors

Authors read Authors Pamuk reads Nabakov,  Theroux reads Borges, Oates reads Welty,  Pullman reads Chekhov, Boyd reads Ballard

2011 from 1931

Visionaries predict three (or so) weeks from now

Two from the Late MacNeice

Two poems from late in the career of Louis MacNeice

Cynthia Ozick on Anthony Trollope

Cynthia Ozick examines Anthony Trollope

The Clauses at Christmas

The Autobiography of Santa Claus reviewed While at the library, I picked up How Mrs. Claus Saved Christmas and was deighted to discover that it not only told us the deep secrets of the Claus family, but took place in Cromwell's England set against a real challenge to the celebration of Christmas.

Others Look at St. John of the Cross

Considering St. John of the Cross

Simon Rattle Comments on "The Nutcracker"

Simon Rattle on "The Nutcracker"  (hint, he likes it)

Genre ergo not literature?

Edward Docx repeating the old party line about the inferiority of genre fiction The same old, and largely ignorant arguments made by fearful literati against genre fiction. So do we dismiss a certain portion of Doris Lessing's Canon becasue it is SF.  Do we toss out Margaret Atwood? I like Frank's note with regard to this . Also, I will note that I use the word ignorant advisedly.  Mr. Docx contends that within the genre much of the thinking about the work is already done.  Obviously he has not encountered The Man in the High Castle, The Dispossessed, Left Hand of Darkness, Babel-17, The Sparrow etc.  Obviously, there is a great deal of thinking that goes into constructing the fictional world.  Some hacks pick up the bits and pieces left around by other writers, but the majority are thinking every bit as much, and perhaps more than many writers of literary fiction.  I suppose that the Odyssey, as a brand of genre fiction (High Fantasy) is just de trop and trapped by its

"The Artistry of Memory"

"The Artistry of Memory" Neurologists tell us that we continually remake and refashion our memories so that we never really recall what happened but the story we tell about it.  But I question the relevance, and the points raised in this article articulate those questions better than I ever could.

Teaching Tech

Google teaches your parents tech A series of short videos on technological "literacy."

Otherworldly

Otherworldly--The Year's Most Transporting Books Having read Mockingjay , I can certainly agree with that choice. I've avoided The Passage until the effect of reviews, negative and positive wears off.  I'm in the midst of Hull Zero Three and find that it is one of the more persuasive SF environments in recent years.

Dan Brown's Latest

The DaVinci Code 2: The Eyes Have It!

Wharton Reviewed

The Age of Innocence considered

Huxley v. Orwell

Huxley v. Orwell I had a short epistolary interchange with Peter Kreeft on this very issue after he contended that Huxley was the better predictor of trends, and I contended that there were elements of both dystopias that we had come to accept and even to embrace.

C. S. Lewis reviewed

Voyage of the Dawn Treader reviewed Book, not movie.

Multiplication the Japanese Way

Multiplication the Japanese way--does it work with any set of numbers? I'm not enough of a number theorist to say.

Philip Roth Reviewed

Nemesis considered

Man Asian Prize Longlist

Man Asian Prize Longlist I've read at Hotel Iris , but haven't even heard of many of the rest.  Although it is interesting to see that Kenzaburo Oe has a book in the running.

Lydia Davis--Another Take

Biblioklept posts a very short story by Lydia Davis. Far be it from me to say, but when I read things like this, I get the sense that I'm looking at Marcel Duchamp's "Fountain."  Or, to use another metaphor this is the 4' 33" of the short story world--if there is a story, it is not in the writing, but in what goes on inside the reader--and Lydia Davis is not the "author" of that story, though she is the progenitor of it. Because an artist signs it does not make it art.  Neither is a single line a short story just because one who writes says that it is. That's not to say that it isn't interesting, but folks, if you buy into this definition of a short story, you're also applauding the Emperor's New Clothes. Interesting, fascinating writing--yes.  Short story--no.  But then, does Ms. Davis contend that they are?  Just because these aphorisms are collected as short stories does that cover the author's intent? I think perhap

The Completion of a Trinity of Posts Dedicated to Juan de la Cruz

One last post for my favorite saint.  If you'd like to read a very short, complete work (although complete is perhaps not the right word for it), you could do worse than The Sayings of Light and Love which I found online at many places, but thought I would give two quite different sources: The magnificently named "Drink from the Wadi Cherith"   The wadi cherith has special significance for the Carmelite Order, for it was at the Wadi Cherith that Elijah (kind of a patron, founder-figure, and inspiration for the Order) was fed by the ravens on his arduous trek at God's command.   See here for my own take on the Wadi Cherith And the Baha'i Forum I guess I just want to make a point of his universal appeal--like all the great spiritual writers--Lao-tzu, Kung-fu tzu, Rumi, St. John of the Cross, the authors of the Sutras, etc. what he has to say gets at the core of what matters in the spiritual life and transcends mere denominational and religious "bounda

"One Dark Night. . . "

St. John of the Cross is considered one of Spain's finest poets, although his opus is very, very small.  All four of his major works are constructed as a poetic prologue accompanied by lengthy explications of the poem.  Below is an excerpt of one of the most important works-- Dark Night of the Soul . "The Dark Night St. John of the Cross Stanzas Of The Soul 1. One dark night, fired with love's urgent longings - ah, the sheer grace! - I went out unseen, my house being now all stilled. 2. In darkness, and secure, by the secret ladder, disguised, - ah, the sheer grace! - in darkness and concealment, my house being now all stilled. 3. On that glad night, in secret, for no one saw me, nor did I look at anything, with no other light or guide than the one that burned in my heart. 4. This guided me more surely than the light of noon to where he was awaiting me - him I knew so well - there in a place where no one appeared. 5. O guiding night!

In Honor of This Day: St. John of the Cross

From the magnificent book by the late, and profoundly missed, Fr. Thomas Dubay Fire Within : one of the classic studies of the mystical theology of St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross.

Ptolemy's Cosmographia

Images from Ptolemy's Cosmographia

The Perfection of Destruction

More about Tea--more than you'll ever need, but, perhaps, not more than you'll ever want

Saunders and Saunders

George Saunders's wild ride "Escape from Spiderhead"

Elusive Electronic Success

How The Atlantic turned the tides and made a tidy profit (pun intended) via Books Inq.

First Things Poetry

Poetry for January 2011 Including a poem by Frank Wilson, from whose blog I derived the initial link

Aspirations

Two notes I hope I will make somewhere once they are more completely thought out: Why Heaven and Hell Do Not Matter Pain Is the Source of All Ritual Neither should be taken to be quite so bleak nor so definitive as it might seem I am implying by mere title.  But thinking about matters leads one to conclusions--now, if only I can articulate those conclusion in something more than the bare lines that introduce them.

LoA Story of the Week--On Parrots

Paul Bowles on Parrots

The Weight of Opinion

Are All Opinions Equal?

Two On Dickinson

A critical review Dickinson's recipe for black cake

Poem of the Week--David Wheatley

"St. Brenhilda on Sula Sgeir"

Another Nobel Laureate

Haldor Laxness-- Under the Glacier reviewed

For those of You Who Can Handle Robert Bolano

A review of The Savage Detectives

Ghost Story Contest Winner

If you've read the short list--here's the winner

Books for Women/Men

75 Books for Women 75 Books for Men via Books Inq

Reading in 2010

Mookse and the Gripes gives 12 for 2010

Best of NASA Shuttle Videos

Best of NASA shuttle videos 1981-2010

Now, for a Classical Interlude

Video of Glenn Gould playing bach, Leonard Berstein conducting.

"The Drowsy Motion of the River R"

Wallace Stevens featured in two poems.

On the Many Seasonal Celebrations

Our Lady of Guadalupe And the accompanying feast of St. Juan Diego. Lest we forget St. Lucy   One of those memorable saints, carrying her eyes about on a plate.  Here is one discussion.   And here is another. And lest we forget, the days that give Santa Claus some relief--St. Nicholas day. And tomorrow, the Saint who means the very most to me--St. John of the Cross--Spanish Mystic and poet. Not to mention the Immaculate Conception (for those still confused--the celebration of the conception of The Blessed Virgin Mary, NOT Jesus).

Hands that will dip in any water. . .

Hands that will dip in any water. . .  following from a Caryll Houselander quotation, a post on what love does. I have seen the hands of a foster-mother chapped and bleeding from continually being dipped in hard water in frosty weather and have thought to myself that the stigmata are not, after all, reserved for a few rare mystics." ~Caryll Houselander , The Passion of the Infant Christ Truly a lovely post.

On Lear

"All of Humanity"

Lay, Lie, Lain. . .

Indeed, as the French would have it, it is all quite laid.   That said, here's a guide to laying and having lain.

One of Trinity's Finest

Oliver Goldsmith--The Vicar of Wakefield Indeed, with Edmund Burke and "Tommy Moore"*. "he gazes out over the Westmoreland Street entrance to the college grounds.  The Vicar, along with "She Stoops to Conquer" are both delightful reads. *(rougish finger and all--" He crossed under Tommy Moore's roguish finger "  Ulysses --Laestrygonians)

Contra Contra Vonnegut

Mark Athitakis pens some thoughts contra-contra Vonnegut that precisely coincide with my own.

Chuckle-Inducing Studies

Sorting Pictures of Meat Calms Aggressive Tendencies This one's a hoot you have to read to believe, or not believe.

The Joys of Electronic Books

Last Night I discovered,  probably late, because I'm always late to the table, the Google Books app for iPad.  Because I'm not one to let a single book opportunity slip by, I immediately appropriated it and was plunged into a phantasmagoria--indeed an orgiastic richness of such proportions the English language lacks terms for it.  I plugged in and immediately began to search for pre-1923 favorites--books that should be available free.  And one of the first places I went was to an relatively obscure English author of the early part of this century--Robert Hugh Benson.  I've been a fair Benson collector for some time now.  But what I found there surpassed by wildest expectations.  In ten or so minutes of searching I found twelve books that I haven't seen in Gutenberg or any of the known sources for e-books.  In addition, there was a wealth of other material by the family--A.C. Benson, and E. F. Benson, his brothers, and other Benson, related or not. In addition to tha

Online Poetry

From Books Inq. this link to a nice summary of online poetry opportunities

The Thorn of Arimathea

This news from Glastonbury unaccountably bothers me far more than would seem reasonable.

Abbey Road Then and Now

Abbey Road Then and Now, with links to a live Abbey Cam Looks like Great Britain has warmed up a bit.  My friends in Dublin have given me to understand that it has been unusually cold and snowy over the past few weeks.  But in Abbey Road, it looks like a fine day. And forgive the ignorance from this side of the pond, but could someone tell me what those zig-zaggy lines on the road mean?

Comyn's Fever

Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead The review suggests that this is one I must look into.

Poster Poem: On Poverty

Poster Poem: On Poverty There are some links here to some very, very fine poems, including one by William Carlos Williams that I'm certain I haven't run across before.

Untoward Intensity

Two short poems by Sylvia Plath I'm sure I read the first of these before, but this morning it, pardon the pun, struck like a bolt out of the blue. 

Reading Woolf

The Woolf Project Catch Up I can say that I've been through it all--five volumes of collected essays, six of letters (I think, or perhaps that was the diary), five or six of the diary.  The novels from The Voyage Out to The Pargiters , the short stories, the reminiscences of Leonard Woolf and Vita Sackville-West (among others).  And while there are longeurs and moments of  embarrassment (I'm thinking of Flush and Freshwater ), I can say that the whole experience is a wonderful literary tour of an incredible talent.  The highs are many and surprising, from Jacob's Room to Between the Acts .  What a loss came from her despair.

David Sedaris on Life on Tour

David Sedaris explains how to make $4,000 without really trying

How the OED sees Information

In approximately 9400 words, apparently.

The Centrality of Tea

Okakura's Book of Tea What is most notable about Okakura's book and the like is the way it raises the quotidian to the spiritual.  The approaches he advises infuse ordinary actions with extraordinary presence and creates a spiritual place in the middle of the ordinary waste of life.  Indeed, "a momentary taste of being. . . "

The Retrospective Future

Looking Forward while Looking Back For those shopping around for something to read, a nice list, year-end retrospective of some unusual reading.

The Da Vinci Fragment

DaVinci fragment unearthed in Nantes--mysterious until translated.

Your Moment of High Culture for the Day

Brought to you Courtesy of Darwin Catholic: Jackie Chan Sings "War."  Sorta--at least Edwin Starr is there in the background.

Cool, or Hot, Beyond Words

A Solar-Powered Wasp

No on Vonnegut

No on Vonnegut --I don't agree with Mr. Myers's conclusions or reasoning nor completely with his evaluation of Kurt Vonnegut as an influence/author.  However, I always enjoy reading what he has to say, perhaps especially when we're not in alignment.

The Climate Debate Continues

Sharpies All I can say in the matter is that it seems to be extremely difficult to find science that has not in some way been tainted--on either side of the issue.  I don't trust those who deny AGW, mostly because there seem to be way too much agenda behind the denial.  I don't trust those who propose it, ditto.  My own experience in the sciences suggests that while global warming may be occurring (I've not been able to read a sufficient amount of reasoned debate on the issue) it certainly need not be anthropogenically mediated.  To use Orwell's rule--the weight of the evidence does not yet adequate AGW in my reading.

Top 40 Bad Books

Always a delight, the perennial bad book list via Books Inq.

A U.K. Tradition

Winners of the Ghost Story Competition For whatever reason, it became tradition to compose one's ghost stories for around Christmas time.  Dickens has at least two Christmas stories with lots of ghosts.  Most of M. R. James's wonderfully moody stories were composed in and around the Christmas season; Henry James adopted the convention, and now we have the modern extension of it.  Read the shortlist in the Ghost Story Competition.

Reflecting on Orwell's Writing Advice

Orwell Watch # 2: Murder in Yeovil

"Cover the roast with a Hawthorne Reduction and serve. . . "

Reducing Hawthorne--A Guide to Nathaniel Hawthorne An author who has produced a wealth of delights and, according to our intrepid reader, his share of duds.  If you're interested in getting started, Wuthering Expectations will be a good guide.  I've read only a handful of short stories and The Scarlet Letter and The House of Seven Gables all of which I enjoyed immensely (after numerous youthful abortive attempts).  What may come as a surprise to many is the wry sense of humor that percolates just under the surface of a great many Hawthorne works.

Did the Butler Do It?

One of the great mystery clichés examined Warning: this does have at least one spoiler for fans of Early 20th Century Mystery fiction--to say more would be to perpetuate the spoilage. Indeed, the butler as culprit was something I had encountered only once in my mystery reading, and that in the book cited for the crime; and the crime a result of unusual hurried plotting and writing according to the article.  Fascinating.

Curtailing the Humanities

Do Colleges Need French Departments? from Books Inq.

One of the Great Novels of the SF World

Connie Willis: The Doomsday Book reviewed More people need to know about and read this real treasure of a book.  It is a shame that the ghettoization of certain genres has kept great fiction out of the hands of many readers.  This is one of those books you should pick up even if you don't care for SF, like U. K. LeGuin's The Dispossessed and Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle it really is one of the indispensable titles of the genre--a neglected masterwork to the world at large.

Three Free Online Philosophy Courses

Taught by John Searle: Three Free Courses

German Expressionism in Film

Where the Horror Film Began: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari This is one of those keystone films.  If you haven't seen it, you ought--it is cinematic summation of German Expressionistic art and a very, very fine film in its own right.  Moreover, in retrospect, it says a great deal about the temperature of Germany at the time and gives some peculiar insight into the state of the nation between the wars.

Thomas Hardy as Poet

"The Fallow Dear at the Lonely House" A lovely winter poem, and more upbeat than you're likely to catch Hardy twice in a row.

A Lengthy Consideration of Wallace Stevens

" Who is the Emperor of Ice Cream? Stephen King used lines from the poem as an epigraph to one of his books, and I fell in love with Wallace Stevens's poetry.  Perhaps in high school we had some brief exposure to something like "The Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock" (which, by the way, a junior or senior may enjoy, but cannot under any circumstances understand in a way that has any meaning or reality for them); however, it was encountering this poem in a Stephen King book that pushed me out to the stores to find Wallace Stevens, who has been ever since a life-time companion and a good guide.

Seasonal Favorite?

Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising I don't think of this as a seasonal read, but that's probably because I don't remember the detail.  But I do remember loving the series.  This is the one most people started on even though two preceded it-- Over Sea, Under Stone and Greenwitch .  For those interested in the realm of fantasy who have not yet encountered this remarkable series, do yourself a favor and pick it up.  Written for young adults/children, it is far more compelling than most adult fiction.  (In general children and YA will put up with a lot less nonsense than will an adult reading the same material.  Much to be said for such grounded common sense about reading.)

Arsenic-based life?

A redaction/reanalysis/rejection of the findings A million thanks to Books Inq.  This is a really interesting story to follow.

Serve the People!--Yan Lianke

from the Cover Blurbs Chinese Central Propaganda Bureau This novel slanders Mao Zedong, the army and is overflowing with sex. . . . Do not distribute, pass around, comment on, excerpt from it, or report on it. There you have it, book review in a political blurb.  That the officialdom of the Chinese Government are even mildly concerned about this novel is a deep insight into the paranoia of the totalitarian regime.  The book is "overflowing with sex" in a kind of abstract, cheesecloth-covered lens way, certainly nothing to get the jaded engines of most Western readers revved.  Don't get me wrong--this isn't a novel to hand around to your children--but think D. H. Lawrence and you have about the right degree of heat.  Throughout the central part of the book, the torrid love affair between the ironically named (to Western ears) Wu Dawang and Liu Lian is documented in breezy detail that let's you know a lot is going on without being too clear about what exactly it