A Momentary Taste of Being

I suppose after 2666 it's only fair- -Bolano's The Third Reich to be serialized

From Dangerous Idea: The Searchable Josephus

Interview with Tom McCarthy about the forthcoming C

Essays and other short prose works by Thomas Pynchon Including a piece on the virtues of being a luddite.  I'll never qualify, or at least not easily.  I have little or no problem with technology, which, not to put too fine a point on it, is part of my problem, hence I might appreciate the virtues of the luddite life.

At one time, those initials would have needed no explanation to the American reading public.  Alas, it is not so today.  Edward Arlington Robinson, a profoundly innovative and profoundly good poet is remembered today (if at all) for two poems: "Miniver Cheevy" and "Richard Cory."  But he composed in his "Merlin" and "Tristram" some magnificent epic poetry á la Tennyson. So today, we can take a look at one of the shorter lyrics--part of a body of work that in its time won three Pulitzer Prizes for poetry:  Edward Arlington Robnison's "Eros Turranos"

Poe's exquisite "To Helen."  Poem and commentary.

The electronic archive of the Adams family papers is beautifully designed, with lovely popover tabs filled with information about specifics in the letters--particularly useful when those tidbits help you better understand who is talking about whom and how they are related.

Change You Can Believe In --a brief introduction to one of the central ideas in Calculus, for those not necessarily mathematically inclined.

A relatively unknown contemporary of Coleridge, Blake, and other contemporary poets, Mary Robinson's major work is a sonnet series titled Sappho and Phaon , from which the excerpt is taken. Day's harbinger unfolds the liquid plain. The rude Sea murmurs, mournful as the strain That love-lorn minstrels strike with trembling hand, While from their green beds rise the Syren band With tongues aёrial to repeat my pain! In general my experience is that if one looks to enjoy a work, one can find something worthwhile within it to enjoy.  It may not be the height of literature, expression, or profound thinking.  But then, what is diversity for.  If everything were Ulysses , then we would have no Ulysses .

Despite a difficult rhyme scheme that enforces some odd choices, t his poem works fairly well--"Don't Leave Me Hanging in a City So Dead. . . "

via Books Inq  Ed Byrne talks about his poetry--along with a wonderful poem And while you're there, check out the rest of the blog--this one is likely to become a permanent fixture on my blog visits.

School's Out Not so much a poem as a simple cry for joy and one that all of us, even those most enamored of school (and I was among them) can sympathize with.

Another poem from Quid Plura? I love alliteration and use it excessively.  It's the sound of the words and their rhythm that makes poetry an art. 

Harvard comes to iTunes U

Thomas Campion's transfiguration of Catullus--"My Sweetest Lesbia"

Ecclesiastes 11:1

ToC, Introduction, and notes in English.  The first sixty or so pages of the Fatwa in English along with the complete ToC to give a sense of the extent of the teaching of the document.  How refreshing it is to read, what a pleasure it is to know that people of good will work toward the same ends regardless of differences of thought and opinion. 

Sir Patrick Spens--the poem of the Week at the Guardian Get your monthly recommended requirement of the ballad.  And some eldern Anguitch.  (My name for English that is more difficult to read--a pormanteau of anguish and Englitch--or something of the sort.)

At Quid Plura? a new poem.  One I would call a romp.

Twilight Zone Radio Theater 3 Episodes free!