RIP Tom Wolfe
Writer Tom Wolfe has died at 88. Reading a lot of commentary around the web, I notice that Wolfe was a deeply meaningful writer to a great many people, some of whom say he changed their lives. I have to … Continue reading →
Category Archives: Literature and writing
Funes and sudden genius
This article about how head injuries sometimes (although very very rarely) lead to savant powers made me think (once again) of the Jorge Luis Borges story “Funes, the Memorious.” Fortunately, the work appears in its entirety online, so if you … Continue reading →
Mud time
Frost again: The sun was warm but the wind was chill. You know how it is with an April day When the sun is out and the wind is still, You’re one month on in the middle of May. But … Continue reading →
Mind-reading machine
This doesn’t sound like a good idea to me: …[A] new artificial intelligence research project coming out of Japan…can analyze a person’s brain scans and provide a written description of what they have been looking at. To generate its captions, … Continue reading →
Childhood is the kingdom: Millay reading Millay
I find that lately I’ve been pulling back ever-so-slightly from day-to-day politics. It’s not that I’m not writing about that sort of thing; I definitely still am. I just find that, for the most part, the stories du jour are … Continue reading →
Calmly we walk: Delmore Schwartz
—John Updike: we may skate upon an intense radiance we do not see because we see nothing else. Delmore Schwartz was a mid-20th-century poet with a tragic life but a wonderful gift. In fact, Saul Bellow wrote the novel Humboldt’s … Continue reading →
Parkland and the Red Badge of Courage
Yesterday and today, on the comments thread to this post I put up last night, there was a great deal of discussion about the reactions of the security guard at Parkland who failed to engage the shooter or even enter … Continue reading →
Jordan Peterson’s new book is #1 on Amazon
It’s called 12 Rules For Life: An Antidote to Chaos, and it’s been #1 for much of the time since it was released on January 23, 2018. As I write this it has over 600 customer reviews and, astoundingly, almost … Continue reading →
The left’s alternate reality
The difference between these two speeches is abundantly clear: Trump offered bleakness, hostility, bigotry, and division. Kennedy offered hope, honesty, integrity, and unity.#SOTU — Charlotte Clymer???? (@cmclymer) January 31, 2018 Made me think of the first paragraph of Hans Christian … Continue reading →
Michael Frayn
Ever since I first saw the play “Noises Off” on Broadway around 1984 I’ve been deeply impressed by Michael Frayn, its author. I’d read about the play before I attended it. It was said to be very funny and very … Continue reading →
Margaret Atwood: feminist vs. feminist
Margaret Atwood, feminist icon, has gotten into trouble. It’s part of what I’ve come to see as a generational war between certain older feminists who still hold to quaint old-fashioned notions such as due process, and certain younger ones who … Continue reading →
On building walls
There are walls, and then there are walls. Robert Frost wrote: Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it, And spills the upper boulders in the sun; And makes gaps even two can pass … Continue reading →