Want a break from politics? Let’s take a look at that 1965 song “Back in My Arms Again,” one of my favorites by the Supremes. Note how subtle and classy the sexuality of their performance is compared to today’s pop … Continue reading →
Yesterday commenter “Nick” wrote this on the thread about Krystal Ball’s Animal Farm summary: OK, OK, I hate to be this guy, but Orwell would have been fine with Ball’s reading. Orwell was a socialist. His problem with the pigs … Continue reading →
Yes, I know that technically spring’s been here for quite a while. But northern climes don’t get to see it so quickly. In 1913, about a hundred years ago, Robert Frost wrote about the transition of the seasons in one … Continue reading →
From the Nadezhda Mandelstam chapter of Clive James’ excellent Cultural Amnesia [in the following excerpts I have Americanized the British spelling): The main difference [between the Gulag and Hitler’s Reich] was that in Nazi Europe the victims knew…who they were, … Continue reading →
…all is irony. The author focuses on irony and lack of seriousness in art. But the hegemony of irony is certainly something I’ve noticed getting more and more widespread in recent years. It seems to be the default position of … Continue reading →
Basically, what they’re reading is a lot of what used to be called porn. And I don’t mean sneaking around to get it, or looking at it online. I mean that the young adult book market—books written expressively for young … Continue reading →
You may think the title of this post is some sort of joke, but it’s not. Michael Totten, traveler to the world’s most dangerous countries and reporter extraordinaire, has indeed written a zombie novel. Now, I know Michael Totten, and … Continue reading →
[NOTE: Gerard Vanderleun recycled an old post of his at American Digest, an ode to the rainy season in Seattle. Which reminds me that, way back when, I wrote an answering poem—only mine was an ode to snow season in … Continue reading →
[Bumped up.] I’ve been reading another book about Robert Frost, and I keep coming across fascinating tidbits. For example, the following is taken from a letter Frost wrote to the Amherst student newspaper in 1935, and it gives some perspective: … Continue reading →
The Anchoress has a lot to say about the Obama’s administration’s proposal to use the FCC to “study” the newsrooms: …[The administration is] thinking no one in the mainstream press has asked them a difficult or challenging question in 7 … Continue reading →
The following is from a speech Robert Frost gave at Bread Loaf on July 4, 1960 (from the book Robert Frost: A Living Voice, edited by Reginald L. Cook), where he’s describing an encounter with a Boston cab driver: Now … Continue reading →
The following passage is from the book Robert Frost: A Living Voice, edited by Reginald L. Cook. It’s from a talk Frost gave at Bread Loaf in July 27, 1960, when he was in his 80s. He starts by describing … Continue reading →