RIP Paul Fussell
Author Paul Fussell has died at 88. I read only two things he wrote, but both of them were extraordinary. The first was his magnum opus, the one that made him famous (at least in some circles), The Great War … Continue reading →
Category Archives: Literature and writing
The Hunger Games
What do you get when you cross the TV show “Survivor” with the Roman Colosseum, “The Lottery,” dystopian sci-fi, Lord of the Flies, “The Most Dangerous Game,” and “The Wizard of Oz,” and then pitch it to the audience for … Continue reading →
Tornado: the best-laid schemes
Here’s a poignant photo of a man named Greg Cook hugging his dog Coco after his East Limestone, Alabama home was destroyed by a recent tornado and Coco was found inside the ruins: It’s one of many photos in this … Continue reading →
Library love
I have a weakness for books. If I freely indulged myself, I’d be poverty-stricken in no time flat. I’ve got such long lists of books to read that if I were to actually to get to all of them it … Continue reading →
Companion pieces: Millay and others
When I hear a song or read a poem, other songs and poems often spring unbidden into my mind. They have some relation to the first, as a sort of harmonic vibration or echo. Sonnets are a particular form of … Continue reading →
No one knows what really goes on in a marriage…
…writes
Continue reading →Solving a decades-long science fiction mystery via the blog
Isn’t the internet wonderful? Through this blog, I recently got the answer to a question that’s been tormenting me for close to fifty years. Well, maybe not tormenting exactly. But I’ve long been troubled by my inability to identify a … Continue reading →
Tempus fugit: when you’re a Jet you stay a Jet
Indulging in one of my favorite pastimes, surfing on YouTube, recently led me to a clip of a 2007 rehearsal of a new production of the musical “West Side Story.” The sequence begins with the cast of the 2007 revival, … Continue reading →
Kindle bestsellers
[Hat tip: Althouse.] Here’s a list of the one hundred top Kindle books. Actually, you get two, two, two lists in one: the books for sale, and the books available for free. The Bible does well in both categories. And … Continue reading →
Tolstoi on Chekhov
[Hat tip: Ann Althouse.] Excerpt by Peter Gnedich, “Memories,” from The Book of Life (1922): Lev Tolstoy sincerely loved Chekhov, but did not like his plays. He told Chekhov once, “A playwright should take the theater-goer by the hand, and … Continue reading →
Send not to know for whom the bell tolls…
…it tolls for book publishers.
Continue reading →Graphic illustration of why the rise of photography…
…has coincided with a rise in the rate of depression. The ravages of time didn’t used to be so well-documented. Then again—there’s a genre of YouTube videos that feature the morphing of photos of the same person over a long … Continue reading →