January 1, 2014
Out with the Auld
Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind? Of course not, says experience, and conscience, and (answering his own question) Robert Burns. So we raise our cups o’ […]
December 25, 2013
Christmas, Festively
I’ve been thinking about a George Saunders story called “Christmas.” The narrator of the story is part of a roofing crew, a crew that includes a forty-two-year-old, down-on-his-luck, “gentle-voiced” man […]
December 12, 2013
The Future of an Identity
Even the bitterest hater of religion would concede it is exceedingly unlikely to vanish–not least because antireligious ideologues end up behaving like a religious community, with group-forming behavior (and group […]
December 6, 2013
Policing the Magical Real: Unarmed Man Shoots Two Women
Imagine this story. An unarmed man behaves erratically in the middle of the street, cars weaving around him and swerving to avoid each other. The flashing screens of 50 feet […]
December 2, 2013
Why Teach Literature Now?
Last week, I attended a session called “Another University is Possible–Right?” at the annual meeting of the American Studies Association in Washington, D.C. Since then, I’ve been ruminating on how […]
November 30, 2013
The Twain (and Wilde) Shall Meet
Did Mark Twain and Oscar Wilde ever share a bottle or a joke? That’s a question I’ve been trying to answer for the last hour. Wilde’s literary ascent in the […]
November 29, 2013
About the “Singularity”
To decide whether Kurzweil’s idea of the Singularity is “true” or an “accurate” depiction of our future is to mistake the nature of prophecy. Imagine someone in 1914 predicting the […]
October 31, 2013
Why Do I Think Owning a Bookstore Would Be a Good Idea?
Nobel Laureate Alice Munro founded a bookstore in Victoria that is still open today. I’ve never visited it, but I hear it’s beautiful. For some reason, I keep returning in […]
October 28, 2013
Thought and Expression
About ten seconds ago, when I opened up my copy of Up-Tight: The Velvet Underground Story, a matchbook cover from an Italian restaurant fell out. I don’t recognize the restaurant […]
October 16, 2013
Kundera and the Debt Ceiling
This evening, as the House Republicans again failed to offer a bill that would reopen the government and extend the Treasury’s debt limit, I found myself turning to Milan Kundera […]
October 10, 2013
Nobel Gets It Right
What stunningly good news this morning–that Alice Munro will receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. And right in so many ways: based on unarguable merit, no political gesturing, no righting […]
October 8, 2013
The Endgame and the Spin
In all high-minded or “holy” group violence, you’ll see two factors at play: The Endgame and the Spin. (Which one of these two gets emphasized and reviled depends on […]