February 15, 2008
On Color
Suppose you want to paint a room orange. Suppose you are Chaucer and limited by the relative poverty of Middle English words for color. You walk down to the hardware […]
February 14, 2008
THE OUTERNATIONALE
“The Internationale,” the socialist anthem, is sung by the faithful with fist raised in the air. The appropriate hand gesture to make while reading Peter Gizzi’s new book, The Outernationale […]
February 12, 2008
Of New Things (and Old) in Economic Philosophy
Since my previous blog mentioned the basis of G. K. Chesterton’s “distributism” in papal social teacing, I thought it might be helpful to provide an overview of the latter. One […]
February 12, 2008
Buy Two Chapbooks This Month*
*Please note: if you read further you will be obligated to buy two chapbooks this month. It will cost around ten dollars. Reader beware. In 2003, Frank Bidart’s Music Like […]
February 12, 2008
Odd Jobs
Writers have lifestyles of every sort. There are teacher-writers, parent-writers, and waiter-writers. And probably, somewhere, beekeeper-writers, light keeper writers, and farmer writers (like Timothy Murphy, whom Stephen Burt in this […]
February 11, 2008
You Still Have Time!
That voice in your head telling you to submit to this? You should listen to it. The submissions period for the contest will be open from February 1st, 2008 to […]
February 10, 2008
Literature comes to us in many, many forms.
Expanding upon David Hall’s post about literature and YouTube, I have a few works of literature to share from the senior honors reading list at Kenyon: Great Expectations by Charles […]
February 9, 2008
I Give Them Steinbeck; They Give Me YouTube
Two weeks ago, I introduced my 9th grade students to John Steinbeck, in particular “Of Mice and Men.” As I figured, interest level varied: some of the more literary types […]
February 8, 2008
Read to Me
This post is designed (perhaps not well) to be an “idea share,” so once I am done seeing what suggestions I can pull from my brain, I hope that you […]
February 7, 2008
Hawthornucopia & Anti-Theater
This past January, New York’s Metropolitan Playhouse ran Hawthornucopia, a series of theatrical adaptations of works by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I attended Amber Reed’s adaptation of The Minister’s Black Veil. The […]