October 25, 2018
E.M. Forster on Fantasy and Prophecy
There is a strange distinction made in the later chapters of E.M. Forster’s Aspects of the Novel, a collection of lectures the author gave at Cambridge in 1927. I’ve already […]
August 6, 2018
On Beginnings
Last week, I discussed endings, specifically screenwriter Michael Arndt’s theory of endings as they applied to works of literary fiction. In addition to his video on endings, Arndt’s website also […]
July 30, 2018
On Endings
In 2014, when I was still entertaining hopes of being a screenwriter as well as a fiction writer, I went to the Austin Film Festival and heard a lecture on […]
June 11, 2018
Against the Nineteenth-Century Novel
In a negative review last fall of Nathan Hill’s The Nix, Brianna Rennix of the leftist magazine Current Affairs critiqued what she described as the novel’s “postmodern” elements and argued […]
September 22, 2016
Just a Kid from the Bronx: DeLillo on The Power of Language
When Don DeLillo first learned that a conference in Paris would be devoted entirely to his work, his initial reaction was: “How can that be? I’m just a kid from […]
October 30, 2015
Holograms and Hurricanes (Part Two)
Last week I wrote about Don DeLillo’s prescience in forecasting the return of Redd Foxx and Andy Kaufman. (They’re back! As holograms.) This week I thought I’d shift from holograms […]
October 25, 2015
Holograms and Hurricanes (Part One)
In yesterday’s New York Times, a story caught my eye: Redd Foxx and Andy Kaufman are heading back on tour. Sure, they’ve been dead for decades (Foxx died in 1991, […]