STAGING | Erstwhile Flâneur, Philosopher

Harriet Jacobs’ “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”

Harriet Jacobs’ “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” tells of her life in and escape from the ‘Demon Slavery,’ and its nonpareil powers of corruption.

2021-02-28
Reading Journal On Literature, Books

Read, Viewed: Black History Month 2021

What I read and viewed during February, the month we devote in the land of freedom to Black History, in our feeble attempts to make reparations for centuries of slavery

2021-02-26
Monthly Reading, Viewing Report

“Up From Slavery”: Booker T. Washington’s words

Booker T. Washington’s “Up From Slavery” promotes a vocational training for blacks imbued with Christian virtue. Is W.E.B. Du Bois’ critique of it justified?

2021-02-18
Reading Journal On Literature, Books

Coming to Booker T. Washington’s “Up From Slavery”

The circumstances of my purchase and knowledge of “Up From Slavery,” Booker T. Washington’s most famous autobiography

2021-02-10
Reading Journal On Literature, Books

Black History Month 2021: Consumed

Each year Black History month is another chance to own up to the failures of America, to learn about those who endured and transcended them.

2021-02-05
Monthly Reading, Viewing Report

Read, Viewed: January 2021

January 2021 inaugurated both a new year and (Gott sei Dank!!!) a new president, during which I read and watched “Vertigo,” Stanley Cavell, “Signs,” “Inside Llewyn Davis,” and others.

2021-02-02
Monthly Reading, Viewing Report

Joseph Losey’s “The Servant” (1963): Master/Slave Dialectic Demonstrated

“The Servant” takes the traditional roles between gentleman and manservant and submits them to great artistic violence.

2021-01-31
On Film, Movies, Cinema Viewing Journal

Reading Journal: Assembling Dinosaurs, “War and Peace”

A glorious night when I just wanted to keep reading: first, 25 pages of Lukas Rieppel’s “Assembling the Dinosaur”; then Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace”, concluding Volume III; a feast of the undeveloped imagination.

2021-01-24
Reading Journal On Literature, Books

Bad Poetry Morning

Repeatedly not finishing a sentence. Either subject or predicate but not both. Becomes some poetry itself.

2021-01-17
Idle Reflections

Read Viewed Consumed 2020-12

Perhaps I began the month of December inauspiciously, insofar as I read/viewed/consumed nothing on the first day of the month (see below). In fact, I did read two different Harry...

2021-01-02
Monthly Reading, Viewing Report

Anna Seghers’ “Transit”: Profound Unknowing

In Anna Seghers’ novel “Transit,” no one really knows who the other is. The reader is never certain of who the narrator really is.

2020-12-15
On Literature, Books Reading Journal

“Marauders” (on Netflix now) is Sooooo Bad

The 2016 film “Marauders” is a gunplay and bank robbery story that is not so bad that it’s good.

2020-12-04
On Film, Movies, Cinema Confessions of a Bad Movie Watcher

Read Viewed Consumed 2020-11

During the month of November what I read and viewed—what I consumed—was less varied and somewhat sparse. In fact, lost some weight.

2020-11-30
Monthly Reading, Viewing Report

“Sudden Fear” (1952): Neither sudden nor fearful

“Sudden Fear” tells the tale of a playwright that married the wrong man and was almost written out of the script.

2020-11-26
On Film, Movies, Cinema Confessions of a Bad Movie Watcher Viewing Journal

Sexy Idea #2: Presentism—The Most Dangerous Prejudice

Calling presentism a prejudice is a little like calling 45 a bad president: It’s not strong enough.

2020-11-14
On Ideas, Concepts, Intuitions