Every person who’s fallen under the spell of ideas and history fantasizes about the discovery of a lode of forgotten texts and antiques, covered with cobwebs and protected from sunlight for eons, an archive.
This is a collection of all of the blog posts on this site in the order of publication.
Bad Poetry Morning
Repeatedly not finishing a sentence. Either subject or predicate but not both. Becomes some poetry itself.
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
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.
“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.
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.
“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.
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.
Read Viewed Consumed | 2020-10
October is a good month to watch horror movies and read scary stories, but I read my scary stories over the summer and …
Julio Cortázar’s “Bestiary”: Man-eating animals
The “Bestiary” narrates pre-adolescent Isabel’s summer vacation with her cousin Nino and … a tiger.
“Blind Geronimo and His Brother”: Mistrust Finds its End
Brothers Geronimo and Carlo travel the roads of 19th century Italy, entertaining passers-by with song, but one plants a seed of mistrust exposing years of alienation.
“Anxiety … Dizziness … Freedom”: Paraself Virtue
Ted Chiang’s “Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom” considers the ethical effects of the consulation with a paraself, a self known through quantum computing.
Gottfried Keller’s “The Little Dance Legend”: Pagans Mix Poorly
G. Keller’s “The Little Dance Legend” is a quizzical story about Musa, a dancer among the saints whose dance and pagan art led to expulsion from the heavenly host.
“Beyond the Pale”: The Repressed Returns
William Trevor’s “Beyond the Pale” tells of four friends visiting an idyllic Irish island, on the occasion of the return of the idyll’s history, dramatically so.
Ginzburg’s “The Mother”: Recollections Partial and Fleeting
Natalia Ginzburg’s “The Mother” is a story about a “mother” from the perspective of her two boys who receive from her little in the way of mothering.
Hoffman’s “Don Juan”: The Mysterious Visitation
Hoffmann’s “Don Juan” is a theatre review written as a short story, bound to enlighten lovers of Don Giovanni and mystify everyone else.
“An Unexpected Reunion”: Death’s Dominion Disturbed
In Johann Peter Hebel’s “An Unexpected Reunion” death seems to separate a betrothed couple, but after the passing of much time they are peculiarly reunited.
Goethe’s Hymn to Virtue: “The Attorney”
Goethe’s “The Attorney” shows that though habit and nature are not easily conquered, the powers of the sovereign will as it realizes virtue are possibly without equal.
“The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Feeling”: Writing on Trial
Writing explores writing in Ted Chiang’s “The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling,” in a story constructed of two different stories, the one of which bears a self-conscious narrator and the other lacking.
Read Viewed Consumed |2020-09
Cultural consumption involved George Saunders’ consummately misanthropic CivilWarLand, as well as Pygmalion (1938) and The 49th Parallel (1944)
‘Tis Short Story Month
During this lovely autumn month I will read a new short story each day and then write a brief post about the story. A different author each day.
George Saunders’ “CivilWarLand in Bad Decline”
George Saunders’ short story collection, CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, was born in a minimum security prison in central Pennysylvania
August 2020: Read, Viewed
During the hot days of August my tremendous appetite to read was momentarily sated by more Tolstoy (eternally), James Baldwin, and even a little G.K. Chesterton.
Reading Slowly: “War and Peace”
Why reading slowly, especially War and Peace, should be practiced with solicitude, so as to fully appreciate the journey reading is.
Read Viewed Consumed 2020-07
The books and films that I read and viewed during the month of July 2020, including The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, Brief Encounter, and others.
Hither hocus pocus?
On the phrase “hocus pocus,” from Marina Warner’s essay “Spellbound” on the book Drawing Down The Moon
The Genius of Ozu’s “Good Morning” (1959)
Children in Good Morning protest social mores because they fail to appreciate the rules governing the relations of families and neighbors.
Read Viewed Consumed 2020-06
George Floyd was killed | among twenty snowy mountains | the only moving thing was the eye of the blackbird | what I read was this
What is a flâneur?
An explanation of the cryptic subtitle of my site, namely, that I am an erstwhile flâneur.
Is Writing About Bad Movies a Waste?
In which I performatively answer the question with reference to an episode of The Mandalorian, whether one should write about bad movies/televisions shows.
Willa Cather’s “Death Comes for the Archbishop”
A novel of religious devotion genuinely spiritual without falling into the mirthless repetition of ecclesiastical doctrine