I just read Salman Rushdie’s personal essay in the 17 September 2012 issue of the New Yorker about the first few months of his life after the fatwa against his life was issued upon the publication of The Satanic Verses. It is a moving, heartbreaking text that makes one realize how much of a heroContinue reading “Salman Rushdie on “The Rushdie Affair””
Category Archives: Literature
Missing Chess
I had a vivid dream about playing in a chess tournament last night. I haven’t played in a tournament in nearly two years, which was the last time I even played a game. My life is much too busy these days to go back to playing chess because of the all-encompassing nature of my professionalContinue reading “Missing Chess”
Books Acquired Recently
Smith, P.D. City: A Guidebook for the Urban Age. London: Bloomsbury, 2012. I love cities! I am interested in how they are planned, how they function, and how they shape their inhabitants. I have recently begun to integrate this amateur interest into my literary scholarship, focusing on works/writers that are somehow urban. So when I heard aboutContinue reading “Books Acquired Recently”
Shaking the Rust Off
I haven’t written anything other than emails and lesson outlines in almost a week. The new semester is kicking my butt! I need to find a way to budget time into my schedule for writing so that I don’t get too out of practice and lose my edge. Luckily, today is the first meeting ofContinue reading “Shaking the Rust Off”
Book Acquired Recently: Stephen Beachy’s Distortion
Beachy, Stephen. Distortion. Binghamton: Harrington Park, 2001. I bought this book as a part of my recent obsession with Beachy’s fiction (see my entry for 28 August for more details about this). It just arrived today from the United Kingdom, which has more aesthetically pleasing mail than the U.S.A. does. Even though the book shippedContinue reading “Book Acquired Recently: Stephen Beachy’s Distortion”
Books Acquired Recently
Beachy, Stephen. The Whistling Song. 1991. New York: Norton, 1992. I recently read and loved Beachy’s novel Boneyard, and thus have ordered several more of his books, as is my usual practice when I discover a new author. There’s another one on the way. Creekmur, Corey K., and Alexander Doty, eds. Out in Culture: Gay,Continue reading “Books Acquired Recently”
Books Acquired Recently
Aldrich, Nelson W., Jr., ed. George, Being George: George Plimpton’s Life as Told, Admired, Deplored, and Envied by 200 Friends, Relatives, Lovers, Acquaintances, Rivals–and a Few Unappreciative Observers. New York: Random, 2008. I am fascinated by George Plimpton as a sort of public intellectual who was one of the last of his kind. However, this fascinationContinue reading “Books Acquired Recently”
“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”
I finished reading William Faulkner’s Requiem for a Nun this evening. I was reading it partly because I’m teaching it’s prequel, Sanctuary, this semester, but also because I am fond of the famous quote from it about the past not being past, and wanted to learn more about its context. I had always thought theContinue reading ““The past is never dead. It’s not even past.””
Books Acquired Recently
Faulkner, William. Requiem for a Nun. 1951. New York: Vintage, 2011. I am teaching Faulkner’s Sanctuary in an independent study this semester, and bought its sequel Requiem to read as part of my preparation. Reading Faulkner is a guilty pleasure–his writing is beautiful, and he is an essential figure in the development of American literature, butContinue reading “Books Acquired Recently”
Books Acquired Recently
Castillo, Ana. The Mixquiahuala Letters. Tempe: Bilingual, 1986. This is Castillo’s first novel, and wow have I missed out waiting this long to acquire and read it! I began reading the book this afternoon as soon as I unwrapped it from its shipping envelope (as C.S. Lewis writes in Surprised by Joy, there is really nothing likeContinue reading “Books Acquired Recently”
Daniel Shank Cruz 