Yesterday a friend of mine posted this hilarious cartoon on Facebook: http://i.imgur.com/rlEZr.png. Any time you can combine Edgar Allan Poe and “Bohemian Rhapsody,” you have to do it. I’ve been thinking about the cartoon and chuckling all day, which in turn got me thinking about Poe in general, and how he keeps inserting himself intoContinue reading “Some Thoughts on Edgar Allan Poe”
Category Archives: Literature
Book Acquired Recently: Amy Abugo Ongiri’s Spectacular Blackness
Ongiri, Amy Abugo. Spectacular Blackness: The Cultural Politics of the Black Power Movement and the Search for a Black Aesthetic. Charlottesville: U of Virginia P, 2010. One of my research interests within African American literature is the Black Arts Movement, which has been mostly ignored by critics until recent years. Most texts from the movementContinue reading “Book Acquired Recently: Amy Abugo Ongiri’s Spectacular Blackness”
Nicholson Baker’s U and I
Nicholson Baker’s 1991 long essay U and I on his obsession with John Updike is rife with the smooth, profoundly observational prose which make him one of my favorite fiction writers, though it is also marred by two deficiencies which make it my second-least favorite book of his that I’ve read. (My least favorite isContinue reading “Nicholson Baker’s U and I”
Book Acquired Recently: Nicholson Baker’s U and I
Baker, Nicholson. U and I: A True Story. 1991. New York: Vintage, 1992. I am very excited to read this book. Nicholson Baker is one of my favorite writers because his prose flows like hot chocolate syrup, which makes his books virtually impossible to put down. I love his attention to detail and his obsessionContinue reading “Book Acquired Recently: Nicholson Baker’s U and I”
Books Acquired Recently
Delany, Samuel R. The Motion of Light in Water: Sex and Science Fiction Writing in the East Village, 1957-1965. New York: Arbor, 1988. I have the revised edition of this book (published by University of Minnesota Press, 2004), but needed a copy of the first edition for an essay I’m writing on the history ofContinue reading “Books Acquired Recently”
Left Field Cards and Some Thoughts on Obsession
I just read an article by Paul Lukas (http://espn.go.com/blog/playbook/fandom/post/_/id/6053/the-coolest-baseball-cards-of-the-year) about Left Field Cards (http://www.leftfieldcards.com/index.html), an art project by Amelie Mancini that consists of quirky sets of baseball card-esque postcards. I love paper culture, and I love baseball, and I love the nostalgia evoked by baseball cards (I collected them avidly as a boy), so I absolutelyContinue reading “Left Field Cards and Some Thoughts on Obsession”
Giannina Braschi’s Yo-Yo Boing!
The Puerto Rican-American writer Giannina Braschi’s 1998 novel (this is the best term I can think of for it, though it is only a novel insofar as that term is now so all encompassing, like a giant, shaggy literary beast somewhere between Cookie Monster and Grendel that devours everything in its path) Yo-Yo Boing! (translated into English by TessContinue reading “Giannina Braschi’s Yo-Yo Boing!”
Books Acquired Recently
Dahl, Roald. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More. 1977. New York: Puffin, 2010. I just received a desk copy of this in my school mail today. I’m teaching it this fall in my Introduction to Literature course as an example of one of the reasons we read literature–for fun. Dahl’s short storiesContinue reading “Books Acquired Recently”
Book Acquired Recently: Frank O’Hara’s Standing Still and Walking in New York
O’Hara, Frank. Standing Still and Walking in New York. Ed. Donald Allen. San Francisco: Grey Fox, 1983. I am a huge O’Hara fan and collect his books compulsively. However, I am ashamed to admit that I did not know of this book’s existence until I encountered a citation of it in an article several weeks ago.Continue reading “Book Acquired Recently: Frank O’Hara’s Standing Still and Walking in New York”
On Being a Cyborg
My primary computer was infected with a trojan several days ago, so I spent a large chunk of time this weekend working to eradicate it. Aside from feeling annoyed about the process in general–anger at whoever created the malware, trepidation about the damage it caused, frustration at the disruption of my plans in order toContinue reading “On Being a Cyborg”
Daniel Shank Cruz 
