Theodora Keogh’s 1954 novel The Fascinator is a stylistic departure from many of her other novels in that it follows numerous characters closely instead of one or two, and in that the climax occurs on the very last page rather than allowing room (sometimes too much room) for a denoument. The book is a slow,Continue reading “Theodora Keogh’s The Fascinator”
Category Archives: Literature
Books Acquired Recently: Theodora Keogh
Keogh, Theodora. The Fascinator. New York: Farrar, Straus & Young, 1954. —. My Name is Rose. 1956. New York: Signet, 1958. —. The Tattooed Heart. 1953. New York: Signet, 1954. Theodora Keogh is my latest literary obsession, so I’ve been buying her out-of-print books on amazon.com as I find them (several of her novels haveContinue reading “Books Acquired Recently: Theodora Keogh”
Books Acquired Recently: Giannina Braschi
Braschi, Giannina. Empire of Dreams. Trans. Tess O’Dwyer. Las Vegas: AmazonCrossing, 2011. —. United States of Banana. Las Vegas: AmazonCrossing, 2011. —. Yo-Yo Boing! 1998. Trans. Tess O’Dwyer. Las Vegas: AmazonCrossing, 2011. I hadn’t heard of Giannina Braschi until about a month ago when I received an email from amazon.com in my school account (notContinue reading “Books Acquired Recently: Giannina Braschi”
Theodora Keogh’s Meg
I just finished reading Theodora Keogh’s 1950 novel Meg, which is about the eponymous protagonist’s struggles with her entrance into womanhood in the year before she turns thirteen. I am generally not a fan of books that are primarily about children (two major exceptions are Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close and MiriamContinue reading “Theodora Keogh’s Meg”
Some Thoughts on the Role of Pop Culture in Teaching Us How to Live
One of my favorite film scenes is when Rob (John Cusack) asks in High Fidelity “What came first, the music or the misery? People worry about kids playing with guns, or watching violent videos, that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands, literally thousands ofContinue reading “Some Thoughts on the Role of Pop Culture in Teaching Us How to Live”
Samuel R. Delany’s Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders
I just finished reading Samuel R. Delany’s new novel Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders. It is his longest fictional work (beating the classic Dhalgren by three pages and a much larger word count), and includes many themes which will be familiar to Delany fans (characters with nailbiting fetishes and/or massive penises, graphicContinue reading “Samuel R. Delany’s Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders”
Book Acquired Recently: Theodora Keogh’s Meg
Keogh, Theodora. Meg. 1950. New York: Signet, 1951. I bought this book after reading Keogh’s novel Gemini, which I enjoyed. I love old pulp fiction paperbacks, and thus am especially excited to add this edition to my library. The cover painting isn’t as lurid as pulp fiction illustrations often are, but the descriptions ofContinue reading “Book Acquired Recently: Theodora Keogh’s Meg”
An Ode to Advertisements in Old Comic Books
I’ve been reading some older comic books lately, and I’m struck by how a large part of the aesthetic pleasure which results from this activity comes from the advertisements sprinkled throughout the books and on their back covers. In other words, the activity is more about re-experiencing material culture to create pleasant nostalgia than it isContinue reading “An Ode to Advertisements in Old Comic Books”
Astonishing X-Men 50–The Gay Proposal Issue
I just finished reading Astonishing X-Men 50, which, along with issue 51 that comes out next month, includes the first same-sex proposal/marriage in comic book history. Of course it is ridiculous that these two issues have caused such controversy in the media in the past few weeks, first, because it is another case of theContinue reading “Astonishing X-Men 50–The Gay Proposal Issue”
Books Acquired Recently
Baraka, Amiri. Dutchman and The Slave. 1964. New York: Harper, 2001. I bought this book to use while completing my essay in the forthcoming Modern Language Association volume Approaches to Teaching Baraka’s Dutchman, for which it is the standard edition. However, I’ve never read The Slave before, and I look forward to it. I love Baraka’sContinue reading “Books Acquired Recently”
Daniel Shank Cruz 