October 25, 2016 at 12:33 am
It seems like a rite of passage for any book aspiring to achieve classic status that it must endurea period of resistance fromthe culture in which it first appears, and from which it is conceived. Midwifing is the author’s own genius, which itself resists a clean conception and, finding flaws, exposing the eccentricities of the […]
October 20, 2016 at 2:41 pm
A visionary trinity. ProfesSir Christopher Ricks is one of the most energetic octogenarians we have on the literary scene. Age has clearly not impaired his hearing, which has been and remains so keenly attune to the sounds and subtleties of (among others) Milton and Tennyson, that it has served as an aid for our own. […]
October 19, 2016 at 12:26 pm
We know what you’re thinking. Gilgamesh… sung? No, it’s not the newest historical musical, hoping to capitalize on the hysteria for history-themed performances catalyzed by Hamilton. We’re talked here aboutthe opening lines of the Epic of Gilgamesh performed by musician Peter Pringle. The piece is not only played on a Sumerian lute called a “gish-gu-di” […]
October 16, 2016 at 12:49 am
That “Canterbury” contains “Cant-“, and that “cant” shares a precarious assonance with another word, suggests that one of our most literate bards and bawds, Chaucer, might have anticipated Trump’s latest perversion. This possibility was recently illuminated by Constance Grady at Vox. Or, less likely, Trump might have been paying tribute in his comment to some […]
October 2, 2016 at 2:05 pm
Some people are so religiously devoted to a method of reading that we may properly call them Methodists. Others feel the text should be all things to all men, which is good politics but bad for criticism. For if every interpretation is welcomed open-armed, then little room is left for pressing one reading against any […]
September 28, 2016 at 12:57 am
Finnegans Wake and Fifty Shades of Grey are at two extremes of the incomprehensible: one is a classic that befuddles; the other a plastic that bewilders. Many feel guilty about not having read the books of the first kind. And most of these would be unwilling to expiate themselves in any shade or variation recommended […]
September 26, 2016 at 8:53 am
In the opening line of Michael Kazin’s article Prophet and Loss, the author asks, “Does Karl Marx still matter?” He directs the question to those readers interested in Gareth Stedman Jones’ new book Karl Marx: Greatness and Illusion, and addresses the question in a book review-esque article. Both Kazin and Jones acknowledge Marx’s failures to […]
September 25, 2016 at 1:18 pm
Tidings do I bring and lucky joys and golden times and happy news of price. Benvolio, Malvolio, and many between have averted a second tragedy with the discovery of another First Folio, in time for the bards 400th year anniversary. It was found on the Island of Bute, and authenticated by Shakespeare expert and enthusiast […]
September 13, 2016 at 3:00 pm
Down in New York, reviewing the new book The Dream of Enlightenment by Anthony Gottlieb, critic and poet Adam Kirsch has penned a longand wide-ranging essay that considers our modern moment. Are we really as alienated from history in the year 2016, and as disrupted by technology from our cultural forebears, as it is sometimes […]
August 27, 2016 at 7:36 pm
From http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160822-the-mysterious-ancient-origins-of-the-book: The book is changing. Electronic books, or ebooks, are more portable than their paper counterparts, capable of being carried in their hundreds on a single reader or tablet. Thousands more are just a click away. It can be argued that ebooks are more robust than paper ones: an ebook reader can be stolen or […]
