Great Questions | The Core Blog

Category: Great Questions

Annual Poetry Reading: Poetry’s Distant Voice

April 23, 2013 at 12:59 pm

The Core presents a “set of two poems, which are the same poem” as phrased by Zachary Bos, one of the respected speakers at the Annual Poetry Reading this year on April 16th. The theme of the reading was “Poetry’s Distant Voice”, and here is Zachary Bos’ contribution: From The Book of Hours I, 36 MacDiarmid, […]

By mdimov | Also posted in Academics, Activities, alumni, Art, Community, Core in the City, Events | Tagged annual, Book of Hours, distant, God, poem, poetry, question, reading, speakers, theme, voice | Comments (0)

Boston: Forever Changed

April 22, 2013 at 2:47 pm

Former US Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky, who teaches here at BU, shares his reaction to the Boston Marathon bombings: Out of town, watching the horror on a screen, in a familiar place on a familiar occasion, I thought first of my daughter, who works at Mass. General, and my daughter-in-law, who was in Copley Square […]

By mdimov | Also posted in Announcements, Community, In the News | Tagged Boston, grief, history, poem, poetry, tragedy, tragic | Comments (0)

Maximal Meaning in Minimal Space: the History of Punctuation

April 22, 2013 at 2:36 pm

The Core presents the original English version of an article that was published in the April 2013 issue of Hiatus, la revue. Here is an extract: Punctuation, as any dictionary will tell you, consists of the marks that dance around the letters of a text to mark clauses, sentences and inflection. What, though, is minimal punctuation? Is it in […]

By mdimov | Also posted in Academics, Core Authors, Future of the Book | Tagged Ancient Greek, Beat, cut, Greek, Irish, language, Latin, punctuation, rhythm | Comments (0)

Times Higher Education – “Creative Writing”

April 22, 2013 at 10:00 am

The Core presents an interesting feature from Times Higher Education, in which they offer their insight on what the causes, and possible consequences, of the rise of “creative writing” may be. Here is a sample: Despite the speed and apparent smoothness with which creative writing has become incorporated into English departments, or (especially in the US) as a […]

By mdimov | Also posted in Academics, Art, Community, Future of the Book | Tagged article, artist, author, creative, essay, feature, personal, system, THE, Times Higher Education, tool, writing | Comments (0)

Discoveries Lecture Series Presents: Pricing Looks, Pricing Gender

April 18, 2013 at 1:09 pm

Fashion modeling is one of a handful of occupations in which women routinely earn more than men, commanding wage premiums up to 75 percent. But why—and at what cost? Assistant Professor of Sociology Ashley Mears will lead us through an exploration of the economics of the modeling industry, drawing on ethnographic data from within the […]

By mdimov | Also posted in Activities, alumni, Announcements, Community, EnCore, Great Ideas | Tagged alum, alumni, Discoveries Lecture Series, gender, look, Price | Comments (0)

When Dickens met Dostoevsky

April 18, 2013 at 11:39 am

Relating to the studies of CC202 is an article by Eric Naiman discussing a supposed encounter between Dostoevsky and Dickens. Here is an extract: I have been teaching courses on Dostoevsky for over two decades, but I had never come across any mention of this encounter. Although Dostoevsky is known to have visited London for […]

By mdimov | Also posted in Academics, Community, Core Authors, Great Personalities | Tagged account, authors, Charles Dickens, Dostoevsky, encounter, evidence, false, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, history, literature, meet | Comments (0)

Salvador Dali: Dante’s Purgatorio

April 17, 2013 at 3:27 pm

Relating to CC102’s study of Dante’s Divine Comedy are illustrations made by Salvador Dali for Purgatorio. Here is a sample: For the full set of images, visit bit.ly/16MKCYi. To view Dali’s illustrations for Inferno, visit bit.ly/10jHp1E, and for Paradiso, visit bit.ly/17vAa9P.

By mdimov | Also posted in Academics, Art, Community, Core Authors, Curriculum, Great Ideas, Great Personalities | Tagged Art, CC102, Dali, dante, drawing, illustration, picture, Purgatorio, Purgatory, Salvador Dali | Comments (0)

Jane Austen: ‘Persuasion’ vs ‘Emma’

April 10, 2013 at 1:29 pm

In view of CC202’s intellectual dabbling in Jane Austen’s works, the Core presents an article that argues Emma is in certain ways better than Persuasion. Here is an extract: Published posthumously, it [Persuasion] has an almost skeletal feel, like an outline in which only the most salient points about each character are noted, as if […]

By mdimov | Also posted in Academics, Core Authors, Curriculum, Great Personalities | Tagged better, Emma, Jane Austen, novel, Persuasion, posthumous, skeleton, structure, style, text | Comments (0)

‘In The Waiting Room’ by Laura Sims

April 2, 2013 at 12:51 pm

In her post for Poetry Foundation, Laura Sims discusses the strange inspiration that waiting rooms can bring, and how they can be “conducive to poetry”. Here is an extract: The speaker of Elizabeth Bishop’s ‘In the Waiting Room’ has a famously crucial moment in a doctor’s office, too. She looks around at all the adults, all the human beings […]

By mdimov | Also posted in Academics, Art, Great Ideas | Tagged appointment, doctor, idle, inspiration, medicine, mortality, poetry, procrastinate, room, time, waiting | Comments (0)

‘How To Pronounce It’ by Alan S.C. Ross

April 2, 2013 at 11:39 am

On a lighter note, let us explore pronunciation. In his article for The Spectator, Mark Mason discusses the strange but interesting book, How To Pronounce It, written by Alan S.C. Ross in 1970. Here is a sample: It took me quite a while to be sure that the book isn’t a spoof after all. ‘Gone’, we’re told, […]

By mdimov | Also posted in Academics, Friday Fun, Tuesday Humor | Tagged Alan S.C. Ross, pronounce, pronunciation, review, rhyme, The Spectator, word | Comments (0)

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Category: Great Questions

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