Tagged: literature

Shakespeare Work Sold for a lot of Money! (clickbait)

Can you put a price on wisdom? Or is life-altering wisdom simply priceless? Recently, one of our alumna, Cat Dossett, sent us a video describing how Shakespeare’s first folio of comedies, histories, and tragedies was estimated to be worth between four and six million dollars. Enjoy: Beyond being a collectors item, how much is this […]

Check out Chekhov: He will give you social skills

In a post for the NY Times, Pam Belluck describes a recent study on the effects of literature on social interaction: After reading literary fiction, as opposed to popular fiction or serious nonfiction, people performed better on tests measuring empathy, social perception and emotional intelligence — skills that come in especially handy when you are trying to […]

The Major #1: English?

Looming above many college students is the uncertainty of choosing a major. The Core does not have specific instructions on how to make this important decision… However, here we highlight some of the common opinions on the matter. Today’s topic is the English Major: In a thoughtful though rather biased article from The Chronicle Review we […]

A Review of Christian Wiman’s Spiritual Autobiography

In his review of Christian Wiman’s spiritual autobiography, My Bright Abyss: Meditation of a Modern Believer, Jay Parini discusses Wiman’s emphasis on the importance of faith to a critic. Here is an extract: It strikes me that criticism—systemic reflection on texts, even on life itself—has lost its urgency during the past 30 years or more, […]

An Oddly Modern Antiquarian Bookshop

In an intriguing article for the New York Times, Jody Rosen discusses a fascinating but little-known bookstore called Monkey’s Paw, and gives ideas on how such businesses fit into today’s literary world. Here is an extract: “Life-Spark Stories for the Intelligent Young.” Attributed to the author “R. K.,” it tells the story of a “bright […]

Zachary Bos on Robert Bringhurst

The Administrative Coordinator of the Core, Zachary Bos, recently wrote a letter to the Boston Finneganers regarding Robert Bringhurst’s books: Dear Friends, and members of the Boston Finneganers: I have a great deal of appreciation for Robert Bringhurst’s books — his interest and valuation of languages, literatures, and the technical means these comes to us; his sense of […]

André Alexis: Why Read?

The essay discusses David Shields’ novel How Literature Saved My Life, and how its ideas truly relate to many aspects of existence. Here is an extract: One of the other things literature does is that it keeps the plates in the air, so to speak. Much thinking, in the humanities, has shifted from the answer-oriented […]