tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76405212012-01-28T11:24:42.328-06:00Arranging, deepening, enchanting the blogosphere. Commentary on film, art, music, books, and the ideas they inspire.John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.comBlogger11691100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-27978202846998511962012-01-28T10:16:00.002-06:002012-01-28T10:26:58.439-06:00

The famous caning of Charles Sumner by Preston Brooks on the floor of the House of Representatives, May 22, 1856. The misplaced apostrophe aside, the caption (though quietly sympathizing with Sumner) is pretty accurate. Image found here.People don't hurl invective like they used to. Partly because it's the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, and partly because it comes so highly recommended by

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-19044037182832528632012-01-22T15:33:00.003-06:002012-01-23T09:06:49.720-06:00

Christopher Moore. Official website. Image found here.Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal.This is the first Christopher Moore novel I've read. It comes recommended to me by two people: the Mrs., who is a long-time fan; and my pastor. Talking with them both about both Joseph's absence from the Gospels after the scene with the boy Jesus in the Temple and about the Infancy

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-81412174239924345482012-01-10T19:42:00.001-06:002012-01-10T19:42:53.148-06:00

Thanks, FailBlogIt's back to back-to-school meetings this week. The chief activity has been to coin yet another phrase for what we need to be doing that means "assessment" and yet sound different enough that our various constituencies will believe that we're doing something different. Anyway: I have syllabi to write, so I hope to have something of substance next week.

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-53114495867376353922012-01-07T09:51:00.005-06:002012-01-07T09:55:50.552-06:00

For she was the maker of the song she sang.The ever-hooded, tragic-gestured seaWas merely a place by which she walked to sing.Whose spirit is this? we said, because we knewIt was the spirit that we sought and knewThat we should ask this often as she sang.If it was only the dark voice of the seaThat rose, or even colored by many waves;If it was only the outer voice of skyAnd cloud, of the sunken

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-34109242068665067932012-01-06T08:58:00.004-06:002012-01-07T13:06:17.501-06:00

New Year, newish-to-us neighborhood: Your correspondent and Scruffy take a brief pause from exploring the headwaters of Gypsum Creek in the wilds of east Wichita, January 1, 2012. That's the western edge of our neighborhood in the background. Image by the Mrs.As I noted in my first post on our newish neighborhood, we now live in a neighborhood that might as well be a cul-de-sac: three streets

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-35705651651266997922011-12-30T11:02:00.003-06:002011-12-31T06:00:55.923-06:00

Factoid from Although Of Course: The bandanna was not an affectation; Wallace was as prodigious a perspirer as he was a writer. Image found here.Um, I am probably not the smartest writer going. But I also--and I know, OK, this is gonna fit right into the persona [of the falsely-modest wunderkind writer]--I work really really hard. I'm really--you give me twenty-four hours? If we'd done this

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-62607298529825204622011-12-27T11:21:00.002-06:002012-01-07T13:07:27.124-06:00

(Earlier post here. Belated best wishes to all during this season of wonder and hope.)A stack of banana leaves at a vendor's stall at La Merced, Mexico City. Banana leaves are used as wrappers for steaming/holding together food, especially in the southern regions of Mexico. In person, these were various beautiful shades of dark green, but that quality didn't show up so well in the color

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-71543270360731962842011-12-23T18:39:00.005-06:002012-01-07T13:08:31.138-06:00

A market stall for a vendor of Christmas lights in La Merced, Mexico City's enormous downtown market for foodstuffs and household items. Yes, those are the real colors. Yes, they were all flashing in various ways. Yes, the display was potentially seizure-inducing. And yes, it's things like this that make me so fond of this basket-case of a city. Click on this and the following images to

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-58440965836467106742011-12-22T13:58:00.002-06:002011-12-22T14:08:51.917-06:00

Note: It's been a busy but good time 'round these parts--hence my absence from "here." Grades are in; the Mrs. and I visited Mexico City for a few days last week to visit the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe on the Virgin's feast day (and, not coincidentally, eat some really good food); we spent last weekend with my mother in Austin; and now, our shopping done, we're relaxing a bit, pondering

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-30003455839046780882011-11-11T17:18:00.003-06:002011-11-11T18:34:12.915-06:00

Tenzin Phuntsok Rinpoche, the reincarnation of Geshe Lama Konchog, contemplates a statue of the Buddha in this still from Unmistaken Child. Wikipedia entry. Trailer (which contains (highly intriguing) images not in the DVD release). Image found here.Most parents would say that they cannot imagine any circumstances under which they would give up their children. Yet they do all the time, in

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-79404405004367534732011-10-04T06:15:00.002-05:002011-10-04T06:17:51.194-05:00

I'm still around. Mid-terms approach, and while I do have things to post on, they would take more time to write than I have just now; so, I will be away from "here" a while longer.In the meantime: If I have to say anything more in this space about the significance of this Saturday at high noon*, the one annual event that all thinking people can point to as affirming a Manichean good-vs.-evil

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-24819966562727485402011-09-21T06:11:00.002-05:002011-09-21T06:13:42.936-05:00

The south side of the Texas state capitol and grounds. Click to enlarge. Image found here.I'm going to assume for the sake of argument that Texas' capitol grounds are typical of most state capitol grounds, in that they have their share of monuments to various people or events. (In case you're curious, here is the list of monuments on the grounds in Austin; interestingly, you'll note that no

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-6058944159174194852011-09-17T07:14:00.006-05:002011-09-17T07:22:51.255-05:00

Thanks to the Mrs., I have become, shall we say, a regular visitor to Failblog. If they keep getting submissions like this, I don't see me stopping those visits anytime soon:Something more substantive (relatively-speaking, of course) is on the way.

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-67806337753027379792011-09-11T15:32:00.003-05:002011-09-11T16:41:01.669-05:00

My in-laws have a commemorative coffee mug that one of them picked up at the dedication of a county building here in Wichita. The date of the dedication, stamped on the mug, was September 11, 1998. I've had many a cup of coffee out of that mug, and yet I still ponder it a bit. Such is the power of the events of ten years ago that it even shapes how we think of those September 11ths that

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-37450097820048836072011-09-10T09:58:00.002-05:002011-09-11T06:38:02.288-05:00

True, I hadn't considered this as a possibility, either . . . (Image found here)In my earlier posts on Arendt's The Human Condition and the apparent goal of interconnectivity for its own sake, the topic of politics--which is to say, how best to govern--never came up (except for the fact that Arendt is clearly interested in those questions). We've all run across commentary on how the 'Nets are

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-60070246344661199082011-09-09T19:21:00.003-05:002011-09-11T06:55:13.979-05:00

Where the Wild Things Are (2009; dir. Spike Jonze). Trailer here. And here is a (dead-on, I think) review by Christopher Orr (which is one starting point for this post). Image found here.The Mrs. and I finally saw this for the first time back on Labor Day. First things first: I highly recommend this film. The poster you see here is a pretty good encapsulation of its dynamics, I think: big,

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-4464882434842807742011-09-05T09:38:00.001-05:002011-09-05T09:40:35.917-05:00

Yves Jeason, The Noosphere Sculpture. Image found here. First, a couple of things from the Technium section of Kevin Kelly's website. Kelly is the author of What Technology Wants, the title of which I think is a pretty succinct way of capturing both the promise and the peril we saw Hannah Arendt (and me) going on about a few days ago; though I'd heard him interviewed last year on NPR and

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-50272352884514776522011-09-03T13:46:00.003-05:002011-09-04T08:41:10.288-05:00

Prairie Fires of the Great West, published by Currier and Ives. Unknown date. This lithograph is part of the "Pathways to Pavement" exhibition at the WAM. Click on image to enlarge. Found here. This image should be on the covers of anthologies of American literature. It's beautifully composed, for one thing--look at all those diagonals causing the eye to move back and forth across the image

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-8344293741290926982011-08-30T07:43:00.002-05:002011-08-30T07:45:34.983-05:00

A young Hannah Arendt. She looks like she could make philosophy fun; about 20 years later, though, she would coin the phrase "the banality of evil." Image found here. Last week was the first week of classes for me; in all the busyness of that time, I didn't have time to post a Welcome to students here on the off chance that they might possibly visit here. Consider this, then, a belated but

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-70087355716181089962011-08-21T08:21:00.001-05:002011-08-21T08:24:10.718-05:00

Adriaen Coorte (c. 1663-after 1707), Still Life (Asparagus) (1697), Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Image found here. For a long time (since my college days, in fact) I have owned the hardback 3-volume C. K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin translation of Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu, and for a long time now I have been promising myself that I would read it in its entirety. Uh-huh.

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-54155962654148137582011-08-18T06:01:00.004-05:002011-08-18T06:19:23.914-05:00

I'm still here; I've been tied up with settling in, still, into the new place and, this past week, attending meetings that might actually, this year, help me become a better teacher for my students--since, this year, I've heard some things that actually speak to me directly as a teacher. This weekend, I hope to post something a little more substantial here. In the meantime, ponder this

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-30427013008621636302011-08-07T08:30:00.000-05:002011-08-07T08:31:14.078-05:00

Not even a hundred yards south of our new residence, there's a drainage ditch; its function is to collect run-off from the Kansas Turnpike and siphon it off to the creek that lies to the west of our little neighborhood. During the time we've been here, there's been some water in it, but to Scruffy's and my hasty eye, it doesn't exactly look like it's the environment for a thriving biological web

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-51618031986906410262011-08-03T09:22:00.001-05:002011-08-03T09:23:09.999-05:00

Greetings, reader(s). Most all our stuff is here at the new place; the things that matter have been unpacked; we still have to hang pictures; there are boxes of things we'd forgotten we had (because they'd been in storage, some of them, for four years) that we need to get reacquainted with so as to decide what to do with them. Now, we need to do our bit to goose the Durable Goods component of

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-16489386882652164192011-07-25T06:59:00.007-05:002011-07-25T09:09:59.961-05:00

Shell Knob Bridge, Missouri. Image found here; click image to enlarge.To celebrate my mother-in-law's retirement, the Mrs.' extended family spent last week at Table Rock Lake--specifically, near Shell Knob, Missouri, on "the quiet side" of the lake (read: the side that isn't where Branson is). If your idea of a good time is taking a boat out on a deep, cool-water, very clear lake for skiing or

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-48246571937244216542011-07-14T21:45:00.002-05:002011-07-15T05:06:55.855-05:00

The good news: The Mrs. and I will be moving to a new, bigger place soon.The bad news: It'll still be in Wichita, but it won't be on the Little Arkansas, or on any other body of water of note. I keep trying it out in my mind, but "A stretch of drainage ditch" just doesn't have quite the same ring to it. And I thought about carrying on the Stretch of River posts in a virtual sense--I mean, who'd

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-76792548691528197742011-07-08T18:12:00.009-05:002011-07-09T07:54:10.968-05:00

(Apologies for the length of this post--the "collapse post" function isn't working, for some reason.)A picture from the April 28th performance of The Pale King: Monologues From The Unfinished Novel, hosted by the PEN Center in Beverly Hills. Image found here; "making of" video here.(Earlier posts here)I liked The Pale King; I'm glad we have it. That said, though, it's not the best introduction

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-16771396440161658712011-07-07T20:38:00.005-05:002011-07-08T07:22:22.806-05:00

I just wish Congress would just be responsible and take care of this already!!(via Jonathan Chait)

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-80472982223348657852011-07-05T19:30:00.005-05:002011-07-07T10:48:41.701-05:00

Rick and Ferrari's first scene at the Blue Parrot. Image found here; click to enlarge.[Edited and amended to avoid implying some things I don't mean to suggest.]In my post on Casablanca from a couple of days ago, I briefly mentioned the arrangement of the space of the Blue Parrot, the bar run by Ferrari (Sidney Greenstreet). Here, following up on some leads provided by Roger Ebert's

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-83396549904228722672011-07-04T17:53:00.003-05:002011-07-04T17:55:49.309-05:00

Jasper Johns, Three Flags (1958). Click on image to enlarge. Brief commentary here. Image found here.Happy Fourth, reader(s)! Here's wishing you a safe and enjoyable consumption of food and beverages and fireworks-watching . . . and, yes, if you need it, history.In keeping with the spirit of the day, my long-time online friend Pam of Tales from the Microbial Laboratory has posted a collection

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-87588807656975152782011-07-03T09:35:00.010-05:002011-07-05T21:14:32.699-05:00

A still from Humphrey Bogart's first scene in Casablanca. On the set, Bogart played chess with Claude Rains and Paul Henried; it was Bogart's idea to have the chess board be Rick's stage business as he talks with Ugarte. According to Roger Ebert's commentary in the edition of Casablanca I have, Bogart preferred chess to poker because in chess, no one can cheat. Image found here.[UPDATE: This

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-5422913117955298592011-07-01T15:07:00.002-05:002011-07-07T10:45:13.016-05:00

An 1862 depiction of an incident from a sequence of events known as the Great Gainesville (Texas) Hanging. Click on the image to enlarge. During the latter half of 1862, more than 50 men were tried and hanged, lynched, or assassinated in Gainesville, Denton, and other north Texas towns; some of them were suspected of being Union sympathizers; some had signed a petition protesting the

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-21148904808614623542011-06-13T07:37:00.005-05:002011-06-30T08:14:10.000-05:00

Click on the image to enlarge. Via René of Teorí del Caos.There's much to say about this cartoon, probably more than was intended by its maker. But to simplify things, let's just say for now, as per René's placement of it in a post on The Pale King, that it's a pretty fair summation of the dynamic Wallace creates when he occupies the Writer corner of the Writer-Subject-Reader triangle.[I (

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-80364220394719552042011-06-12T07:40:00.003-05:002011-06-12T07:43:16.722-05:00

A good bit of the brouhaha over Anthony Weiner's actions really is being driven by various subtexts: partisanship (or, in the case of House Democrats' calls for Weiner's resignation, trying not to appear partisan); the tangential (but important) debate about what constitutes "public" and "private" space and activities in this electronic-media-saturated world of ours; definitions of fidelity and

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-22047029549821742392011-06-11T13:32:00.004-05:002011-06-11T18:50:16.962-05:00

UPDATE: Some added information re Maker's biography, and a discography at the bottom of the post.[Note: We all have our lists of artists we think deserve more recognition than they appear to have. Here begins my list. It'll appear on occasion, as mood and opportunity strike.]Willem Maker. Website here; (free downloadable) Daytrotter session here.I briefly mentioned Willem Maker (born Wes

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-32400731329496100852011-06-09T10:39:00.003-05:002011-06-09T10:43:28.597-05:00

Watch, consider, then post your submission in the comments section. The winner will receive a Blog Meridian Virtual Snow-Dome!(via Andrew Sullivan)

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-1423322231419893422011-06-08T15:29:00.004-05:002011-07-07T10:46:18.788-05:00

Some of you may recall that I posted on my father's brother's unexpected death. There had been a bit of unfinished business regarding his possessions; and so on my recent trip to Texas, my brother and I drove over to Houston to collect those things and, if possible, figure out what to do with them. I've recently found out a little more about one of these objects that, in conjunction with my

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-60965882329302770902011-06-05T08:32:00.005-05:002011-07-07T10:47:11.001-05:00

Having grown up in Texas, and grown up hearing his name, it's hard for me to gauge how well known John Graves (b. 1920) is outside Texas. The fact that he's been nominated twice for the National Book Award, though, would suggest that he has a reputation in some circles. Anyway, while I was in Austin, the Barnes & Noble I visited happened to have a copy of the book which established Graves'

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-63924951452287399102011-06-01T10:25:00.007-05:002011-06-01T18:29:25.803-05:00

Wallace's workbook pages for what would eventually become Chapter 9 of The Pale King. Click on the image to enlarge. Image found here.(I promise that this blog isn't turning into an "All David Foster Wallace, all the time" blog. Something other will follow this post.)The Pale King is going to be a hard novel to discuss coherently, once I finish it; I can't imagine what it would be like to

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-23783172877363354002011-05-29T17:10:00.002-05:002011-05-31T08:10:07.520-05:00

David Mamet's outline for his 1991 film Homicide, currently on display as part of Culture Unbound. Click on image to enlarge.While I was in Austin last week, I had a chance to spend a few hours at the University of Texas' cultural treasures, the Blanton Museum of Art and the Harry Ransom Center, UT's place for rare books and manuscripts.(No--not Royal-Memorial Stadium, you wiseacres.)I hadn't

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-71558655275901722652011-05-29T08:12:00.002-05:002011-05-29T08:15:11.218-05:00

Chris Cleave. Image found here--bonus points to this source for including a little unadulterated admiration of Cormac McCarthy and an interesting discussion of the notion of remixing novels.I like this picture. It seems to me suggestive of Cleave's work, at least in this novel: shadows loom over the narrative, slowly taking shape even as they inform the novel's Now; you can begin to guess at

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-38895452717412283292011-05-28T21:24:00.002-05:002011-05-29T07:20:07.385-05:00

Barbara Kingsolver. Image found here.The summer is here, grades are more or less done (a few loose ends remain), and I can turn to writing up a couple of promised reviews. The Mrs., herself a voracious reader, pointed me in the direction of these books simply by saying, "Read these. See what you think."The first is Barbara Kingsolver's most recent novel, The Lacuna. I've known about

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-19485529758241632042011-05-18T07:01:00.001-05:002011-05-18T07:05:27.125-05:00

This isn't one of the promised reviews; instead, I thought I'd pass along a little something before I head off to Topeka and thence to Austin for a week or so.What follows isn't a review or commentary. Just a nod in the direction of a pretty good writer.I've just started The Pale King, in part because, well, it's David Foster Wallace, and in part to see just how wrong I was about the Hamlet

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-70189785004528798402011-05-09T06:11:00.005-05:002011-05-09T06:19:46.601-05:00

Today begins Finals Week, so I will most likely be scarce 'round these parts for a few more days. In the meantime, some of you may find this either cause for despair or quite funny or both.Soon to come: a couple of reviews of recent reading.

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-54532839857547499452011-05-03T06:36:00.003-05:002011-05-03T10:10:47.256-05:00

It's more than appropriate that, just as I started this post, John Adams' musical tribute to the victims of September 11, "On the Transmigration of Souls," began playing in my iTunes.The tone of my previous post notwithstanding, I have a mix of feelings about the killing of bin Laden. I'm not alone in this; Aaron over at Zunguzungu sums them up well.I would much prefer that Obama continue to

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-7062449598130615232011-05-02T06:57:00.005-05:002011-05-02T07:39:37.039-05:00

Image found here.Case in point regarding this: If one's political news had been supplied by online media, especially in the past couple of weeks, you'd think all the White House has been worrying about was Donald Trump (and/or the severity of his skewering of Trump at the Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday) . . . or, for that matter, worrying about the press's coverage of all this.Well.Approve

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-80196035704674213142011-04-30T13:15:00.004-05:002011-04-30T20:09:27.924-05:00

[This needs a bit of smoothing and fleshing out in places . . .]Yesterday, my college's Philosophy Club made a short road trip to Newman University to meet up with students and faculty in their fledgling Philosophy program (they're just getting a major off the ground there--something of a surprise to me, given the deep historical connections between Catholic thinkers and Western philosophy). The

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-19253218893173603652011-04-18T13:30:00.004-05:002011-04-18T13:37:48.343-05:00

(via Matthew Yglesias, who found it here. Click on image to enlarge.)

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-9281276884732878212011-04-16T15:04:00.001-05:002011-04-16T15:05:15.579-05:00

I am often slow of study. Only today did it occur to me that it's entirely appropriate to publish on April 15th a novel that's set in an IRS facility. Moreover, it's very appropriate this tax season due to the fact that, though the 15th fell on a Friday this year, this year's deadline is the 18th due to the Washington, D.C. holiday. For weirdness within an allegedly coherent, even boring

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-78238941797123880302011-04-16T09:54:00.001-05:002011-04-16T09:56:45.075-05:00

Or, more precisely, acting like you CAN win.I've not written about politics in a while; it's just too exhausting, especially when things change so quickly. The recently-concluded budget debate and subsequent score-keeping/coup-counting is a case in point. But it's precisely that recent discussion that reveals itself as another in a long pattern of events that I feel the need to say something

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-77082156392332917482011-04-10T14:44:00.004-05:002011-04-11T05:14:04.362-05:00

“Look and listen deeply,” she challenges. An onanistic recursion, at once Siren and Cassandra, she heralds a new chapter in the Homeric tradition. With a slight grin, she calls out to us: “I sing of the death of the individual, the dire plight of free will and the awful barricades daily built inside the minds of all who endure what lately passes for American life. And here I shall tell you of

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-87597476966872740812011-04-10T06:31:00.007-05:002011-04-10T07:57:52.138-05:00

Three paragraphs from Judith Butler's essay "Violence, Mourning, Politics" (found via zunguzungu, but with an assist from Amazon):Perhaps one mourns when one accepts that by the loss one undergoes one will be changed, possibly for ever…I do not think, for instance, that one can invoke the Protestant ethic when it comes to loss. One cannot say, “Oh, I’ll go through loss this way, and that will be

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-91560840958343564192011-04-08T17:10:00.007-05:002011-04-08T19:10:40.716-05:00

"[I'm a pessimist,] but there's no point in being miserable about it."--Cormac McCarthyImagine: Cormac McCarthy, Werner Herzog, and Lawrence Krauss (director of Arizona State University's Origins Project), for an hour, talking about the intersections between art and science. That's what NPR's Science Friday treated its listeners to this afternoon. Highlights: McCarthy is up to speed on

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-81400968522460586862011-04-03T08:15:00.004-05:002011-04-03T18:11:29.957-05:00

Just a couple of things I thought you might be interested in seeing while I wait for time to clear to post something of (relative) substance:**Ta-Nehisi Coates has made a terrible mistake that will sound familiar to many of you: When he really should be reading something else, he instead picks up something else to look at, just out of curiosity . . . and now cannot let it go. Coates' culprit:

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-64414301036853759122011-03-29T07:30:00.002-05:002011-03-29T07:54:24.515-05:00

I'm still here. In one sense, there's been plenty to write something about, but in another, as I've thought about all those things, I quickly realize that what I know or believe about those things doesn't add up to a whole heck of a lot. "Que sais-je?" indeed. Or, like Socrates, I only know that I know nothing.So, until I can sort through all this information to see if the color in my pan is

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-86969371902489485772011-03-12T10:12:00.003-06:002011-03-13T07:38:21.058-05:00

Two Mondays ago, my uncle (my father's brother) died; the funeral (which I attended) was last Saturday in Houston, and the interment (which I missed, alas) was this past Tuesday in Austin, a day after what would have been my uncle's 66th birthday. He was undergoing treatments for cancer, but he died from heart failure while napping on the couch that Monday afternoon. Apart from my parents, my

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-62990603527026687732011-02-27T15:14:00.000-06:002011-02-27T21:51:46.191-06:00

This woman, named Panthea, a rare African-American contestant appearing in the second season (1974) of The Price Is Right, had earlier won a sailboat and has just been shown a prize she's expected to bid on to win. What was that prize, you may ask? And what prize had she not bid on but passed to her fellow competitor? The answers below the fold. Images found here.Here are some things that

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-73914157244436117602011-02-13T08:56:00.002-06:002011-02-13T08:59:35.289-06:00

Arvo Pärt. Image found here. Here is the recording under discussion below.Bonus weirdness: Bjork(!) interviewing Pärt for a BBC program.I've written about Arvo Pärt before, but something about hearing his music this morning made me want to do a bit of reading, which made me want to write a little. What follows is also posted over at my Last.fm journal.This morning, hearing the extraordinary

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-45765340916140801912011-02-10T06:31:00.005-06:002011-02-10T06:52:01.551-06:00

Paula Deen, High Priestess of Southern Cooking, presides at Communion. Image found here.Some business took me to Mobile for a couple of days at the beginning of the week, and so I was thrilled to see my daughters, G. and C., one night over supper. They are well and happy . . . and, um, well, it's one thing to know your daughter has been driving by herself for a couple of months, but quite

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-14073320874627356652011-01-30T08:32:00.003-06:002011-01-30T20:05:06.892-06:00

Cairo, January 28, 2011. Scott Lucas' caption: "A picture's a thousand words - what about a thousand people in a picture? This image shows riot police using a water gun to disperse protesters in Cairo who are merely praying." (Image found here.)This may be the single-most evocative image from the past week's events in Cairo that I've seen, precisely because the ways in which it can be

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-31860644590109370742011-01-29T12:48:00.003-06:002011-01-30T07:29:36.111-06:00

Note: My computer still needs replacing, but at least it's no longer threatening to crash on me. So, maybe we can limp along here for a while yet.My sole formal training in economics consists of a single Intro. to Macroeconomics class that I took in college (of which about all I remember are supply/demand curves). However, as you'll see, this isn't about economics per se except in the

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-58960818045211849412011-01-10T18:26:00.003-06:002011-01-10T18:35:54.537-06:00

I want to risk the crotchetiness of my computer to point you in the direction of a new blog, 50 Epiphanies. Its keeper is my colleague (the chair of my department, in fact) Troy. Apparently, turning 50 has this effect on people of re-focusing one's attention--something I would know nothing about, being only 48 myself. In Troy's case, though, it prompts him to start a blog. Cheaper than buying

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-88398070055553211352011-01-01T07:59:00.005-06:002011-01-01T08:11:44.430-06:00

(Via Vagabond Scholar, who proudly lifted it from the late, lamented Jon Swift).Happy new year, all. As the title suggests, though, for the past few days I've had troubles with my poor 'puter. Well over 5 years old now, it may finally be time to put it out to pasture, or put it out of our mutual misery, or something. Whatever ends up happening, it'll take some filthy lucre that I happen not to

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-31162225465581791432010-12-31T14:35:00.003-06:002010-12-31T18:15:55.380-06:00

One of Amazon's better-kept secrets is that their site offers an abundance of free music in the form of single tracks from albums and, even better, album-length samplers by smaller labels.Here are links to some that I've enjoyed listening to/learning from this past year. I should note that these things' shelf life as freebies is not indefinite; there are a couple other excellent samplers that

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-77321598751600285532010-12-30T12:18:00.004-06:002010-12-31T16:11:39.783-06:00

Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1527-1593), The Librarian. Image found here. Arcimboldo is something of a preoccupation for Bolaño, about which more later.[UPDATE: Below, I discuss some of the interrelatedness of this novel with Bolaño's 2666; my good friend (and Bolaño fan) from Mexico City, René of Teoría del Caos, sent me a link to this diagram (explanation (in Spanish) here) that shows the

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-47906161551863962102010-12-28T15:50:00.003-06:002011-01-01T06:54:03.315-06:00

[UPDATE (January 1, 2011): One last addition to the list; scroll to the bottom to see it.]The cover art for Asleep at the Wheel's 2006 album, Santa Loves to Boogie. Image (and a link to Amazon's free mp3 link to the title track) found here.The Mrs. and I are back from visiting my mother for Christmas. While my mother and I are very different in many, many ways, one thing we do share is a love

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-51363887245827080022010-12-22T09:29:00.002-06:002010-12-23T06:07:19.767-06:00

Antonio Ruíz, El sueño de Malinche ("The Dream of Malinche").What follows is basically a place-holding post because I don't have time just now to explore all its various directions (one of which, you may have guessed, is indicated by the Ruíz painting at the beginning of this post). The road to Austin, and a Christmas-weekend visit with my mother, calls. But I'll be working out these ideas in

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-11803135608089047142010-12-12T09:14:00.001-06:002010-12-12T09:14:52.340-06:00

nth in a series . . . Context: One of my students wrote a film analysis paper in which he compared The Odyssey and O Brother, Where Art Thou?; in addition to telling him that mere comparison is not the same as analysis, I noted on his Works Cited page, where one of his entries read "Homer. The Odyssey. Print." that we needed just a wee bit more information than that.So, for his revision, here's

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-47013091471153356182010-12-05T13:33:00.003-06:002010-12-05T14:12:43.188-06:00

(Parts I and II)A masterpiece of the book-as-object genre: the board-book version of Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Image found here.At the beginning of the film Objectified, which I posted on last month, a designer talks about how his idea for Oxo's vegetable peelers came to him. He mentions that a relative of his, who loved to cook, found it hard to grip her kitchen utensils for

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-49780218639722525262010-11-24T07:57:00.001-06:002010-11-24T08:00:52.805-06:00

A book illustration depicting the death of Don Quixote. I can't find where it appeared originally; my source for the image is here.At the end of my last post, I promised some pictures of books whose physical design seems to me to contribute to the text's possible meanings. This isn't that post, but it does seek to provide an example of what I mean, as employed within the context of a

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-45582681011579523132010-11-21T11:24:00.001-06:002010-11-21T11:26:46.363-06:00

From top down: a page from the Book of Kells (page found here); a page from Tom Phillips' "treated novel," A Humument (its history is here; the image was found here); the interior of Jonathan Safran Foer's January 2011 release, Tree of Codes (image found here).And when I would have to look at them day after day, each with his and her secret and selfish thought, and blood strange to each other

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-36978591449036690032010-11-06T10:20:00.003-05:002010-11-09T06:39:18.626-06:00

Hey there. Glad to be back, if only briefly to let my reader(s) know I'm still around.Here's some of what I've been up to:Image found here.Last weekend, the Mrs. and I saw Objectified (it's instantly available via Netflix's online service--which because of its addictive properties should probably be illegal). Watching it felt almost providential. Long-time readers may remember that I keep

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-5260184740718035222010-10-17T21:40:00.003-05:002010-10-17T21:44:17.745-05:00

It's the midpoint of the semester, and for a couple of days I'll be alternating between recovering from that and getting two new classes up and running for the second half of the semester. New stuff coming next weekend, I hope.In the meantime, Sports Illustrated's website has a terrific piece up by Joe Posnanski called "Thirty-two Great Calls," a collection of audio and video clips of, not

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-28886323907955485732010-10-03T21:02:00.002-05:002010-10-03T21:03:10.786-05:00

Sor María Antonia de la Purísima Concepcíon. 18th century. Ex Convento de Culhuacán (some pictures here and here), Mexico City. Click on the image to enlarge. The caption records her parents’ names, her birthdate, and the date and place she took the habit for the first time.Some of you have been kindly indulgent of my relatively frequent posts on Mexican colonial Catholicism--in particular, the

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-65824174200786497782010-10-01T07:07:00.005-05:002010-10-01T09:27:21.076-05:00

I'm still catching up with grading and so won't have anything of substance appearing here for another week. But I ran across "A Taxpayer Receipt" (.pdf) this morning via Andrew Sullivan, and I think that, no matter one's politics, this makes for informative, thought-provoking reading . . . if only because it helps dispel the ignorance that so many of us have about what our taxes pay for. Not

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-91538089729114736812010-09-19T08:34:00.002-05:002010-09-19T08:37:04.500-05:00

I'm around; I just have grading to do that's keeping me away from posting anything worthwhile here.I hope to be less snowed-under after this week.

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-76568811702925196842010-09-09T15:04:00.002-05:002010-09-09T15:12:04.899-05:00

The cover of Passing Strange, by Martha A. Sandweiss. Image found here.Try to imagine, if you will, a nineteenth-century American man who was regarded by his peers--among them being the grandson of Presidents and another who would serve as a secretary of state--as being an exemplar of the best and brightest that America had to offer, whom his friends thought could have been a full-time man of

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-21684735808704051272010-09-01T08:01:00.003-05:002010-09-01T08:05:53.522-05:00

From the spam filter at Domestic Issue:Lets chat before you know it:)Irony bonus: The sender's name actually features the word "scam" in it.

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-89843723602975489402010-08-30T14:21:00.002-05:002010-08-31T00:49:31.008-05:00

Over at my academic blog, Domestic Issue, I've just posted a little something on the intellectual history of Brazil--the topic all America is buzzing about, I know--by way of a discussion of a book on that very topic. (It's no longer in print, or else I would link to it.) [EDIT: Just to be clear here, I'm speaking of how this book has treated its subject up to the year 1870, which is the point

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-58737567804685441402010-08-28T06:28:00.001-05:002010-08-28T06:31:33.523-05:00

Just listening to iTunes in "Shuffle" mode and drinking coffee this morning, when this popped up:This is the title track from In the Name of Love: Africa Celebrates U2, which works both as a tribute album and as a nice introduction to contemporary African performers, most of whom aren't well known in this country. I've had this for a while in my collection via the largess of a friend on Last.fm;

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-23870504140775288292010-08-23T21:39:00.004-05:002010-08-24T05:44:39.210-05:00

A new semester, a new group of curious students possibly visiting . . . To those of you I've met in class this week, welcome to my humble blog. In the more than 6 years of its existence, I've posted on all sorts of things; if you're curious, have a look at the section titled "Assemblages" on the right-hand side, where I've put links to posts that are more memorable than others. Your mileage may

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-59743182876355652592010-08-22T13:52:00.001-05:002010-08-22T13:52:54.724-05:00

An undated photo of the Delphine Lalaurie House, on the corner of Royal and Governor Nichols streets in New Orleans. Image found here. This house is the setting for Cable's story, "The 'Haunted House' in Royal Street" (which you can read online here.Recently, I posted some comments on literary regionalism's potential for indulging in a cultural provincialism that, as nostalgia, is basically

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-30760918834771075652010-08-22T10:32:00.004-05:002010-08-22T10:49:54.529-05:00

Wilco's original:Punch Brothers:

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-88879667745325603252010-08-21T16:46:00.002-05:002010-08-22T14:21:03.015-05:00

Thoreau's shaque d'amour? Naah--but he did do some conceiving of Walden here.I tried talking to Scruffy about all this on our morning walk, but he was more unresponsive than usual. Sometimes, every once in a while, blogs are man's best friend.On Monday at 9:00 a.m., I'll meet a class of around 15 unsuspecting freshmen in English Comp. I, and my 18th year as a college professor will begin in

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-77992606524546029432010-08-17T19:50:00.001-05:002010-08-17T19:52:45.385-05:00

Faculty meetings for the new semester began yesterday, and in today's presentation our guest speaker, yet another in a long procession of guest speakers over the years whose job it has been to tell us about Kids These Days, told us about Kids These Days. One of the things about Kids These Days: They have all these gadgets whose chief purpose seems to be to enable their tendencies toward ADD-ness

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-79861483840082010252010-08-16T06:29:00.005-05:002010-08-16T18:17:42.786-05:00

Randall of Musings from the Hinterland has a short post up re the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque" and its attendant controversy. Randall, to summarize, acknowledges and respects the First Amendment and property rights at stake in this issue but disagrees both with the building of the mosque and with the wisdom of President Obama's remarks on this issue last week.I'll make two quick points here:1)

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-90038622558664824962010-08-08T14:17:00.004-05:002010-08-08T18:23:04.213-05:00

The first-edition cover of John Updike's Brazil. Image found here.At some point during my just-completed rereading of Brazil (1994), I asked myself, Now, why is it that I'm reading this thing? And then I remembered that it was at the very end of my dissertation defense that one of my committee members said something like, "All this you've been talking about sounds just like John Updike's new

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-1219328081053219962010-08-03T05:57:00.007-05:002010-08-03T06:11:27.446-05:00

Don't you hate it when someone says something that it feels like you've been trying to say, off and on, for the better part of your adult life and says it much better than you?The opening paragraph of a review of Chris Abrahams' album, Play Scar:You know how when “Strawberry Fields” on Magical Mystery Tour fades out, another song comes passing through, only to disappear moments later? It makes

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-72751831630795078812010-07-27T16:19:00.001-05:002010-07-27T16:21:04.229-05:00

The cover for Niafunké.I haven't posted on music on this blog in some time. However, I recently wrote a review for this album over at Amazon, and I thought I'd share it with my reader(s) here.Let's be honest: Records that give pleasure to the listener are, relatively speaking, a dime a dozen. We hear them on the oldies stations; our collections are filled with such music. Far rarer is music

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-80285045399745558972010-07-27T07:03:00.002-05:002010-07-27T07:05:20.471-05:00

David Edwin Bernard, Threshing Run # 7 (1984). Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas. Image found here. About a hundred years after the rise of regionalist literature, but it captures well regionalism's usually-rural setting and life therein, and the implicit tension between the old ways and the new.I've just finished reading around in Brazil Imagined: 1500 to the Present by Darlene J.

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-84060185094221349912010-07-21T20:49:00.005-05:002010-07-22T06:04:28.873-05:00

Now with a bit of additional writing.Faulkner's burial, Oxford Mississippi, July 7, 1962. Image found here."[R]acism is in the eye of the beholder." --Andrew Breitbart(Well, yes, in some sense. And the corollary of that remark is that if the beholder has designated himself to be a hammer, everything looks like a nail.)The immediate context for Breitbart's quote was his (stated) understanding of

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-73259767220187248712010-07-21T10:06:00.002-05:002010-07-22T05:57:20.950-05:00

The FULL video, in case anyone's interested. There's also this, via Talking Points Memo's story: "Quick note: There is, as you can see, an edit in the middle of the speech. An NAACP spokesman tells me that, according to the local chapter, that's when the tape was switched in the recording. What's missing, he said, is a line about Sherrod being offered tobacco."Well, okay: not politics per se but

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-48143328891050045052010-07-17T17:43:00.002-05:002010-07-17T17:45:06.013-05:00

Luis de Mena, casta painting, c. 1750. Museo de América, Madrid. Click on image to enlarge. Image found here.(A couple of earlier posts on casta painting are here. A long post on the meaning of the Virgin of Guadalupe in connection with the New World as a miscegenated space is here.)As part of my research for the book project, the other day I revisited this post's accompanying image, and some

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-74631098749149747212010-07-12T11:10:00.004-05:002010-07-12T15:24:43.071-05:00

Adam Thirlwell, in his native habitat. Image found here.A while back, I mentioned that I was reading The Delighted States: A Book of Novels, Romances, & Their Unknown Translators, Containing Ten Languages, Set on Four Continents, & Accompanied by Maps, Portraits, Squiggles, Illustrations, & a Variety of Helpful Indexes. Also, "Mademoiselle O," a Story by Vladimir Nabokov, translated by Adam

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-90371522855650749742010-07-09T12:24:00.001-05:002010-07-09T12:24:28.942-05:00

Lillian Smith. Image found here; Wikipedia entry here.I've just finished rereading Lillian Smith's 1944 novel, Strange Fruit, a novel that, though still in print, I suspect not many people read today. That's a shame, really. Given its title's origin (the Billie Holiday song), its setting (early Depression-era rural southern Georgia), its chief subject (an interracial relationship between a

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-82569871565006168952010-06-27T22:36:00.002-05:002010-06-27T22:38:06.635-05:00

Statue of John Henry, near Talcott, West Virginia. Image found here.(Wikipedia entry; an earlier post of mine is here.)A few weeks ago, I posted that I'd be putting together a lesson on John Henry--a selection of historical materials, images, songs and their lyrics--that would give us some practice at analyzing and synthesizing information from various sources to see what sorts of conclusions we

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-55152536191382951662010-06-26T08:41:00.002-05:002010-06-26T09:24:48.176-05:00

Your correspondent (disguised as a very casually-dressed Kubla Khan) and his faithful companion watching where Ark the sacred river ran on our evening walk a couple of years ago. Taken by the Mrs.Back in the spring, I listened to a recording of a 2005 reading by Billy Collins, and after reading "The Revenant," he said, in so many words, that it's surprising to learn that dogs are the

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-75008090778743711042010-06-14T22:27:00.004-05:002010-06-15T06:43:10.238-05:00

A still from early in the opening sequence in Caché. Click the image to enlarge it. Image (and a brief but meaty discussion of the sequence) found here.In Wilkie Collins' novel The Woman in White, there's a longish sequence in which we read some of the heroine Laura's diary entries concerning her growing fear of Sir Percival and her suspicion that he plans to imprison or even kill her and

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-33886564712930669962010-06-13T11:09:00.003-05:002010-06-13T11:33:05.072-05:00

Richard Serra's Torqued Ellipse IV (1998), MOMA Sculpture Garden, New York, taken by Alexandra P. Spaulding. I like this picture because the viewer gets some sense of the scale Serra works on, as well as the weight of those sheets of steel (note the thickness of the edge). Here, by the way, is a shot that places this sculpture in its spatial context.(My initial post on Serra is here.)In no

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-29040258513259088242010-06-10T17:40:00.001-05:002010-06-10T17:41:19.758-05:00

Roberto Bolaño. Image (along with a brief bio and good discussion of 2666) from here.It seems appropriate to me to begin talking about this book by talking briefly about another book. Or, two.I am early on in my bedtime reading of a very odd book by Adam Thirlwell whose full title is The Delighted States: A Book of Novels, Romances, & Their Unknown Translators, Containing Ten Languages, Set on

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-28733201163147319072010-06-09T12:33:00.003-05:002010-06-09T12:38:13.270-05:00

A painting by Palmer Hayden of John Henry's death. Note the positioning of his body. Image found here.First of all, welcome to my new students. It was a pleasure meeting you and talking with you about the next eight weeks.Second, the bleg: for this summer's class I'm working on pulling together a little unit built around the American folk song "John Henry": (some of) its many different

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com5