Light On Dark Water

June 26, 2015

…as the course goes on, the movement becomes centrifugal; we rejoice in our abandon and are never so full of the sense of accomplishment as when we have struck some bulwark of our culture a deadly blow. —Richard Weaver, Ideas Have Consequences No way to delay That trouble coming every day —Frank Zappa, "Trouble Every Day"
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June 24, 2015

Out of the Past

I watched this noir classic for the second time recently–the first time was probably more than five years ago–and immediately pronounced it the best of its kind. On reflection, I thought I might back off from that, as I considered others like The Maltese Falcon and The Postman Always Rings Twice. But I won't back off very far;
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June 21, 2015

52 Authors: Week 25 – Josef Skvorecky

Josef Škvorecký is perhaps not a famous author (or perhaps he is and I've just missed it). In any case, he died in 2012 and his works are not now easy to find in English in Europe. He was a Czech dissident who went into exile in 1968, after the Prague Spring, and got a
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June 18, 2015

I don't even want to read the dadblamed thing.
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June 17, 2015

Liberalism Vs. Literature

It's frequently remarked by conservatives that present-day liberalism tends to politicize every aspect of life. Or should I say "aims" instead of "tends"? I'm not sure to what extent this movement is intentional, but it's certainly evident. Feminism has surely played a big role in it, starting with "The personal is political" and all that.
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June 14, 2015

52 Authors: Week 24 – Anne Pellowski

I love reading children’s books. I loved them when I was eight and could walk to the library whenever I wanted, and I loved them even more, I think, when I read them to my children, or before giving them to my children. Sometimes I still read them, even though all my children are grown
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June 12, 2015

Something for Brontë Fans

I read this book some months ago and have been meaning to mention it. A year or so ago (or was it two?) I read Wuthering Heights for the first time since college. I wrote about it briefly here–yes, it was only last year. Some time after that I ran across this book while browsing in
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June 8, 2015

52 Authors: Week 23 – Gillian Allnutt

Gillian Allnutt is a contemporary English poet whose work I have admired for the better part of fifteen years. If someone asked me — which, to date, nobody has — to describe her poetry, the words that might come to mind are not mine, but Hopkins’: “counter, original, spare, strange.” Frankly, I’m a sucker for
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June 4, 2015

Apparently I’m Not the Only One Who Wonders

I started to search for "is recycling worth it" and when I had gotten as far as "is rec", this is what Google offered: If you're interested, here's an article at Popular Mechanics that seems reasonable and plausible. The short answer is "yes". The slightly longer answer is that recycling may not be "worth it"
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May 31, 2015

52 Authors: Week 22 – Laura Ingalls Wilder

I received two beautiful hardback copies of Little House in the Big Woods and Little House on the Prairie for Christmas, 1967. I would have been just short of my eighth birthday. I loved these books, with their beautiful illustrations. Over the next three years, I read the rest of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s series: seven
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