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Tag Archives: English
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At The Daily Beast, academics and writers were asked to name “one book that [college] students shouldn’t escape campus without having read.” MIT professor and Pulitzer Prize winner, Junot Diaz, picked Toni Morrison’s Beloved because it “stabs straight at the heart … Continue reading
How to Really Make a World of Humanists: Helen Vendler Urges Training in Close Reading
In a recent essay for Harvard Magazine, the great Helen Vendler pushes back against our teach-to-the-test/Twitter-texting culture, eloquently calling on parents and teachers, including those teaching college, to train young people in close, as opposed to merely proficient, reading: Without reading, there … Continue reading
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Tagged atheism, critical thinking, English, freedom, helen vendler, humanism, literature, parenting, reading, reason, teaching
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Santi Tafarella: Why I Blog
The following was recently posted at the Antelope Valley College website, and I thought I’d put it up here as well: Santi Tafarella Talks About the Ultimate Freedom: Uncensored Thinking Recently AVC faculty member Santi Tafarella passed an amazing number. … Continue reading
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Tagged blogging, censorship, dialogue, English, freedom of speech, God, Prometheus, teachers, the first amendment, writing, Zeus
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Blogging David Goodsell’s “The Machinery of Life” (The Preface)
David Goodsell is a molecular biologist at The Scripps Research Institute in California, and he has written a hippie-beautiful introductory text to molecular biology, The Machinery of Life (2nd edition, Springer 2010), which Scientific American calls “an impressive and original book.” … Continue reading
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Tagged biochemistry, biology, cell biology, complexity, English, evolution, hippies, life, machines, meaning, Santi Tafarella, science
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Advice for Dying Fathers (Contra Dylan Thomas)
_____ Leaves cling, do not go gently, but go just The same. The signal is yellow; the alive Are always downcast before being cast down. Look! The green team winning all summer Is starting to lose badly, going bald in The stunning … Continue reading
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Tagged aging, autumn, creative writing, death, Dylan Thomas, English, fathers, life, literature, poems, poetry, Santi Tafarella
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Laura Miller Reviews Rebecca Goldstein’s anti-Harold Bloom Novel “36 Arguments for the Existence of God”
In Rebecca Goldstein’s recently released novel, 36 Arguments for the Existence of God, Yale’s famous literary behemoth, Harold Bloom, apparently takes some bruising hits. Here’s Laura Miller on this aspect of the novel: Obsessed with “genius” (and his own supreme authority in the … Continue reading
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Tagged atheism, Camille Paglia, cults, English, God, Harold Bloom, literature, philosophy, psychology, religion, science
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An MLA Report on Close Reading
With the Modern Language Association (MLA) conference going on right now in Philadelphia, I notice that Inside Higher Ed quotes an MLA report on the importance of teaching literature to undergraduates: Sustained, deep engagements with literary works and literary language open perceptions of structure, … Continue reading
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Tagged close reading, English, literature, philadelphia, poetry, reading, writing
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To Boldly Split Infinitives Where No One Has Split Them Before?
Salon today reviews Jack Lynch’s new book, The Lexicographer’s Dilemma (2009), an evolutionary history of proper grammar. So is Lynch, in writing his history, sympathetic to the describers (the camp of linguists) or the prescribers (the camp of traditional grammarians)? Should we, … Continue reading
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Tagged democracy, English, freedom, grammar, power, rhetoric, speech, split infinitives, writing
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Close Literary Reading 101: Stories and Style
I thought it might be fun (at least for me) to lay out, in a series of short blog posts, some of the basic terms and ideas that I present to my students when talking about the “close reading” of literary texts. Maybe … Continue reading
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Tagged borges, close reading, English, fiction, Jorge Luis Borges, life, literature, mark twain, poetry, thoreau, writing
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Quote of the Day II
Alan Jacobs, of The New Atlantis , puts in a good word for writing well, and writing teachers: Again and again in my career I have seen that people who can write well — in almost any field — give … Continue reading
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Tagged creative writing, education, English, English majors, grammar, literature, professional writing, writing
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John Updike Died Today
According to the AP: An old-fashioned believer in hard work, he published more than 50 books in a career that started in the 1950s.
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Tagged America, authors, books, English, hard work, john updike, life, literature, novelists, poetry, writers, writing
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The Future of Journalism?
Maureen Dowd’s recent column on the outsourcing of a California newspaper’s entire content to Indian writers at $7.50 per thousand words is sobering reading. Money quote: He fired his seven Pasadena staffers — including five reporters — who were making … Continue reading
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Tagged California, economics, editors, English, India, internet, journalism, Maureen Dowd, newspapers, wall street, writing
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“Learning to read slowly and carefully”: On the Value of Literature in a Fast-Paced Internet World
With the MLA conference coming up in San Francisco, Inside Higher Ed quotes an MLA report on the importance of teaching literature to undergraduates: “Sustained, deep engagements with literary works and literary language open perceptions of structure, texture, and the layering of meanings … Continue reading
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Tagged college, cultural literacy, education, English, language, literature, mla, poetry, San Francisco, UCLA
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