Blog Stats
- 2,759,166 readers since June 2008
Recent Comments
- Jim Loving on Robert Wright on Osiris, Jesus, Dives, and Lazarus
- longviewhypnosis on What, Exactly, Is Wrong With Bestiality?
- frauposaune on Emily Dickinson, Lesbian?: Her Letter to Susan Gilbert, in June of 1852, Might Tell Us Less Than You Think
- Andre Fruge on Emily Dickinson, Lesbian?: Her Letter to Susan Gilbert, in June of 1852, Might Tell Us Less Than You Think
- Dave on Barack Obama: The Leopard in the Book of Daniel?
- Aletha Balke on Emily Dickinson, Lesbian?: Her Letter to Susan Gilbert, in June of 1852, Might Tell Us Less Than You Think
- De Seksuele Sociale Norm - ilvy.com on What, Exactly, Is Wrong With Bestiality?
- Kelsey on Emily Dickinson, Lesbian?: Her Letter to Susan Gilbert, in June of 1852, Might Tell Us Less Than You Think
- Fake People, Pure Product - Ordinary Times on Emily Dickinson, Lesbian?: Her Letter to Susan Gilbert, in June of 1852, Might Tell Us Less Than You Think
- Hailee Steinfeld’s ‘Afterlife’ Debuts in New ‘Dickinson’ Trailer - Screen Times on Emily Dickinson, Lesbian?: Her Letter to Susan Gilbert, in June of 1852, Might Tell Us Less Than You Think
- fred on Have Yourself a Maoist Little Christmas?
- Les on Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris: Is This What a Rising Christian Political Star Looks Like?
- Anonymous on Emily Dickinson, Lesbian?: Her Letter to Susan Gilbert, in June of 1852, Might Tell Us Less Than You Think
- Pandora on Emily Dickinson, Lesbian?: Her Letter to Susan Gilbert, in June of 1852, Might Tell Us Less Than You Think
- Pandora on Emily Dickinson, Lesbian?: Her Letter to Susan Gilbert, in June of 1852, Might Tell Us Less Than You Think
Top Posts
- Emily Dickinson, Lesbian?: Her Letter to Susan Gilbert, in June of 1852, Might Tell Us Less Than You Think
- End Times Hysteria Watch: Lyn Benedetto Allegedly Tried to Kill Her Daughters to Save Them from The Tribulation
- What, Exactly, Is Wrong With Bestiality?
- Adam Smith and Capitalism for Beginners
- Clit Rubbing Bonobos: A Clue to the Evolutionary Origin of Human Homosexuality?
- "The Vision of Christ That Thou Dost See": William Blake on the Many Faces of Jesus
- What is an Etiological Narrative? And Might Confusion About Its Nature Be the Source for Fundamentalist Religion?
- Walt Whitman: "To be indeed a God!"
- Voltaire: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."
- This Hans Holbein Painting of Christ after Crucifixion Sparked Fyodor Dostoevsky's Imagination
-
Recent Posts
- Woke Fanatics? Essentialists vs. Nominalists
- A Mini-Course In Rhetoric For Writers. Concept 2.10: Emerson’s “Circles”
- A Mini-Course In Rhetoric For Writers. Concept 2.9: Imitation And Emulation With An Eye On Competition
- A Mini-Course In Rhetoric For Writers. Concept 2.8: Selection And Editing
- A Mini-Course In Rhetoric For Writers. Concept 2.7: Audience And Rhetorical Strategy
Recent Haiku Tweets
- AOC says it well. twitter.com/CNN/status/108… 1 year ago
- nytimes.com/interactive/20… 1 year ago
- RT @mrchan: So much has changed in America, and yet so much hasn't https://t.co/x2mthUr4Kc 1 year ago
- Perfect. twitter.com/newsundayheral… 3 years ago
- RT @goldenglobes: At tonight's #GoldenGlobes we honor Hollywood legend Meryl Streep with the prestigious Cecil B. Demille Award. https://t.… 3 years ago
Tag Archives: short stories
Narrative is Good for You
That’s the thesis of classicist, philosopher, and legal scholar Martha Nussbaum (b. 1947) in her essay, “The Narrative Imagination” (1997). How is it good for you? On Nussbaum’s account, it expands and trains your noticing, theorizing, and moral capacities. Here’s a … Continue reading →
Posted in Uncategorized
|
Tagged fiction, literature, martha nussbaum, philosophy, poems, Politics, short stories, writing
|
4 Comments
Richard Dawkins and Memes
For being an early and vigorous defender of the theory of evolution by natural selection against its critics, 19th century biologist Julian Huxley became known as “Darwin’s bulldog.” In the late 20th and early 21st century, the sinewy and quick-witted … Continue reading →
Posted in Uncategorized
|
Tagged bartleby the scrivener, genes, language, life, literature, memes, poetry, Richard Dawkins, short stories
|
4 Comments
Negotiation of the Detour: The Pervert’s Guide to the Origin of Rhetoric
Accompanied by a black and white dog, a huntress, not young, steps from a blue grove into the dawn light. It’s spring; we are outside of Athens in 508 BC. Pericles will not be born for another 13 years. The … Continue reading →
Posted in Uncategorized
|
Tagged a story, creative writing, democracy, literature, love, masochism, nonviolence, persuasion, philosophy, rhetoric, short stories, writing
|
Leave a comment
Using Aristotle’s Four Causes to Analyze Literature
When Aristotle looked at, say, a tree and asked what caused it, his answer began with matter and form: a tree is a product of the raw matter it is made of (water and wood fibers) channeled through a very particular form … Continue reading →
Posted in Uncategorized
|
Tagged aristotle, aristotle's four causes, causation, kate chopin, literature, philosophy, short stories, writing
|
1 Comment
Close Literary Reading 101: Thinking about How Stories End
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. … Continue reading →
Posted in Uncategorized
|
Tagged close literary reading 101, close reading, creative writing, English, ezra pound, literature, poetry, reading, short stories, T. S. Eliot, writing
|
2 Comments
Henry James’ “The Last of the Valerii”: Breaking the Spell of Religion?
Henry James has an intriguing, but not widely known, tale of a person coming under the spell of a religious mania. James titled it: The Last of the Valerii The short story is set in Rome, and the narrator is the godfather of an … Continue reading →
Posted in Uncategorized
|
Tagged cults, edmund burke, Giambattista Vico, henry james, literature, nationalism, religion, short stories, the Enlightenment, the last of the valerii, Voltaire
|
1 Comment
Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” in Real-Time! A Brazilian Man Walks in on His Own Funeral!
For the story’s brevity, emotional accessibility, and ironic shock value, it seems customary nowadays for English instructors to start introductory literature courses with Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour.” Chopin’s story is about a man who has died in an accident—or at least … Continue reading →
Posted in Uncategorized
|
Tagged brazil, death, English, fiction, funerals, irony, kate chopin, life, literature, resurrection, short stories
|
2 Comments
Close Literary Reading 101: Some Terms and Ideas for Thinking about Dramatic Structure
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. … Continue reading →
Posted in Uncategorized
|
Tagged close literary reading 101, close reading, creative writing, drama, existentialism, literature, Roadrunner, Sartre, short stories, wacky races, writing
|
1 Comment
Score One for the Close Reading of Literature! Psychologists Say that Reading Kafka-like Defamiliarizing Literature is Good for Your Brain!
Literature intructors and creative writers of the world, unite and take heart! We’re not useless afterall! Psychologists at the University of California at Santa Barbara report in a recent academic journal article that they gave a group of students Franz Kafka’s defamiliarizing … Continue reading →
Posted in Uncategorized
|
Tagged agnostic, agnosticism, Buddhism, Franz Kafka, Kafka, literature, poetry, psychology, short stories, Zen, zen koans
|
Leave a comment
Close Literary Reading 101: Noticing Narration
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. … Continue reading →
Posted in Uncategorized
|
Tagged chekhov, close reading, English, fiction, hawthorne, literature, narrative, short stories, writing
|
7 Comments
John Updike’s Final Collection of Short Stories, “My Father’s Tears”, Has Just Been Published
Stefan Beck, who blogs at The New Criterion website, likes John Updike’s final collection of short stories (which just came out). Money quote: The posthumous collection My Father’s Tears reminds us of one wonderful thing about Updike: Practically any example … Continue reading →
Posted in Uncategorized
|
Tagged aging, death, john updike, life, literature, poetry, short stories, stories, writing
|
Leave a comment
“The problems of the human heart in conflict with itself, which alone can make good writing”: Audio of William Faulkner’s Nobel Prize Speech
Posted in Uncategorized
|
Tagged America, books, faulkner, literature, nobel prize, poetry, short stories, william faulkner, writers, writing
|
Leave a comment
“In walks these three girls in nothing but bathing suits”: See Here John Updike, in a 1995 Interview, Discussing His Short Story, “A & P”
Part one: Part two:
Posted in Uncategorized
|
Tagged 1960s, Harvard, john updike, life, literature, massachusetts, philosophy, poetry, short stories, the beach, UCLA, writers
|
Leave a comment
Existential Absurdity in Stephen Crane’s “The Open Boat” (1897)
Is the universe a chaos or a cosmos? Today’s quote comes from Stephen Crane’s short story, “The Open Boat” (1897). Stranded in a small life boat and caught in huge ocean swells—yet tantalizingly close to shore—four men contemplate their absurd … Continue reading →
Posted in Uncategorized
|
Tagged Albert Camus, apologetics, Camus, creative writing, existentialism, literature, philosophy, poetry, Sartre, short stories, stephen crane, the open boat
|
Leave a comment
Quote of the Day
James Baldwin, in his short story, “Sonny’s Blues” (1957): [W]hile the tale of how we suffer, and how we are delighted, and how we may triumph is never new, it always must be heard. There isn’t any other tale to … Continue reading →
Posted in Uncategorized
|
Tagged Barack Obama, creative writing, james baldwin, Job, literature, Michelle Obama, philosophy, poetry, short stories, sonny's blues, suffering, writing
|
Leave a comment
Without a Doubt?: Honore de Balzac’s “A Passion in the Desert” and The Value of Close Reading
In Honore de Balzac’s short story, “A Passion in the Desert” (1830), is a vivid—and unsettling—description of an old, one-legged Napoleonic soldier: “He was without a doubt one of those troopers who are surprised at nothing, who find matter for laughter in … Continue reading →
Posted in Uncategorized
|
Tagged a passion in the desert, balzac, creative writing, desert, France, honore de balzac, literature, poetry, short stories, soldiers, war, writing
|
1 Comment
Corot Painting (1867)—And a Bit of Fanciful Writing to Accompany It
The river, undisturbed by human voice or body, and untouched by empty boat or bird, quietly, and ever so slightly, tugged at the cold sheet of the sky, and all that reflected upon it, as if the river wanted to pull heaven and earth itself on a … Continue reading →
Posted in Uncategorized
|
Tagged art, corot, creative writing, fiction, life, literature, philosophy, poems, poetry, river, short stories, widow
|
1 Comment
Responsibility, Participation, and Complicity: The Marquis de Sade’s Clodomir, Herman Melville’s Turkey, and George Bush’s Lindy England
In the Maquis de Sade’s short story, “The Lady of the Manor of Longeville, or a Lady’s Revenge,” there is a particularly unsettling scene in which the aristocratic Lord of the manor, upon discovering that his 26 year-old wife is having an … Continue reading →
Posted in Uncategorized
|
Tagged Abu Ghraib, Barack Obama, bartleby the scrivener, English, George Bush, lindy england, literature, marquis de sade, Marxism, melville, short stories, torture
|
Leave a comment
“Young Goodman Brown” at McCain-Palin Rallies: Nathaniel Hawthorn’s Famous 1835 Short Story and the “Obama is a Terrorist” Hysteria Today
If you haven’t noticed, a certain subsection of the McCain-Palin “base” is hysterically convinced that Barack Obama is not what he appears to be. He may come across in public as a calm, intelligent man with a nice and low-key patriotic demeanor, … Continue reading →
Posted in Uncategorized
|
Tagged Barack Obama, John McCain, literature, Mama Jane, Nathaniel Hawthorn, poetry, Politics, religion, Sarah Palin, short stories, Thomas Muthee, Young Goodman Brown
|
4 Comments
Innocence to Experience: A Micro-Story That Could Be Turned into a Triptych, by Santi Tafarella
Beneath a dormant tree, in brown, eggshell crisp leaves, a child found a white branch with a red blossom. The branch bent in the middle, and the child, to hold it together, presented it to her mother with both … Continue reading →
Posted in Uncategorized
|
Tagged art, Edward Munch, flash fiction, Innocence and Experience, life, literature, poetry, Santi Tafarella, short stories, short story, William Blake
|
Leave a comment
