Tag Archives: writers

Does Critical Theory Kill Aristotle or Does Aristotle Kill Critical Theory?

Within the humanities, contemporary critical theorizing typically entails left leaning political commitments accompanied by some line of attack or qualification on Aristotle’s rhetorical triangle—his idea that every communicative act necessarily requires three things: an author or speaker (Greek: ethos), a … Continue reading

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Gore Vidal on the Romans: “They don’t care if you live or die. They’re like cats.”

Gore Vidal makes a cameo appearance in Federico Fellini’s Roma  (1972):

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Henry Fairlie on the Iffy Desirability of Being an American Consumer

Back in the 1980s, Henry Fairlie wrote in the New Republic something that I think speaks to our own era as we go through a recession and Americans seem to be tightening their belts and trying to pay down (rather … Continue reading

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“The problems of the human heart in conflict with itself, which alone can make good writing”: Audio of William Faulkner’s Nobel Prize Speech

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“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:

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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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Did You Know That Sartre, in the Name of World Revolution, Would Not Have Prevented the Burning of the Mona Lisa? Neither Did I!

In 1972 Jean Paul Sartre, then age 67, was interviewed by Esquire magazine. The interview appeared in December of that year.   How do I know this? Because I had the displeasure of reading the interview today, not from an … Continue reading

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