Critic’s Notebook: Rave vs. Review vs. Recommendation
We like stuff! Yes we do!
We like stuff! How ’bout you? Continue reading Critic’s Notebook: Rave vs. Review vs. Recommendation
Category: language
Translation Tuesdays: Austerity Measures: The New Greek Poetry, edited by Karen Van Dyck @ nyjb
Bad economics makes for good poetry. Continue reading Translation Tuesdays: Austerity Measures: The New Greek Poetry, edited by Karen Van Dyck @ nyjb
CCLaP Fridays: How to Speak Midwestern, by Edward McClelland
The Midwest has many accents, each beautiful in its own way. Continue reading CCLaP Fridays: How to Speak Midwestern, by Edward McClelland
Buck Studies by Douglas Kearney @ NYJB
“Buck Studies” is “a potent cocktail of political anger and radical formal experimentation.” Continue reading Buck Studies by Douglas Kearney @ NYJB
The Art of Reviewing: Critics, Monsters, Fanatics, and Other Literary Essays, by Cynthia Ozick
Like Updike, Anthony Burgess, and Vladimir Nabokov, Cynthia Ozick writes reviews with lush prose, each essay a stimulant to those seeking the beautiful interplay of ideas, language, and strong opinions. Continue reading The Art of Reviewing: Critics, Monsters, Fanatics, and Other Literary Essays, by Cynthia Ozick
Translation Tuesdays: The Curious Case of Dassoukine’s Trousers, by Fouad Laroui @ NYJB
Fouad Laroui casts his eye on Morocco’s dour political legacy with the scalpel-like precision of a social satirist. Continue reading Translation Tuesdays: The Curious Case of Dassoukine’s Trousers, by Fouad Laroui @ NYJB
Commonplace Book/Translation Tuesdays: Elias Canetti on minds and monsters
Compelling passages, notable quotables, bon mots, disjecta, ephemera, and miscellany. I admire those very broad people who through the decades become broader and broader yet do not give in. But the unyieldingly narrow are horrible. [1957 – 1959] A ceremonial beast, assembled from tiaras. [1960] That the behavior of dictators is perfidious is no longer surprising. But that mankind still craves authoritarianism, despite their appalling record of failure, is incomprehensible. With these monstrous examples right before our eyes, how are we so stupid, and how it is possible, faced with all that has happened, for us to lie to ourselves … Continue reading Commonplace Book/Translation Tuesdays: Elias Canetti on minds and monsters
Translation Tuesdays: Houses, by Borislav Pekic @NYJB
“Houses” by Borislav Pekic offers a fascinating window into literature of the other Europe Continue reading Translation Tuesdays: Houses, by Borislav Pekic @NYJB
How To Be A Conservative, by Roger Scruton @ NYJB
Noted British philosopher explains how to be a conservative. Continue reading How To Be A Conservative, by Roger Scruton @ NYJB
Critic’s Notebook: David Bowie and the Physiology of Taste
The Argument David Bowie’s recent death has closed a page on music history. On a more personal level, Bowie has been a constant in my life for decades. Beyond mere 80s nostalgia (Labyrinth) or 90s nostalgia (Lost Highway, Outside, and Earthling), Bowie has been instrumental to me personally as a taste-maker. He led me down strange avenues and provided the raw material for discovery and aesthetic experimentation. Embryo My fascinating with David Bowie began early. I can still remember the first Bowie album I bought, sometime in the Nineties. It was a CD of Tonight (1984), an album even Bowie … Continue reading Critic’s Notebook: David Bowie and the Physiology of Taste
