A Cultural History of the Chinese Language, by Sharron Gu

A Cultural History of the Chinese Language by Sharron Gu attempts to provide a means for non-specialists to approach Chinese, not from the technical and scientific discipline of linguistics, but from the discipline of literary history. Continue reading A Cultural History of the Chinese Language, by Sharron Gu

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CCLaP Fridays: On Being Human: the Culture

Today in Karl Wolff’s CCLaP essay series “On Being Human,” it’s ‘The Culture’ novels by Iain Banks, in which humans, aliens, and machines all live in a post-scarcity utopia. Banks’s novels follow eccentrics and troublemakers in a society where humans can switch gender, become aliens, and even become machines. Continue reading CCLaP Fridays: On Being Human: the Culture

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CCLaP Fridays: Make It Stay, by Joan Frank

Today’s book review at CCLaP: “Make It Stay” by Joan Frank, which I calls my favorite read so far of the year. The novel explores the lives of two couples in a small Northern California town as they encounter births, deaths, joys, and frustrations. I assert, “Frank’s highly polished literary prose is definitely worth your time.” Continue reading CCLaP Fridays: Make It Stay, by Joan Frank

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MONDAYS WITH THE SUPREMES, PART III: KOREMATSU, BROWN, AND PADILLA

A limited-run series where I review three books about the Supreme Court of the United States, exploring its historical and ideological conflicts, and the transformations it wrought upon law and society. This week: Three Supreme Court cases that examine “binding precedent”, race, and national security. Continue reading MONDAYS WITH THE SUPREMES, PART III: KOREMATSU, BROWN, AND PADILLA

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Translation Tuesdays: Wonder (1962), by Hugo Claus

Wonder is a strange book. By turns sarcastic, hallucinatory, satirical, and dreamlike, it relates the misadventures of one Victor-Denijs de Rijckel, a teacher who pursues a mysterious woman only to find himself posing as an expert of Crabbe, a messianic figure associated with Nazi collaboration. Continue reading Translation Tuesdays: Wonder (1962), by Hugo Claus

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