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A belated appreciation of William Empson from the haply mute 19 Jun 2012 | 03:22 am
I ought to have read William Empson’s Seven Types of Ambiguity years ago. Promotional blurbs don’t lie. This book has, indeed, been “a landmark in the history of literary criticism” since 1930, but ...
A Fiction for Men 2 Jun 2012 | 11:23 am
This month Esquire magazine will publish a series of ebooks called “Fiction for Men.” These will be “plot driven and exciting, where one thing happens after another,” says Esquire editor in chief, Da...
I have a dream 15 May 2012 | 01:54 am
Last week President Obama told America that same-sex couples ought to have the right to marry. It was, as Diane Sawyer said, “an historic political and cultural moment in this country,” brought to yo...
WTM?!? 17 Apr 2012 | 05:28 pm
Last week, the New York Times reviewed Philip Larkin’s Complete Poems. His poems would not be complete without the most famous one: They fuck you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but the...
What we talk about when we talk about reading 14 Apr 2012 | 09:12 am
I expect Nathan Englander’s short story “What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank” to be a downer. Not just because of Anne Frank, but because of the simple words that lead up to her. Those ...
There’s more enterprise 31 Mar 2012 | 02:27 am
When I listen NPR’s This I Believe, I start to feel sorry for myself. All those people earnestly believing things. I could be a regular contributor to a cranky spin-off called This I Don’t Believe, ...
We’re the pimps 4 Mar 2012 | 03:39 am
What does it say about the conservative talk-radio celebrity who goes before the country and says whatever will inflame his supporters and outrage his opponents just to promote himself and make a buck...
I’ll be seeing you 28 Feb 2012 | 10:38 am
It’s a relief to see Macbeth at the karaoke bar after the show. The last time I saw him, he was dead. Lying in a pile of bodies on the stage. And don’t think I took pleasure in his demise. I, too,...
Hannibal and Me? 15 Feb 2012 | 06:02 am
I’m an unlikely reader for a book about history’s greatest military strategist. When I read War and Peace, I thought about skipping whole chapters. Life is short, and military history doesn’t intere...
For my mother, on her birthday 24 Jan 2012 | 04:13 am
My mother gave me a collection of poems the day I graduated from high school. That might not sound like such a big deal, but this particular anthology was inscribed to her by the Kansas City, Missour...
