In the good old days of Really Existing Socialism, a joke popular among dissidents was used to illustrate the futility of their protests. In the fifteenth century, when Russia was occupied by Mongols, a peasant and his wife were walking along a dusty country road; a Mongol warrior on a horse stopped at their side…
Category
Literature
Dobby Gibson’s Titles Left Unpoemed
1. Colonial Voice-over 2. When That I had Bus-Stop Patience 3. Go Deep 4. A New Category of Response to Beautiful Women 5. I Am the Stringer, I Am the Strung 6. The 90-Percent-Solution Solution 7. Ode to Emancipated Minors 8. Real Falling 9. From Book XVI: The Lingerie Wars 10. Why Me Poet 11….
Someone, and no matter
Someone, and no matter who, inhabits my head like it’s an empty house, he enters, he leaves, he bangs each door behind him, powerless I put up with this ruckus. Someone, and maybe it’s me, palms my most private thoughts, he crumples them, returns them to dust. Someone, and it’s much later now, slowly walks…
I wish I could read faster
These books are all on my Amazon wish list. I promised myself I wouldn’t order anymore books until I finish the four I’m currently reading–I wish I could read faster :-/
Henry Darger and The Fine Line Between Insanity and Brilliance
Last Wednesday night our movie group watched the documentary film In The Realm of The Unreal, directed by Jessica Yu. In brief, the film documents the incredible story of Henry Darger (1892-1973), a visionary artist, janitor, and novelist. Darger’s story takes place in the Chicago area and tracks his life beginning with his turbulent childhood….
To Think Is To Forget: Joshua Foer’s Moonwalking with Einstein
Perhaps, as Borges concludes in his story, “It is forgetting, not remembering, that is the essence of what makes us human. To make sense of the world we must filter it. To think,” Borgese writes, “is to forget.” I am currently enjoying Joshua Foer’s book Moonwalking with Einstein. It is a book about memory, specifically…
One book, printed in the hearts own wax, is worth a thousand in the stacks
For those early writers, a trained memory wasn’t just about gaining easy access to information. It was about strengthening ones personal ethics and becoming a more complete person. A trained memory was the key to cultivating judgement, citizenship and piety. What one memorized helped shape ones character. Just as the secret to becoming a chess…
In Defense of Slow
Often, the tendency is to call something “boring” and “slow” when we don’t understand it or lack the energy to make a stab at comprehension. But I think sometimes there are other forces at work as well: cynicism and pride. Cynicism makes us skeptical that there is meaning, truth, beauty and goodness out there worth…
In Defense of Slow
Often, the tendency is to call something “boring” and “slow” when we don’t understand it or lack the energy to make a stab at comprehension. But I think sometimes there are other forces at work as well: cynicism and pride. Cynicism makes us skeptical that there is meaning, truth, beauty and goodness out there worth…