Meandering Through a Literary Life
Somehow I went my whole life without reading a single thing by H.P. Lovecraft. Since we’re still doing short fiction from the early 20th century, I decided to rectify that. I’m not much of a reader of horror, but there’s certainly a lot any writer can learn by studying the genre. And let’s face it, The … Read more
Breakfast at Tiffany’s is one of those weird cultural staples that literally everyone has heard of it. The Cultural Phenomenon Most people over a certain age have probably seen the movie, but ask them what it’s about, and they probably have no idea. It’s kind of fascinating to think how a novella/film gets to such … Read more
Warning 1: Whatever my opinion of Arrival, I warn you to not read this post before seeing it. I’m warning you. There are major spoilers, and these are the types of spoilers that don’t merely reveal some plot twist. These reveals will irrevocably alter the way you experience the movie to an extent where you … Read more
What is the meaning of Imajica by Clive Barker? Why is it one of the greatest novels written? Come find out and join the debate!
The Red Pony is in one sense a novella published by John Steinbeck, but in another sense it is a collection of four short stories, originally published episodically in magazines. This makes it slightly difficult to pin down exactly what date to slap on this. The first story was published in 1933, so it came … Read more
I recently got around to playing Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. I’m going to take a contrarian view and argue this game is not very good at all.
This week we’ll look at The Awakening by Kate Chopin. Historical Considerations I want to situate the novella in time first. To me, this novella is almost a cross between Madame Bovary and Mrs. Dalloway. It is interesting that Madame Bovary is often considered to be the birth of modernism in literature (though in 1856, it was actually a few decades … Read more
Let’s dig into our year-long series on short fiction. I’ve started with Daisy Miller by Henry James. It might not be the best one to start with, because I wanted to examine how writers tighten up their prose and structure and so on for shorter works. James is known for extreme care in his prose, even … Read more
I’ve been reading The Whole Harmonium, a biography of Wallace Stevens. He is one of the greatest American poets, yet most people outside of poetry haven’t heard of him. This article will look at his “Two Letters.” Honestly, his life isn’t all that interesting to read about. He basically lived a common life as an insurance … Read more
It’s been about five months since I’ve done one of these. My how time flies. I’ve almost exclusively used “literary” writers for this series. Today I want to examine the prose of John Irving. He’s had a lot of commercial success, but he straddles the literary/commercial divide more than many give him credit for. This … Read more
