Dog Day Dry Bones

Marcus Aurelius unearthed.  In army boots, no less – just like your mom.
You can see for yourself why Wellfleet’s coastal resources need to be protected.
“Be the me I seem to be.”  Churm stumbles upon a growth industry.
Exposed! Women who proofread, and the men who love them!
“No one has a good word for Mao nowadays,” remarked [...]

Curriculum

Sociologist Frank Furedi takes on the folly of educators who accept “variant spelling” from their students.
I’m not sure what Furedi thinks he is doing publishing an essay against “creative” spelling on a website that is called, a-hem, “Sp!ked.”  But it’s a diverting read all the same, lampooning spelling teachers who courageously theorize the elementary particles [...]

Truth Be Told

Why I? Caroline Winter on the story of an unusual capitalization.

Back in 1947, Malcolm Lowry took umbrage with Jacques Barzun’s review of Under the Volcano. Wyatt Mason has found for us Lowry’s strongly-worded rejoinder: “I have never read Ulysses full through …”
Philip Corbett solves a mystery dear to the hearts of second-rate writers [...]

Without Which Wee Must Be Eternaly Miserabil

A letter dated August 9, 1759 from Hannah Waterman King to Benedict Arnold, the only one of her sons to survive the yellow fever. At the time of this letter, Arnold was fighting in the French and Indian War.

Before the year was out, Hannah would pass away. Still a teenager, Arnold took [...]

Marathon

I just got around to reading James Wood’s odd little book, How Fiction Works, which is all over the place nowadays. Blogs, buses, book clubs, everywhere.
My notes here are not intended as a review. Suffice it to say that this book is an enjoyable light study on modern literature full of smart sentences and splendid [...]

Promises, Promises

David Bordwell defines the “cinephile,” a nocturnal species of which the professor has made an exhaustive study. The creature in question doesn’t just “love movies.”
Heck no,
The cinephile loves the idea of film.
That means loving not only its accomplishments but its potential, its promise and prospects. It’s as if individual films, delectable and overpowering as [...]

Pastures

In a stunning display of self-indulgence, I’ve successfully invented an excuse to spend my nonexistent free time re-reading James Agee and Walker Evans Let Us Now Praise Famous Men.
A nicely written paragraph for your consideration:
Near Woods’ barn on the way to the road there is a small wired enclosure of sloping grass, and during this [...]

The Genuine Article

Ladies and Gentlemen, Aimee Semple McPherson … The Third Coast Festival revives the voice of an American original.
Hat tip to Frank Wilson for Edward Alexander’s fascinating look at the inimitable Lionel Trilling, and all that we shall never know about him.
Orwell is getting the Pepys treatment. Mark your calendars, the time warp starts on [...]