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“A Happy Wanderer”— Joseph Conrad
“A Happy Wanderer” by Joseph Conrad Converts are interesting people. Most of us, if you will pardon me for betraying the universal secret, have, at some time or other, discovered in ourselves a...
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Henry Miller/Georg Büchner (Books Acquired, 4.30.2013)
Needing another book the same way I need another hole in the head, I nevertheless dropped by my local used bookstore to browse—the place is huge, and a day of grading term papers made me feel zapped...
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Mortal Lock (Book Acquired, 5.02.2013)
Mortal Lock by Andrew Vachss seems like a good choice for anyone who digs short, punchy crime noir stories. There’s also a screenplay in here. Random House’s blurb: A hit man stalks his mark at a race...
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“The End of the World”— G.K. Chesterton
“The End of the World” by G.K. Chesterton For some time I had been wandering in quiet streets in the curious town of Besançon, which stands like a sort of peninsula in a horse-shoe of river. You may...
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“On the Art of Fiction”— Willa Cather
“On the Art of Fiction” by Willa Cather One is sometimes asked about the “obstacles” that confront young writers who are trying to do good work. I should say the greatest obstacles that writers today...
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Yellow Zine #3 (Books, Comix, Etc. Acquired 5.13.2013)
Got a sweet bundle from Roman Muradov a few weeks ago: Yellow Zine #3 plus some other comix, including a take on Italo Calvino’s If on a Winter’s Night. Love the Joyce bookmark. The comix themselves...
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Watch Idem Paris, David Lynch’s Short Film About Lithography
(About/via). Tagged: Arts, David Lynch, Idem Paris, Lithography, Lynch, Magic, Printmaking
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Borges Riff/Borges Anxiety
Art by Roman Muradov 1. Jorge Luis Borges is 115 today. 2. I’ve shared clips from my scattered readings of Borges on this blog (receiving the occasional takedown notice as well)—but I’ve never mustered...
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The Fabulous World of Jules Verne — Karel Zeman (Full Film)
Tagged: Art, Arts, Fabulous World of Jules Verne, Film, full film, H.G. Wells, Invention, Jule Verne, Karel Zeman, Verne
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The Complete Short Stories of J.G. Ballard (Second Riff: Stories of 1960)
PREVIOUSLY: Introductions + stories 1956-1959 IN THIS RIFF: Stories published in 1960: “The Sound-Sweep” “Zone of Terror” “Chronopolis” “The Voices of Time” “The Last World of Mr. Goddard” 1. “The...
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Gertrude Stein on Football
In a 1934 radio interview, Gertrude Stein talks American football: INTERVIEWER: You saw the Yale-Dartmouth game a week ago Saturday didn’t you? Did you understand that in the American way or the...
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The O. Henry Prize Stories 2013 (Book Acquired, Sometime Last Week)
Here are the table of contents for the 2013 O. Henry Prize Stories: Your Duck Is My Duck, by DEBORAH EISENBERG Sugarcane, by DEREK PALACIO The Summer People, by KELLY LINK Leaving Maverley, by ALICE...
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Order is simply a thin, perilous condition we try to impose on the basic...
Before we go any further here, has it ever occurred to any of you that all this is simply one grand misunderstanding? Since you’re not here to learn anything, but to be taught so you can pass these...
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A review of Angels, Denis Johnson’s first novel
Angels, Denis Johnson’s 1983 début novel, begins as a small book about not very much and ends as a small book about pretty much everything. Johnson has a keen eye and keener ear for the kinds of...
View Article“Walter, leave off”| D.H. Lawrence on Walt Whitman
From D.H. Lawrence’s chapter on Whitman in Studies in Classic American Literature (more): POST-MORTEM effects? But what of Walt Whitman? The ‘good grey poet’. Was he a ghost, with all his physicality?...
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The authentic American apocalyptic novel | Harold Bloom and Blood Meridian
The Triumph of Death, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, c. 1562 Harold Bloom’s esteem for Blood Meridian may have done much to advance the novel’s reputation since its publication, especially in pre-social...
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The Complete Short Stories of J.G. Ballard (Second Riff: Stories of 1960)
PREVIOUSLY: Introductions + stories 1956-1959 IN THIS RIFF: Stories published in 1960: “The Sound-Sweep” “Zone of Terror” “Chronopolis” “The Voices of Time” “The Last World of Mr. Goddard” “The...
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