In March of 1818, threatened with debtors’ prison and the loss of custody over their children, Percy and Mary Shelley expatriated to Italy. Below, Shelley writes to friend, sometimes-dependent, and founding editor of the Examiner, Leigh Hunt, about Boccaccio, and … Continued
This Saturday night, Magnet Theater feature piece “Kiss*Punch*Poem,” the year-old brain child of poet Meghann Plunkett and theater co-owner Alex Marino. The show presents an unbroken improvised performance bookended by an exquisite corpse. The format is a kind of magician’s … Continued
Yesterday, The Atlantic posted an article by Robert Pondiscio entitled, “How Self-Expression Damaged My Students.” Pondiscio offers an interesting, if ultimately flawed, thesis: In early childhood writing education, the deliberate cultivation of creative or imaginative expression will ultimately impede scholarly … Continued
Corruption I am about to recite a psalm that I know. Before I begin, my expectation extends over the entire psalm. Once I have begun the words I have said remove themselves from expectation & are now held in memory … Continued
Samuel Johnson regarded Samuel Richardson as “an author from whom the age has received greater favours, who has enlarged the knowledge of human nature, and taught the passions to move at the command of virtue.” By his own admission, Richardson … Continued
Analytic philosophy rarely relates to culture at large. But one trend provides insight into how bone-dry epistemology or metaphysics may actually relate to the way we view the world and our place in it. This year Thomas Nagel, a … Continued
“Fanfiction” is flexibly defined as amateur fiction created by fans in response to, and borrowing from, popular media works or series. Two recent events have thrust it into the spotlight: the phenomenal success of E.L. James’ racy romance series Fifty Shades … Continued
In 1927, William Carlos Williams and his wife, Florence, traveled to Europe, and enrolled their sons in a Swiss boarding school. Florence stayed on in Europe for an additional year (to be close to the boys), while Williams returned to … Continued
In the game of cricket, when a batsman makes a “half a century,” he raises his bat like a sceptre or a torch (indeed, like both) and slowly twirls it to the four corners of the field. This momentary stirring … Continued
The internet seems like it should be rife with potential constraints for Oulipian – or highly structured, or at least experimental – literature. The much-discussed Twitter is an obvious example, and if you’re like me and you like rules, the … Continued
