Sunday Morning! Revisiting François-René de Chateaubriand
François-René de Chateaubriand tried to find his way in the moments after the old world had ceased to be, and the new one had not yet come into being
Category: Books
Sunday Morning! Wild Seed by Octavia Butler
Wild Seed is often called a science-fiction novel, with the sciences being biology and genetics, and really eugenics, rather than space
Sunday Morning! The Man Who Lived Underground by Richard Wright
Richard Wright’s “lost” 1942 novel of guilt, exile, and spiritual initiation has been fortuitously pulled up from the memory hole. It’s no less urgent today.
In Defense of the Middlebrow
Why does the middlebrow matter? Who cares what a Jane or John Doe has to say about the Great Books or politics? The answer is obvious…
Sunday Morning! Brown Dog by Jim Harrison
Jim Harrison’s classic character Brown Dog seems to have figured out life’s secret- we’re just here to play.
The Hunger Games: I Volunteer As Conscript
It’s pretty unfair to say, “but The Hunger Games characters had their agency removed!” I mean, yeah, duh, that was kind of the point.
Sunday Morning! “A Little Devil in America” by Hanif Abdurraqib
Hanif Abdurraqib’s song of praise never elides Black pain or the reality of racism; but centers and is held aloft by Black miracles.
Explode the Canon: How to Fight a Better Canon War
Let’s explode the Canon and cultivate critical distance, opening up new vistas and leaving behind stale arguments.
Sunday Morning! “Time Regained” by Marcel Proust
We’ve reached the final volume of “In Search of Lost Time” and, finally, our hero has realized the work of his life comes in those moments in which joy, unexpectedly, breaks through the crust of ordinary experience. Now, he can get to work.
Ramona Quimby Is Not A Role Model
I keep bumping up against the same theme. “Ramona Quimby is iconic because she’s so NAUGHTY!” these articles crow breathlessly.
Game of Thrones: GRRM, Fan Fiction, and the Pearls of Irritated Oysters
In my eyes, Game of Thrones & George RR Martin have done but one unforgivable thing, and that unforgivable thing is dissing fan fiction
Sunday Morning! “The Fugitive” by Marcel Proust
There are many readers for whom “The Fugitive” is their favorite volume because it’s a psychologically rich depiction of heartbreak and its recovery, something to which we can all relate
Cancellation, Culture, and Copyright
What separates the Dr. Seuss incident from more recent cancellations is that it has turned into a discussion of copyright terms
Sunday Morning! “The Prisoner” by Marcel Proust
The Prisoner by Marcel Proust’s depiction of doomed and obsessive sexual jealousy is not nearly as bleak as I remembered. It’s tragic, but it’s a light tragedy.
Sunday Morning! “Sodom and Gomorrah” by Marcel Proust (pt. 2)
Proust is showing us the world that was in terminal decline by the first world war and asking the important question: What did we lose?
Sunday Morning! Sodom and Gomorrah by Marcel Proust (pt.1)
Sodom and Gomorrah by Marcel Proust: In which the love that dare not speak its name finally speaks- at great length.
Sunday Morning! “The Guermantes Way” by Marcel Proust (pt. 2)
We’re halfway through Marcel Proust’s epic The Guermantes Way and Death makes an appearance or two to complicate matters.
Sunday Morning! The Guermantes Way by Marcel Proust
The Guermantes Way by Marcel Proust: On worshipping and serving others in the social world of Volume 3 of “In Search of Lost Time”
Game of Thrones Rewatch: Redemption Song
I decided to look at the concept of fictional redemption arcs in Game of Thrones. In the GoT TV show, there are three main redemptive arcs.
Sunday Morning! Finishing ‘In Search of Lost Time’ Vol. 2. by: Marcel Proust
As we finish Marcel Proust’s “In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower” our hero heads to the beach and meets an artist, a marquis, and a band of young girls who will alter the course of his life and imagination, whether or not he ever really knows them.
