Yesterday I took my little sister to the mall to pick up a DVD and look for anything related to Alice in Wonderland. She’s really, really excited about the upcoming remake — and it makes me sad to think that this younger generation won’t be as critical of these so-called “films,” these CGI landfills. But [...]
Posts under ‘books’
No, Darwin Is Not an Aphrodesiac
Three days ago I received an email from a reader concerning a post I wrote in July 2008 (you may want to read that post before this one). He was confused about the logic I used when discussing the virginity of Henry David Thoreau, which in turn was related to skepticism over the sexual activity [...]
Once a Monotheism, Always a Monotheism
I left off last time explaining how Zeitoun is the only “new release” book I’ve ever read. I zoomed through it in eight days, since I had checked it out from the local library (the book was sold out everywhere from Christmas until about a week ago — but I hadn’t had a library card [...]
On Reading a ‘New Release’ Book
You may have noticed from my discussions that I don’t read much modern literature. I think Palahniuk’s Fight Club and Choke might be the only works of narrative prose (i.e. – fiction or creative nonfiction) published within the last 25 years on my bookshelf at home. (Correction: I also have Nick Horby’s novel High Fidelity, [...]
My New 600-Word Limit, Your New Comment Habit
I don’t usually announce (or even pick) a New Years Resolution, but this year I came up with one that suits me well. While most people choose to do something (and let’s be honest — it’s usually an attempt to work out more), I will be restricting myself from doing something. What’s the something? Writing [...]
The Flawed Art of Literary Rejection
In early December 2009 I submitted my lengthy essay “Indecision Over Michigan” to the Cooperative Press, a branch of the group Michigan Writers that helps emerging writers publish a chapbook in the literary genre of their choice. It’s a program intended to educate new writers on the entire publication process. As it says on their [...]
There’s No Waking Up From Neverland
The imminent release of Tim Burton’s (epic failure) remake of Alice in Wonderland has me thinking about that story. What’s that? I’ve already offended you? You think it’s going to be wicked awesome? Well, you should stop sniffing glue. Have you seen the new official trailer? It looks like a CGI monster snotted all over [...]
Never Let the Fire Go Out
I expect to be re-reading books more often in the years to come. So many that I’ve read seem distant and vague now, probably because I encountered them before I had gotten enough reading practice. If I haven’t explained it yet, I was a late-blooming reader. I never saw the point when I was younger… [...]
We Must Give the Void Its Colors
We left Albert Camus as he was dispensing of all the leap-takers — the philosophers who, instead of bearing the weight of existence on their own, found some shortcut to assist them (I’m referring to the previous post, if you missed it). The most frequent of Camus’s targets here was Kierkegaard, who was reportedly a [...]
The Only Truly Serious Philosophical Problem
“Even if one does not believe in God, suicide is not legitimate.” Albert Camus clearly felt no need for an element of surprise in The Myth of Sisyphus, his long essay that won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957. This statement appears in the first paragraph of the Preface, before the book even officially [...]
