After two years of somewhat consistent posts on this blog, I regret to inform that I will be taking a sabbatical. It could last anywhere from two to six months, or maybe longer.
Posts under ‘nonfiction’
Wagner’s Influence on Comics, Superheroes and ‘Indust-Reality’
On May 28, WBUR’s program “Here and Now” aired a segment about Wagner’s opera “The Ring” and its influence on comic books. (I’d embed it here, but they don’t let you download the MP3. You can listen at the link. Just scroll down the page when you get there.) Apparently many characters from graphic novels [...]
Printing Custom Books from Wikipedia
The most interesting news I’ve heard lately on the topic of custom publishing came last month from Mashable.com. As Jolie O’Dell reports, you can now create and print a custom book using content from Wikipedia. Just click “Create a book” in Wikipedia’s left sidebar (under “print/export”), and then click “Start book creator.” The video below [...]
Tom Burrell On His Book ‘Brainwashed’
I feel like everything I’ve been working on is suddenly coming together with a new clarity. On March 18 NPR ran an excellent interview with Tom Burrell, who worked in the advertising industry for 40 years and just published a book called Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority. I find Burrell’s story to be [...]
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, [...]
Che Guevara: The Jungian Interpretation
I recently watched both parts of Che, the 2008 biopic of Ernesto “Che” Guevara starring Benicio Del Toro and directed by Steven Soderbergh. I don’t intend to comment extensively on the quality of the film. However, its overall impact is questionable; that’s evident by its average score of 64 (out of 100) on Metacritic.com. I [...]
An Enlightenment Steak, With A Side Of Karma
I just finished listening to the audiobook version of God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens. While the subject material is quite controversial, Hitchens’ approach is not. He focuses much less on vague concepts like faith and belief, and much more on the real-world concerns surrounding religion. Hitchens concedes that he pays respect to all [...]
America’s Tenured Literature
While visiting my parents’ house a couple weeks ago, I happened to find an essay in The New York Times Magazine by David Gessner. The article discusses Gessner’s transition from full-time journalist and author to creative writing professor. I devoured the essay, highlighting my favorite parts along the way. There are two main questions in [...]
SYNful Writing Tips
Firstly, I’d like to apologize for my inactivity of late. I just underwent a move from Traverse City to Ann Arbor, and then a switch of apartments with my girlfriend. It’s been a very hectic four weeks, but — other than the fact that I’m still unemployed — I’ve mostly settled down now. Recently I [...]
