When I promise to write something daily, inevitably, I will fail. This is proven by my illustrious fiction writing career that is, somehow, invisible. In this instance, I have a good excuse. We had to take a family member to the hospital Tuesday due to a stroke. What, up until a few weeks ago would …
Lehigh University has decided to move the remainder of its semester online in an effort to reduce the amount of contact between faculty, staff, and students on its campus. Is it an overabundance of caution? Sure. But, I would argue that is what's needed now. We're in the middle of a pandemic and boy, am …
Continue reading Composition and Contagion: A Working Journal
(A poem I wrote a couple of years ago, recently found in a pile of papers. I appear to be channeling Benny Hill. I could do a lot worse.) I heard the hesitation and the grunt of forced cessation and I realized that I'd caught you in the act. And I smelled the strain and …
Bettany Hughes writes a great review for Catherine Nixey's The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World. I knew I'd be interested in the book before I read Hughes' review, but I'm so glad I was able to find a few interesting quotes: ...Nixey makes the fundamental point that while we lionize Christian culture for preserving …
Continue reading NYT Book Review – The Darkening Age by Catherine Nixey
Frens. I have been through the Stargate and back and will now divulge the secret to having a pleasant experience inside the MRI machine. Feel free to use this, unless you already have a process. This requires good brain muscles. Your mileage may vary. FIRST! Do not, I repeat, do not open your eyes. When …
I find Facebook frustrating. As storyteller, the Facebook algorithm creates a logistical dilemma. In some cases, I like to use the first comment as a, for lack of a better term, the punchline, or, in most cases, a secondary punchline. Sometimes it is to give further comment to what I'm posting, other times it is …
Continue reading Facebook and the Discontinuity of Narrative
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpAMbpQ8J7g Warning: contains Zizek. I would like to offer this screenshot as a visual representation of how GenX was raised in the most disillusioned cultural environment, while continually doused with the marketing of Baby-Boomer nostalgia. (That nostalgia leaned markedly white and middle class.) My argument is GenX was disallowed its own cultural validation while standing …
I've been wanting to do close readings of things other than books and film for a while and when I spied Justin Timberlake's video for his new single, "Filthy," I thought, "yes, let's do this." The song itself is catchy and, while there are only about six or seven different lines in the whole song, …
Continue reading “If you know what’s good…”: Justin Timberlake’s warning in “Filthy”
Last night a friend and I texted back and forth about the "waiting game." All of our PhD applications are in and now it's just a matter of sitting by while committees of people decide our fate. While texting, I was also checking out thegradcafe.com for information about wait times, acceptance/rejection ratios and general conversations …
Continue reading Post-Ac-Life: Sleeplessness and Productivity
