New Fiction is Psychic Occupation Fiction—or more generally, longform narrative text—has long been the handyman of culture, serving whatever functions…
Guy Davenport’s Only Recorded Interview/Hugh Kenner’s Unrealized Anthology
The Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky Libraries has a 43-minute interview with Guy Davenport…
On First Reformed
ON FIRST REFORMED (Spoilers) The form perfectly matches the content. And so, with First Reformed, Paul Schrader has done it, just…
Reading The Cantos
READING THE CANTOS I am not the only person in the United States reading The Cantos. I know because the…
Guest Post by Paul Skinner: “As Easy as Pie – Sometimes”
‘Basil returned with the two pies. He was wearing the expression of a man who has laid hands on a…
The Completed Eyes Wide Shut?
When Stanley Kubrick died on March 7, 1999, there was still a little over four months until Eyes Wide Shut’s…
To Live To Read To Live
TO LIVE TO READ TO LIVE Gimmickry attached to the world of belles-lettres has me chagrined: not the book itself,…
Hugh Kenner Hits a Home Run
Wouldn’t it take an outsider to aptly critique the American scene, the American people, the American culture? Hugh Kenner, a…
Coming: The Sounds of Sam Lipsyte in The Fun Parts
THE SOUNDS OF SAM LIPSYTE In the next few weeks we will hear that Sam Lipsyte’s The Fun Parts (Farrar,…
Yi Yi: The Best Film You’ve Probably Never Heard Of
How often do two people who have been watching a film look upon each other breathless and transfixed at the…