Happy birthday, Donald Barthelme! Here are some quotes from his writing: “The writer is that person who, embarking…
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…
Big Other
What’s happening in this image? The leftmost light bulb is exploding. Why would it do that? Perhaps it wanted to?…
Fifty Gestures of Love, in honor of William Gass (continued)
25 remaining, & here they are, picking up where we left off, with Tolstoy & his disgraced Natasha 26) The…
Art as Inheritance, part 2: Making New Art Appear as Old Text Disappears (as if by Magic!)
A friend recently alerted me to a post at Geek System (“Found Poetry in Magic: The Gathering Cards”): a fellow…
Jerry Lewis’s “The Ladies Man”: The Dollhouse and the Forbidden Room
He’s become a punchline here in the US, but that doesn’t make Jerry Lewis any less of a cinematic genius.…
Stanley Elkin, Ghosting Through Boston, Beautifully
A reminiscence of Stanley Elkin & a one-on-one workshop session I was lucky enough to have.