Friday, September 26, 2008

Edward FitzGerald's Rubaiyat: Quatrain I

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A favorite of mine is Edward FitzGerald's translation? or perhaps a paraphrase? of Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyat. The problem is, simply...
Monday, September 22, 2008

Tana French: Two novels--Psychological or Police Procedurals?

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Tana French's first two novels are strange ones. The two are linked in that they are supposedly police procedurals, involving Dublin...
Friday, September 19, 2008

Huxley and Orwell

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According to A Book of Days for the Literary World, Aldous Huxley began his teaching career on September 18, 1917, when he was hired as sc...
21 comments:
Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Robert Frost: a terrifying poet?

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Robert Frost has always been one of my favorite poets; therefore when I heard that Lionel Trilling, in a speech at a dinner given in Frost...
2 comments:
Thursday, September 11, 2008

Now that's a familiar face.

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I enjoy watching old TV shows. Aside from the usual reasons--interesting characters,themes, plots, and setting--I also have fun recognizing...
4 comments:
Monday, September 8, 2008

Same Character? but a new face?

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Television shows have a problem with long-running series that may cover 5 or more years. Things happen and the familiar faces sometimes mus...
Friday, September 5, 2008

Dickens: Martin Chuzzlewit

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_Martin Chuzzlewit_ may be one of Dickens' least known novels. Moreover, most references to the novel generally focus on one part of th...
2 comments:
Thursday, September 4, 2008

Star Trek

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One of the many marvelous opportunities granted by retirement is that of reducing my OOTD list. OOTD stands for "One of these days....
3 comments:
Monday, September 1, 2008

Human or ???

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One of the pleasures of reading for me is the way something in the story I'm reading will remind me of something else. Perhaps it's...
4 comments:
Friday, August 29, 2008

One for the History Books, Pt. 2

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It seems as though, regardless of the winner of the Presidential race, a "First" will be made. We shall have either our first bla...
Thursday, August 28, 2008

One for the History Books

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Greetings, Regardless of what happens in November, the 2008 election in November will be an historic one, one that the experts will be talki...
2 comments:
Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Gaslight or Gaslight

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The relationship between classic film and remake is clear. A classic film is one which for some inexplicable reason achieves greatness, wha...
Friday, August 22, 2008

Beam me up, Scotty!

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Writers have long faced the obstacles of time and space in telling their stories. Fast horses and sailing vessels were the best the realis...
5 comments:
Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Connections

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Many moons ago, I watched a TV series called _Connections_. James Burke, the host, would trace out the link between something in the past ...
2 comments:
Sunday, August 17, 2008

Poets and fogs and cats

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I had decided that I would finally get to the collection of poetry of T. S. Eliot this year. I had dipped into the text, _The Complete Poem...
Thursday, August 14, 2008

Poland and the US missle shield

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The US and Poland have been negotiating for some time regarding the installation of a missile defense shield in Poland. Russia has objected...
2 comments:

Alfred Bester, "Fondly Fahrenheit"

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Alfred Bester's "Fondly Fahrenheit" is probably his best known short work. The title invariably brings up memories of anoth...
8 comments:
Monday, August 11, 2008

Alfred Bester, a brief look at two novels

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Alfred Bester , is probably best known for two novels, The Demolished Man and The Stars My Destination. While many SF writers are abl...
7 comments:
Thursday, August 7, 2008

Norman Spinrad: The Void Captain's Tale

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I found Norman Spinrad's The Void Captain's Tale in my TBR bookcase. It's been waiting patiently in there for some time, so I ...
2 comments:
Tuesday, August 5, 2008

High Noon: Cooper and Who?

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The classic western, High Noon , came out in 1952. A remake appeared some time ago, but I haven't seen it. Why see a copy when the ori...