Phil Christman's public notebook--mostly about literature and the other arts, but also, frequently, about theology, politics, teaching writing, and university-related matters from a pro-labor perspective.
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OK, so, briefly: This is a film about a young indie director, far too trapped in her own head (the film’s assessment if not mine), who is asked to “reboot” a beloved but problematic series of 1980s slasher movies.
We need to reckon—doesn’t it seem to you?—with COVID learning loss.
Over the past four decades, Gene Wolfe’s confounding, brilliant fantasy, The Book of the New Sun, has emerged as one of the classics of the genre.
One of my stupidest, most incorrigible habits is drawing up detailed and impossible plans of study or work.
So what's happening in mid-1875?
Meeting New People is a novel about “friendship breakups,” or at least that is where it sets out from.
Henry James's second first novel
Henry James risks what we might call the bad kind of aestheticism: the kind that separates beauty from life, raises one above the other and makes beauty an idol to which people may be sacrificed.
1874-1875 is the first period in which one could reasonably describe William James as "productive" and Henry James as "insanely prolific." The routine, and perhaps the sheer joy, of teaching seems to have stabilized somewhat William's erratic and depressive temper, and he writes regularly for
By 1873, William has written a handful of articles and Henry has already filled out a hefty volume or two of stories, essays, travel sketches, and one fascinating problem of a novel.
I don't normally do this, but: CW for non-detailed references to suicide, pedophilia, and grooming.
November/December:
