Owner: paisleyandplaid URL:www.paisleyandplaid.wordpress.com Join Date: Wed, 02 Apr 2008 22:15:22 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Discussions of important literature -- classics and recent -- poetry, novels, film, more. Site statistics:Click here
Plastic playgrounds are just sad 2008-05-04 23:09:11 Slate Magazine contributor Tom Vanderbilt has an article ”Lawn Pox” which made several amenable points. First Vanderbilt decries the sprawl of huge, plastic, primary-colored “play sets” that clutter suburban lawns. They’re ugly and usually vacant and therefore are a needless eyesore. Beyond that he suggests that the “toys” are indicative of significant sociological trends.
You should read about [...] Read more:Plastic
We’ll miss you . . . 2008-05-07 15:12:00 . . . when you’re dead. Of course we will. Rest assured.
A. E. Housman’s poem “Is my team ploughing?” presents a dialogue between two friends, young males, one living, one dead. The recently deceased has questions about how it’s going now that he’s gone. His friend answers every question but one. Stanzas are structured as [...]
Deconstruction fun with “There was once” 2008-05-12 13:57:08 Margaret Atwood’s poetry and fiction are among the best. My first encounter was The Robber Bride, followed by The Handmaid’ Tale, Alias Grace, The Blind Assassin, and Oryx and Crate in that order, I think. Most of these were published in the ‘9o’s. Atwood’s worldview sometimes conflicts with mine, but she is insightful and tells her captivating [...] Read more:Deconstruction
Believing Prince Caspian 2008-05-18 22:31:19 As I’ve said before, I’m not a reader nor fan of fantasy preferring MY fiction to be rooted in reality.
Hmmm . . .
Allegory, like the Narnia series, majors on plot: it’s a representative fiction with the story employing symbolic events and characters along the way. PrinceCaspian
, like the others, is specifically and unabashedly Christian [...] Read more:Believing
Meet Andy Borowitz 2008-05-19 16:12:27 I “met” Andy Borowitz years ago because I read The New Yorker, but just recently (earlier today) I learned that he is “really big.” Andy got the first ever National Press Club’s award for humor. The WSJ gave him a page-one piece, and it helped get him half a million subscribers to his site “The [...]
“1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die” 2008-05-23 15:51:53 Or else what? Objectionable use of the word “must” it seems. Of course the editor, Peter Boxall, wants to raise our literary antennae because he knows we haven’t read these books, not most of them, and so with the implied inferiority of cretins like us, the challenge to our education, we read his list. We [...] Read more:Books
Indiana Jones 4 — I hate to say it 2008-05-28 17:37:45 I wrote this review 2 hours ago and deleted it. It felt cruel. But several searches were made for it, so here it is again. Look, the film was fine. It met all expectations for any Speilberg/Lucas work — the Russians could have been wearing stormtrooper whites or Nazi khakis, but otherwise everything was there for [...] Read more:Indiana
, Indiana Jones
Interview with a vampire reader 2008-05-31 20:43:50 Chastened for criticizing a novel I had not read, I set out to read said novel, Rice’s Interview with a Vampire, and thus be able to discuss it from an informed point of view. ((See my post s on must reads and/or what constitutes a literary classic along with the comments.)
I’ll start with a positive. [...]
The Longest Day 2008-06-06 16:57:06 My husband loves to talk about battles — military, not so much personal. So today he sat shirtless, ready to mow grass, while I read aloud from a fact sheet on June 6 — Operation Overlord — D Day.
It’s an interesting historical study. More importantly, it does us good, I think, to reflect and remember [...] Read more:Longest
Sunscreen: More than skin deep 2008-06-10 12:26:24 A definite low-point in my life was the time my doctor announced that the mole was malignant melanoma. He had scooped off and dropped into a jar my lovely inner-thigh mole, all the while declaring that it looked fine and was probably nothing. Just a precaution. That was years ago, and while melanoma is extremely [...] Read more:Sunscreen
“spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” Wordsworth 2008-06-14 16:29:58 Here’s to the dads who stayed
– to the dads who played
(so tired !)
who needed sleep but could keep on
building or singing or drawing.
Here’s to the dads who prayed.
Here’s to the dads who read
– to the dads who said
books were good
and that we should
read and think and wonder.
Here’s to the dads who led.
Here’s to the men [...]
Online readers aren’t “lazy” necessarily 2008-06-16 15:40:18 There is value, thrift in the various decoding skills one brings to the web as he begins to read. Michael Agger has written an excellent article for Slate on how we read (or don’t) online. He calls us lazy because of research trends that indicate that we “informavores” only scan and seek out certain identifiers. [...] Read more:necessarily
, readers
Identify yesterday’s quotation 2008-06-16 12:48:20 It was my title for the little homage to men yesterday:”the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” is part of William Wordsworth’s definition of poetry from the Lyrical Ballads, the Preface, wherein the poet writes what became the Romantic manifesto for poetry.
Recall that Romantics glorified feelings and objected to unemotional, dry, intellectual writing. Spirit trumphed min
Seems logical to me 2008-06-17 14:30:19 The caption epigraph beside my site photo is from Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress,” an often cited, frequently anthologized 17th century poem. In the style of the day, the verse features rhymed couplets and a logical argument.
Marvell was a Cambridge-educated, Puritan supporter (recall the English Civil War – (Cromwell, Charles I) who assisted John [...]
A very dark knight indeed 2008-07-24 18:20:56 In fact, this Batman film is too dark to allow enough light in for a minute’s respite from the string of murders, both random and planned, the psychotic ramblings masquerading as philosophy, and the lack of any redemptive hope for mankind, Gotham City.
I did not enjoy this film, and it isn’t the genre. I saw [...]
The Parable of the Gnat 2008-07-23 13:39:19 When the young gnat was born, also the day of his death since gnats have a life span of one day, he asked his father and mother what he should do. They were about to die and so had little time for instructing him, but they did manage to say, just before the end, “See how [...] Read more:Parable
Should I smile? 2008-07-17 11:56:08 I like blogs and websites that include the author’s photo. Little did I know that personal Internet image is now the subject of “scientific” studies and has spawned a sea of photo-shopped “enhanced” versions of what might otherwise be average-looking people. Researchers tell us that “impression management” entails much of our time these days. You’re
Education: It’s all personnel 2008-07-11 12:39:16 In one of NYC’s school districts, one principal with vision and a refusal to accept business as usual has achieved a reading test score improvement from 37% of 3rd graders who can read at grade level to 90% . One of his strategies is the firing of imcompetent teachers — he’s rid the school of 1/3 [...] Read more:Education
Our friend, Francis Coppola 2008-08-04 16:27:57 He’s our friend
, not because he knows us but because he loves good writing, especially short fiction. Today in serendipitous fashion, seeking a spot to submit my short shory I came across this site. Simple, artsy, and professional-looking, it would do just fine.
The two editors (there are just the two of them) suggested giving the [...] Read more:Francis
Vote for me! 2008-08-03 10:18:06 Kevin Costner, among my top ten actors, is starring in Swing Vote, a film that appeals on many levels. Based on the previews, my expectations were low.
Pleasant surprise! Entertaining from the beginning, it’s one of those films to which audiences demonstrably relate, the subject we love to hate being politics. But there’s much more.
Creating historical [...]
Work ethic healthy in Beatty Brothers 2008-08-25 14:16:45 The Beatty brothers have written a book detailing how they have, since childhood, been making money Pulling Weeds to Picking Stocks. Now in their advice book they share the principles of hard work, organization, and business savvy that they learned from their parents.
The 7 x 5 inch 100-pager, written on a 9-12 year old reading [...] Read more:Brothers
, healthy
Has “Atlas Shrugged?” 2008-08-12 19:28:50 In Ayn Rand’s last and most defining work, Atlas
Shrugged, the world’s most gifted, innovative thinkers and inventors, the great minds of the nations, literally go on strike. In a socialist, government dominated, stifling society, these men and women of brains, brawn, and business acumen prefer going underground to benefitting those who lack all of [...]
Alert: Another holiday in danger 2008-09-10 16:46:47 It happened to Christmas right before our eyes: commercialization. What should be the annual celebration of the birth of Christ — a time for adoration, thanksgiving, and reflection — has become yet another chance for shopkeepers to profit in the year’s biggest sales quarter. Not only that. The junky load of lit-up plastic reindeer and [...] Read more:Alert
“Passion” for Poetry in New York 2008-08-26 11:27:41 New Yorkers love the arts. Don’t they?
And this latest effort at promotion proves it. At various city venues the Poetry
Brothel convenes for readings of high quality, literary works, poetry, by names and no-names alike. People like you and me.
Apparently the accoutrements feature heavy velvets, feathers, gambling tables, a bar, along with The Madame and [...] Read more:New York
, Passion
Assignment #3: Divide and classify 2008-09-29 16:26:59 First I had my students write a descriptive paper: you know, sensory detail, gripping adjectives and rousing verbs. Then came the illustration paper: use examples to develop your point. Lesson one: have a point.
Now we approach the division and classification paper. This is my favorite. My literature/sociology training used this approach to life — to “others” [...] Read more:Assignment
, Divide
Jekyll and Hyde and a Christmas sermon 2008-10-16 19:15:51 Victorian Bohemian Robert Louis Stevenson wrote the best-selling novella The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as an indictment of societal hypocrisy. Its success earned his son financial independence. He wrote both drafts in 1886 in six days at 10,000 words a day.
Critics and lay readers differ as to its meaning, but most [...] Read more:Christmas
“There is no frigate like a book” 2008-10-13 18:49:04 Emily Dickinson knew it as do all readers. Under the current circumstances, the less than inspiring presidential candidates, economic blunderings, and general malaise or despair we might all do well to escape into a good book.
Some people’s misery loves company. For you the following books are replete with struggles during hard times:
Hard Times — Dickens
Oliver [...]
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