David Foster Wallace and the Utter Hell of Solipsism

David Foster Wallace and the Philosophy of Solipsism

Keywords David Foster Wallace, Solipsism, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Jean-Paul Sartre, Infinite Jest “One of the things that makes Wittgenstein a real artist to me is that he realized that no conclusion could be more horrible that solipsism.” David Foster Wallace The wildly ambitious American writer, David Foster Wallace (1962-2008), offers a complicated account of what it […]

Mark Z. Danielewski on Changing the Way We Read

“My interest is in how meaning is communicated via language, and I believe the shape, positioning, even the color of the language has an effect on meaning.” Mark Z. Danielewski In an interview with Google, Mark Z. Danielewski comments on the didactic way he writes his novels. This might come as a surprise if you […]

Himalayas of Literature: From Wallace to Joyce

The Himalayas of Literature

“The wonderful things in life are the things you do, not the things you have.” –Reinhold Messner Himalayas of Literature is one of Book Oblivion’s newest ongoing course series. Participants reside all over the world and read through some of the most intense literature on the planet. Stephen L. Russell is our guide and chooses […]

The Best Books for Studying Magical Realism

The Best Books for Studying Magical Realism

In a magical realist story there must be an irreducible element, something that cannot be explained by logic, familiar knowledge, or received belief.” ~David Young and Keith Hollaman Magical realism is a radically complicated literary mode. It’s so complicated that I get uncomfortable every time I hear someone describe a work of literature as a […]

Colson Whitehead’s The Intuitionist

The Intuitionist Colson Whitehead

I’m excited to announce our summer book club read! Most of you know I choose a book that I think you will enjoy AND that I haven’t read. This season is no different. Intuition is a concept I’ve been thinking through for a while in various forms and occasionally comes up in our conversations as […]

Dear March – Come In by Emily Dickinson

Dear March Emily Dickinson

“If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry.” ~Emily Dickinson “Dear March, Come In” is Emily Dickinson’s eloquent greeting to the season of Spring. By personifying the season we have thought about every single day of a long and […]

The Best Haruki Murakami Love Quotes

Haruki Murakami Love Quotes

Keywords Haruki Murakami love quotes, empathy, desire “We are most alive when we’re in love.” John Updike Haruki Murakami is not known for writing romance novels, yet something about this list of Haruki Murakami love quotes demonstrates his unique posture toward love. The way he describes the human condition continues to resonate with readers. He […]

Haruki Murakami’s Earliest Writing Motivations

Haruki Murakami Baseball

“Human beings have an innate inner drive to be autonomous, self-determined, and connected to one another. And when that drive is liberated, people achieve more and live richer lives.” ~Daniel H. Pink, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us Haruki Murakami wrote an introductory essay, The Birth of My Kitchen Table Fiction, when he […]

Murakami Reading Group

Murakami Reading Group

“In this world, there are things you can do alone, and things you can do with somebody else. It’s important you combine the two in just the right amount.” ~Haruki Murakami Murakami Reading Group The opportunity to read and study Haruki Murakami is here. Reading Beyond Murakami is one of Book Oblivion’s online course series. […]

Famous Writers on the Love of Reading

Famous Writers on the Love of Reading

Keywords Writers, Reading, Readers, Writers are readers, Famous Writers on the love of reading “I believe that reading and writing are the most nourishing forms of meditation anyone has so far found. By reading the writings of the most interesting minds in history, we meditate with our own minds and theirs as well. This to […]