A Tale of Two Samsas: Kafka’s and Murakami’s Literary Connection
Franz Kafka and Haruki Murakami There is an apparent connection between Franz Kafka’s story, The Metamorphosis, and Haruki Murakami’s work, “Samsa in Love.” It might be one of the most bizarre re-workings ever, but I suspect Kafka wouldn’t have it any other way. If you read Kafka’s story, you’ll have the tools for digging into […]
Ethics of the Infinite: The Origins of Radical Responsibility in the Thought of Emmanuel Levinas
Born to Jewish parents in Lithuania on January 12, 1906, the life path of Emmanuel Levinas led him across several countries and through two world wars. He passed away on December 25, 1995.
Transforming 1984: The Pursuit of Wisdom and Wonder With How We Read
The year is 1984. George Orwell’s dystopian future has arrived. Ronald Regan is president-elect, and Wes Craven’s nightmare occupies Elm Street. Not only is it a leap year, but it is the year of the rat, according to the Chinese Zodiac. Haruki Murakami places the finishing touches on his fourth novel Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the […]
Mary Oliver Finds the Antidote to Confusion in Literature
In her essay collection, Upstream, Mary Oliver describes the antidote to confusion she found in literature – first reading and then writing – as a kind of standing with otherness in the world.
Bridge and Door: Georg Simmel on How Separation Inspires Human Connection
Offering a fresh perspective and a hope for connection amidst the closed doors of social distancing, Georg Simmel is emerging as a thinker for our contemporary cultural moment.
The Role of Reciprocity in Nature in Haruki Murakami’s The Elephant Vanishes
A fresh perspective on the imbalance between animals and humans, Haruki Murakami’s short story The Elephant Vanishes explores the troubling paradoxes hiding in a relationship built on exploitation instead of reciprocity.
Marilyn McEntyre on When Poets Pray
Marilyn McEntyre collects her meditations on classic and contemporary poetry in When Poets Pray and offers the reader a deep reverence for language and God.
Simone de Beauvoir on The Ethics of Ambiguity and Existential Courage
Born in 1908 in Paris, France, the French philosopher, Simone de Beauvoir, developed as a writer, intellectual, and activist with radical existential courage.
Simone Weil on the Generosity of Attention in Gravity and Grace
In Gravity and Grace, Simone Weil offers supernatural insight on attention and suffering and how to live in contradiction.
Walter Benjamin on the Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
Cultural criticism from Immanuel Kant to Walter Benjamin to Martin Scorsese stems from a high view of art and a low view of human cognition.
Genius and Ink: Virginia Woolf on How to Read
Genius and Ink: Virginia Woolf on How to Read is a newly packaged collection of some of the most beautiful prose Virginia Woolf has written on the creative, radical, and rebellious act of reading.
Ray Bradbury on the Seduction of Space in The Rocket Man
In his 1951 short story, The Rocket Man, Ray Bradbury explores the seduction of the open sky that inspires Elton John’s iconic song by the same name.
Lost in Translation: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Meaning is lost in translation between the original Japanese and the English translation of Haruki Murakami’s Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.
Kenneth Burke on the Rhythm of Reading
In approaching rhetoric, Kenneth Burke teases out a theory of reading that incorporates rhythm and promotes a harmony of our experiences.
Kenneth Burke on Reading for Identification
Kenneth Burke considers every influence of a rhetorical act and develops a theory of identification that offers readers a new way to think about rhetoric.
