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.
Ralph Ellison and Kenneth Burke on Race, Writing, and Friendship
Ralph Ellison and Kenneth Burke were friends for more than 50 years and Bryan Crable chronicles the complex history of their friendship.
Reading as Meditation – A Creative Practice
Reading as meditation is the creative practice of attending to the text to evoke the image of thought that penetrates the reader.
Rudolf Otto on the Fearful and Fascinating Mystery of the Holy
In Idea of the Holy, philosopher and theologian, Rudolf Otto shows the numinous, the fearful and fascinating mystery of the holy, evokes deep worship.
Barn Burning on Intuition and the Banality of Evil
Barn Burning is written by Haruki Murkami is loosely based on William Faulkner’s story and explores themes of evil, intuition, metaphor, and memory.
The Best Books for Teaching and Learning
The best books for teaching and learning include insights on neuroscience, biology, philosophy, psychology, and communication theory.
Mircea Eliade and The Myth of the Eternal Return
In his 1949 book, The Myth of the Eternal Return, Mircea Eliade explores the role of repetition, imagination, and participation in creating history.
Big Data Danger and the Costs of Connection
Big data danger, according to Nick Couldry and Ulises Mejias in The Costs of Connection, is not just about information but life – and what represents life.
Gaston Bachelard and Mircea Eliade on the Existential and Cognitive Functions of the Imagination
The phenomenology of Gaston Bachelard inspired the work of Mircea Eliade on the cognitive and existential functions of the imagination.