Keywords Walter Ong, Psychodynamics, Orality and Literacy “Until writing was invented, men lived in acoustic space: boundless, directionless, horizonless, in the dark of the mind, in the world of emotion, by primordial intuition, by terror. Speech is a social chart …
Walter Ong’s Psychodynamics of Orality and the Reader Read More »
“Now open in my eyes a thousand eyes of curiosity.” Virginia Woolf, The Waves ALBERTO MANGUEL (BORN 1948) Alberto Manguel is a proliferate writer and reader. His world travels both in and out of books converge in everything he writes. …
A Thousand Eyes of Curiosity With Alberto Manguel Read More »
“Hail to Thee, Logos, Thou Vast Almighty Title, In Whose name we conjure— Our acts the partial representatives Of Thy whole act.” Kenneth Burke MISUNDERSTANDING TRUTH There is a huge misunderstanding in culture that the idea of relativism has wiped …
Language is the soul of intellect, and reading is the essential process by which that intellect is cultivated beyond the commonplace experiences of everyday life. Charles Scribner, Jr. When we trace language from orality, characterized by the pre-socratics and the …
The Muse Learns to Read: Trace the Process of Intellectual Becoming Read More »
Keywords Rhetorics of Reading, William Covino, Wonder, Paul de Man “Camerado, this is no book, who touches this, touches a man, (Is it night? Are we here alone?) It is I you hold, and who holds you, I spring from …
“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 …
Keywords Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida, Punctum, Unconscious “What the Photograph reproduces to infinity has occurred only once: the Photograph mechanically repeats what could never be repeated existentially.”Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida The French literary theorist, Roland Barthes (1915 – 1980), explores …
Roland Barthes on Photographing the Unconscious in Camera Lucida Read More »
“The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.” Carl Jung Using Greg Ulmer’s concept of electracy, Jan Holmevik explores …
Free Play in the Age of Electracy With Jan Holmevik Read More »
“Since you cannot do good to all, you are to pay special attention to those who, by the accidents of time, or place, or circumstances, are brought into closer connection with you.” Saint Augustine Americans celebrate Thanksgiving this week, a …
Sherry Turkle on the Narrow Path to Human Connection Read More »
“Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present.” Albert Camus The French philosopher, Simone Weil, had a profound influence on the existential thinker, Albert Camus. She famously names attention as the rarest and purest form of …
Albert Camus on Rewriting Failure to Imagine Sisyphus Happy Read More »
“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 …
“Our world is now so complex, our technology and science so powerful, and our problems so global and interconnected that we have come to the limits of individual human intelligence and individual expertise.” James Paul Gee Where does the anti-intellectual …
James Paul Gee and the Transforming Power of Perspective in Education Read More »
“A man, to be greatly good, must imagine intensely and comprehensively; he must put himself in the place of another and many others; the pains and pleasures of his species must become his own. The great instrument of moral good …
Steven Pinker on the Need for Empathy in Enlightenment Now Read More »
“I never try to give a message in my books. It’s about living with characters long enough to hear their voices and let them tell me the story. Sometimes I would love to have a happy ending, and it doesn’t …
Find Love and Belonging in Isabel Allende’s In the Midst of Winter Read More »
Critical Theory & Philosophy Reading Group I am excited to announce the reading list is finalized and our Critical Theory & Philosophy Reading Group is open for enrollment. We will read and discuss over 30 thinkers in 2018 with a …