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.
How Time and Space Converge to Evoke Walter Benjamin’s Aura
“The concept of aura which was proposed above with reference to historical objects may usefully be illustrated with reference to the aura of natural ones. We define aura of the latter as the unique phenomenon of a distance, however close it may be. If, while resting on a summer afternoon, you follow with your eyes […]
Walter Ong’s Psychodynamics of Orality and the Reader
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 of this bog.” Marshall McLuhan When we trace language from orality, characterized by the pre-socratics and […]
Hyperreality: Tracing the Evolution With Jean Baudrillard
Keywords Hyperreality, Jean Baudrillard, Jorge Luis Borges, Lewis Carroll, Alfred Korzybski, The Matrix “Today abstraction is no longer that of the map, the double, the mirror, or the concept. Simulation is no longer that of a territory, a referential being, or a substance. It is the generation by models of a real without origin or […]
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 […]
Mark Z. Danielewski on Craving the Familiar
The ear tends to be lazy, craves the familiar and is shocked by the unexpected; the eye, on the other hand, tends to be impatient, craves the novel and is bored by repetition. ~W.H. Auden I just spent two weeks in Northern California – a place that is incredibly familiar and that I am lucky […]
Truth and Lie With Friedrich Nietzsche
“Here the ways of men part: if you wish to strive for peace of soul and pleasure, then believe; if you wish to be a a devotee of truth, then inquire.” ~Friedrich Nietzsche, Letter to His Sister, 1865 Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), the German philosopher and professor of philology, wrote the essay, “Truth and Lie in […]
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. […]
Haruki Murakami & Magical Realism
Book Oblivion Academy’s newest course is here. I’m writing to let you know that the enrollment for Murakami & Magical Realism is officially open. In this fully online course, we unpack the genre of magical realism while exploring three of Haruki Murakami’s strangest novels: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, The Wind-Up Bird […]
Haruki Murakami and Raymond Carver: Literary Comrades
“Life and death matters, yes. And the question of how to behave in this world, how to go in the face of everything. Time is short and the water is rising.” Raymond Carver Raymond Carver (1938-1988) is an American author from Washington state; he is a master of the short fiction genre. His subtle use […]
Amor Towles on Mastering Your Circumstances in A Gentleman in Moscow
The American novelist, Amor Towles, wrote A Gentleman in Moscow, a remarkable story that centers on the Count, an aristocrat confined to a luxurious hotel during the tumultuous political climate in Russia in 1922.
Announcing Summer Book Club
A Gentleman in Moscow – Summer Book Club We have some exciting news for summer book club, but first – Happy Summer! Now I realize a lot of you are all over the world, so it may or may not be your summer. Nonetheless, I hope you will continue to devour good books with us, […]
Miasma in Donna Tartt’s The Secret History
Miasma in Donna Tartt’s The Secret History “To many men… the miasma of peace seems more suffocating than the bracing air of war.” ~George Steiner By Jessica S. Manuel A little while back, we began thinking about the fatal flaw, that showy dark crack running down the middle of life. Richard, our protagonist in Donna Tartt’s […]
In Search of Lost Time Reading Group
Have you always wanted to read In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust? Myself and a handful of other ambitious, literary enthusiasts are setting out on what a friend termed, “A Reader’s Everest.” Over the next two and a half years, we are reading this seven volume, 4,215 page tome and using a reading […]
The Best Reviews of Men Without Women
The Best Reviews of Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami Did Haruki Murakami’s newest collection of short stories, Men Without Women, arrive on your doorstep this week? My Murakami community is pretty dedicated, so I’ve seen my Instagramfeed flooded with photos of the new book, friends have added it to their Currently Reading shelf on […]