Another “now appearing in relief” review here as I finish the complex and engrossing After the End of Art by Arthur C. Danto – a book that I will review this weekend and that is proving in its reading that good scholarly writing is as much its own reward in the way it stretches our thinking as […]
Author Archives | Jim Booth
Maira Kalman’s The Principles of Uncertainty: an appreciation of New York and New Yorkishness by a New Yorker
Maira Kalman’s collage/slam book/illustrated diary The Principles of Uncertainty probably deserves better than it’s going to get here. This latest completed read from my 2013 reading list has put-up job written (and drawn) all over it. While this book has charm, it also has smarm in abundance. Only a New Yorker with “the right connections” – in publishing, in society, in […]
Beautifully horrible, horribly beautiful: Botkin’s Lost Tales
A quick turnaround with the next book from the 2013 reading list. This time I ventured into a new area: picture books. No, I haven’t decided to re-read The Runaway Bunny or The Cat in the Hat (although they’re both very worthy of repeated perusal in their own right – and for the pleasurable memories they’d trigger for me of reading them to […]
WordsDay: Articles of faith…
I returned to the history genre for the next book in the 2013 reading list – or so I thought. The Road to Salem is a “constructed” memoir – historian and archivist Adelaide Fries (a descendant of the original Moravian settlers she writes about) tells, though the use of the autobiography of Anna Catharina Antes- Kalberlahn/Reuter/Heinzmann/Ernst (yep, she was […]
ArtSunday: Sweet Jane…and the problems of writing…
And so we come to Jane Austen. Be forewarned. I have read each of Austen’s novels at least 10 times – some more. I wrote my master’s thesis on Austen’s novels (using Rogerian theory as a device to explain the social integration problems of each heroine – and, by the way, I would argue, as do some other scholars, […]
WordsDay: Maugham’s the word…
The 2013 book list is moving along at its own steady pace as I complete Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (a book I’ve read about a dozen times and am savoring as I plan a long piece on what for me is the great Jane’s most problematic work), so I’ve decided to write something about a book I finished late last […]
WordsDay: Don’t panic, it’s 42…uh, what was the question…?
I am no fan of science fiction. When I was in college I had a bandmate who loved the stuff – he pushed Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy, Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land, and Herbert’s Dune on me. I waded though all this stuff diligently (one of my neuroses is that once I begin a book I have to finish it – […]
Edith Wharton, the American Austen
“We live in our own souls as in an unmapped region, a few acres of which we have cleared for our habitation; while of the nature of those nearest us we know but the boundaries that march with ours.” – Edith Wharton, “The Touchstone” Reading Edith Wharton again after many years is a revelation. This next author […]
ArtSunday: About a book…
“Will was beginning to come to the conclusion that he was not, as he had always previously thought, a good liar. He was an enthusiastic liar, certainly, but enthusiasm was not the same thing as efficacy, and he was now constantly finding himself in a situation whereby, having lied through his teeth for minutes or […]
The rock star meme…
“The only things Mick and I disagree about are the music and what we do.” – Keith Richards As a break (addition, really) to my 2013 reading list, I read (in an afternoon) The Rolling Stones - Quote Unquote by Jon Ewing. It’s a typical rockumentary knockoff of a book. It’s full of pictures (they’re great and span the Stones’ entire […]
Why we write…or don’t…
It’s a bitter day when one sees a talented artist give up his art. Sam Smith’s A Poet Says Goodbye to Poetry reveals a great deal about the state, not just of poetry, but about the state of art – especially literature. The State of Things The divisions between “high” and “low” art disappeared more […]
ArtSunday: Mark Twain and American innocence…
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrowmindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” – Mark Twain, conclusion, The Innocents Abroad The French refer to Americans as “les grandes bébés.” […]
TunesWeek Video: they’re classic for a reason…
First, let’s understand each other. I think videos are crap for the most part. As the previously mentioned “Runaround” by Blues Traveler confirms, if what Neil Postman warned us that we shouldn’t want did not fit what MTV – whose hegemony in the field was never seriously challenged – wanted, which was looks over musical talent, […]
Alvin Lee
By now most of you have heard the news reports: the incendiary guitarist Alvin Lee of Ten Years After died unexpectedly of complications following routine surgery. He was 68. It’s fashionable now to dismiss the classic rock musicians – they’re old now, some have retired and, truth be told, others should have long ago. Ten Years After flared like […]
Education: we’re here, we’re online, get used to it…
A recent article at Raw Story (RS) contained the alarmist headline, “Research shows everyone does worse with online learning.” The article goes on to cite a new study by the Community College Research Center (CCRC) at Columbia University that states uncategorically, at least according to RS, “students tended to perform worse academically in online classes — […]
Hemingway: the writer and “the writer…”
It’s almost impossible to write about Ernest Hemingway. He was such a caricature – a caricature of his own creation, mind you, both as the writer and as “The Writer” – that trying to write about his work or his writing style in any sort of rational, coherent way is, to quote Martin Mull, like “dancing about […]
S&R Honors
Click here to learn more about past honorees...- Pope Francis says atheists can go to heaven: Sweet Jesus! The College of Cardinals done elected a hippie
- Magic Hat vs. West Sixth brewhaha: will MH win the battle that costs them the war?
- WordsDay: Postmodernist Xerism at it most discontentedly hopeful…
- How to stop journalists: Say they might be criminals
- Denver FOX News affiliate caught making shit up
- Mystery Unraveled: How a white, moderate, married, churchgoing, middle-class, middle-aged woman could vote for Obama
- An open letter to Burt Rutan, regarding his WSJ commentary on human-caused climate disruption
- Meet the men of Match.com: Really, guys, are you serious?
- Climate scientists still besieged
- Pelosi on Bush: “He’s not worth impeaching”
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Frank Dilatush: Thank you Rathmone, you are a scholar and a mind r…
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rathmone: As awesome as it would be for Dudley Moore to be A…
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Brian Angliss: To answer your question, no, the Cook et al 2013 r…
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populartechnology: Brian, By rating the abstracts are they implyin…
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