Technology needs wisdom
Leon Wieseltier has just written quite an interesting piece for the New York Times. (Just between you and me: it come with juicy gossi… well, context too, for it echoes […]
Tag Archives: literature
A tale of murder and woe…or something
I’d like to take this time to draw all of your attention to a tragedy that happens every day right before our eyes: verbicide, “the murder of a word.”[1] Each […]
Does Art Speak?
Is a postscript to Lolita, a defensive Vladimir Nabokov responds to criticisms leveled at his novel about a man who seduces a 12-year-old girl. He distinguishes his novel from pornographic literature. He […]
A Colorful Reflection
Recently, I’ve spent quite a bit of time with Charles Dickens’s least-read work: The Life of Our Lord. It is a slim volume that re-tells the story of Jesus, drawing […]
Jesus According to Charles Dickens
Between 1846 and 1849 Charles Dickens wrote The Life of Our Lord, a simplified version of Jesus’ life for his children, who ranged in age from newborn to 11 years-old […]
A stroll across the sky
Every now and then I spend an afternoon in the bookstore, savoring pages and dreaming adventurous stories about far-away characters. Recently I came across an unusual book by the French […]
Gospels: Myths or Biographies?
To continue the discussion of last Monday’s post: Who says the biblical gospels portray things as they really happened? If the Gospels were written from around 30 to 60 years […]
An Atheist’s Guide to Historical Reconstruction
Jesus was a nationalist wandering preacher. He did not claim to be divine in any way. Christianity was created actually by the apostle Paul, who devised an universal religion to […]
Distance, Repentance and Embrace
Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations details the maturation of Pip, a young man specially selected by an unknown benefactor to become a “gentleman.” It is easy to read the tale as […]
Hopeful Dissatisfaction
The Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer has recently been elected the recipient of the 2011 Nobel Prize for Literature. He was born in Stockholm in 1931 and published his first collection […]
Wondering Fair 