Harriet Jacobs’ “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” tells of her life in and escape from the ‘Demon Slavery,’ and its nonpareil powers of corruption.
Continue reading...On Literature, Books
“Up From Slavery”: Booker T. Washington’s words
Booker T. Washington’s “Up From Slavery” promotes a vocational training for blacks imbued with Christian virtue. Is W.E.B. Du Bois’ critique of it justified?
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- 2021-02-18
- Reading Journal On Literature, Books
Coming to Booker T. Washington’s “Up From Slavery”
The circumstances of my purchase and knowledge of “Up From Slavery,” Booker T. Washington’s most famous autobiography
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- 2021-02-10
- Reading Journal On Literature, Books
Reading Journal: Assembling Dinosaurs, “War and Peace”
A glorious night when I just wanted to keep reading: first, 25 pages of Lukas Rieppel’s “Assembling the Dinosaur”; then Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace”, concluding Volume III; a feast of the undeveloped imagination.
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- 2021-01-24
- Reading Journal On Literature, Books
Anna Seghers’ “Transit”: Profound Unknowing
In Anna Seghers’ novel “Transit,” no one really knows who the other is. The reader is never certain of who the narrator really is.
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- 2020-12-15
- On Literature, Books Reading Journal
Julio Cortázar’s “Bestiary”: Man-eating animals
The “Bestiary” narrates pre-adolescent Isabel’s summer vacation with her cousin Nino and … a tiger.
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- 2020-10-25
- Short Story Month On Literature, Books
“Blind Geronimo and His Brother”: Mistrust Finds its End
Brothers Geronimo and Carlo travel the roads of 19th century Italy, entertaining passers-by with song, but one plants a seed of mistrust exposing years of alienation.
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- 2020-10-21
- On Literature, Books Short Story Month
“Anxiety … Dizziness … Freedom”: Paraself Virtue
Ted Chiang’s “Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom” considers the ethical effects of the consulation with a paraself, a self known through quantum computing.
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- 2020-10-18
- On Literature, Books Short Story Month
Gottfried Keller’s “The Little Dance Legend”: Pagans Mix Poorly
G. Keller’s “The Little Dance Legend” is a quizzical story about Musa, a dancer among the saints whose dance and pagan art led to expulsion from the heavenly host.
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- 2020-10-16
- On Literature, Books Short Story Month
“Beyond the Pale”: The Repressed Returns
William Trevor’s “Beyond the Pale” tells of four friends visiting an idyllic Irish island, on the occasion of the return of the idyll’s history, dramatically so.
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- 2020-10-10
- Short Story Month On Literature, Books
Ginzburg’s “The Mother”: Recollections Partial and Fleeting
Natalia Ginzburg’s “The Mother” is a story about a “mother” from the perspective of her two boys who receive from her little in the way of mothering.
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- 2020-10-08
- On Literature, Books Short Story Month
Hoffman’s “Don Juan”: The Mysterious Visitation
Hoffmann’s “Don Juan” is a theatre review written as a short story, bound to enlighten lovers of Don Giovanni and mystify everyone else.
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- 2020-10-07
- On Literature, Books Short Story Month
“An Unexpected Reunion”: Death’s Dominion Disturbed
In Johann Peter Hebel’s “An Unexpected Reunion” death seems to separate a betrothed couple, but after the passing of much time they are peculiarly reunited.
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- 2020-10-06
- On Literature, Books Short Story Month
Goethe’s Hymn to Virtue: “The Attorney”
Goethe’s “The Attorney” shows that though habit and nature are not easily conquered, the powers of the sovereign will as it realizes virtue are possibly without equal.
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- 2020-10-05
- On Literature, Books Short Story Month
“The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Feeling”: Writing on Trial
Writing explores writing in Ted Chiang’s “The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling,” in a story constructed of two different stories, the one of which bears a self-conscious narrator and the other lacking.
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- 2020-10-04
- On Literature, Books Short Story Month