Ashley Vaught | Erstwhile Flâneur, Philosopher

“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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

2020-10-04
On Literature, Books Short Story Month

Read Viewed Consumed |2020-09

Cultural consumption involved George Saunders’ consummately misanthropic CivilWarLand, as well as Pygmalion (1938) and The 49th Parallel (1944)

2020-10-03
Monthly Reading, Viewing Report

‘Tis Short Story Month

During this lovely autumn month I will read a new short story each day and then write a brief post about the story. A different author each day.

2020-10-02
On Literature, Books Short Story Month

George Saunders’ “CivilWarLand in Bad Decline”

George Saunders’ short story collection, CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, was born in a minimum security prison in central Pennysylvania

2020-09-17
Reading Journal On Literature, Books

August 2020: Read, Viewed

During the hot days of August my tremendous appetite to read was momentarily sated by more Tolstoy (eternally), James Baldwin, and even a little G.K. Chesterton.