What's that, you say? An actual entry? You bet your sweet bippy, Paco ( Read more... )

Re-reading G.H. Hardy's A Mathematician's Apology, and I came across two interesting remarks. (If I had a second life, I think I'd have striven to be a mathematician.) His defenses of mathematics are probably also better defenses (or at least explanation) of the humanities than anything usually given nowadays ( Read more... )

So, Peter Shaffer's Equus has been my favorite play since I was a college freshmen. After reading Tom Stoppard's Arcadia, it may have a rival. What's odd is that they both have completely opposite themes. Equus is about the dark allure of the Dionysius as against the pale Apollonian. Arcadia, in contrast, is about the tragic supplanting of ( Read more... )

Well, after nearly a month of intensive studying, I'm almost done with all my British & American poetry and drama. Working 7-11 hours a days does wonders; it takes me about 3-5 hours for each poet or dramatist ( Read more... )

~~ The field of literary scholarship is an unmitigating, antagonistic struggle between those who like books worth reading, such as myself, and those whose weird and monstrous taste in literature should be condemned, such as those who disagree with me. O John Ashberry! Whoever took you seriously as a poet ( Read more... )

So, I did an article on the Biogenesis scandal in Major League Baseball. An old highschool friend of mine kindly posted it on her Cleveland Indians blog. Most of the comments are negative. . . but I think that only tends to reinforce the importance of my argument.

The blog may be found here.

Yikes!!! Livejournal changed everything. All is madness, madness I say ( Read more... )

I used to do these Productivity Records pretty religiously -- I was dedicated to seeing how much I read each semester or quarter. I fell off the habit after I graduated from Ohio STate; partly because I read less b/c of writing, partly b/c I kept having trouble finishing books. Then finally I lost the insane work ethics that drove me through grad ( Read more... )

Re-reading the Scarlet Letter for Quals, Hester Prynn's Pearl made me think about Priti's daughter. I can't remember her name, but she must be about eight now. I still feel so awful for her, to have lost her mother so young. Then I got to thinking about Priti again, and that same old melancholy overtook me. Then, with a shock, I realized that I ( Read more... )

I feel good today. The english department hosted our annual Peck Composition Series, an excuse for rhetoricians to sit around talking about writing. Andrea Lunsford -- THE Andrea Lunsford of Easy Writer fame! -- was our guest speaker. Her comments were illuminating, and even though such affairs of always somewhat dull, I feel that it was good ( Read more... )