Monthly Archives: September 2008

Brief Ulysses Update

[image by maxf] Just finished Episode 8, The Laestrygonians. Random, likely incoherent thoughts that’ve crossed my mind over the last 60 pages or so: There’s something interesting and tricky going on with the voice and perspective of Bloom’s monologue… a … Continue reading

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CosmoLinks

‘The Odyssey’ and ‘The Iliad’ are giving up new secrets about the ancient world – The Boston Globe — Reassessing our view of Ancient Greece and Rome Typography for Lawyers — It’s not a joke Muxtape — The story of … Continue reading

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CosmoLinks

NASCAR Cancels Remainder Of Season Following David Foster Wallace’s Death | The Onion – America’s Finest News Source — Apt and funny by being unfunny in a funny way…

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Ulysses Annotated

Ulysses Annotated is a great resource when tackling Joyce’s densely allusive novel, but in some ways it is almost as unwieldy as Ulysses itself! If you make it through the lengthy, but immensely useful introduction– which is generally concerned with … Continue reading

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Kerning Gone Bad

see more pwn and owned pictures A little bit of typographical knowledge can be a dangerous thing…  

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CosmoLinks

The College Issue – The Thinker – NYTimes.com — Of philosophy, philosophy matters, and why philosophy matters… Goodreads | 10 Questions with Neal Stephenson — Nothing crazy, but any interview with Stephenson is worth a few minutes…

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Joyce’s Prose Poetry

Some segments from Chapter 1 with a musicality that particularly appealed to my ear, even if they are sometimes unpleasant:   If I were suddenly naked here as I sit? I am not. Across the sands of all the world, … Continue reading

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Funnier Than I Remembered

Ulysses– at least through the first chapter– has more humor than I remembered. Perhaps because I was overwhelmed the first time around, I didn’t put catch it as often as I should. And Joyce tends to immediately follow the funniest … Continue reading

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Ulysses – Sound and Sense

[photo by editor_tupp] Reading the first section of Ulysses, I was– like Scott– struck by the sound of the words tumbling around inside Stephen Dedalus’ head. There are many passages which read like (deeply allusive and heavily referential) prose poems. … Continue reading

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(Re)Reading Ulysses

Monday morning I Twittered that I was digging into Ulysses, a book I read once and too-quickly many years ago, and before I knew it a few friends were joining in. We have formed some kind of rule-free, schedule-less reading … Continue reading

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Jill Greenberg’s John McCain Photos

I was wondering why my more-than-two-year-old post on Jill Greenberg’s children and monkey photos was suddenly getting comments again and then I heard about the controversy surrounding her photos of John McCain, one of which was featured on the cover … Continue reading

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rip david foster wallace

I can’t even begin to explain who dfw is- was- to me. The deep humanity that powered his writing that so many missed. Reading Infinite Jest was the discovery of a new element two empty columns over and two empty … Continue reading

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from “The Unfuzzy Lamb” (Anne Fadiman)

For thirty-three years, Lamb sat on a high stool, identical to those occupied by thirty other clerks; dipped his goose quill into two inkwells, one containing black ink and the other red (he called the latter Clerk’s Blood); and recorded … Continue reading

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Orgasmic Angina

Via an entertaining article on writing about poetry and the admitted awesomeness of Keats comes this breathless and little-deathless blurb: “Only rarely do lay readers experience poems as a cross between an orgasm and a heart attack.” —David Orr, the … Continue reading

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Sarah Palin’s Banned Book List

I’m no fan of Sarah Palin, but I’ve received numerous messages this morning purporting to contain a list of books Palin attempted to have banned from the Wasilla city library when she was elected mayor. This is clearly a myth. … Continue reading

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You Don’t Know Me At All

A single that might be on Ben Folds’ new album, due out at the end of the month: “You Don’t Know Me At All” While not necessarily a track I’d recommend as representative to someone who’s never heard Ben Folds … Continue reading

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