Over on Crooked Timber, there's a little dust-up regarding Ross Douthat's characterization of Hitchens as the believer's atheist. Having spent so much time with Villiers and Spiritisme, the terrain of the argument is familiar, but this quote tickled me. Apparently it's from John Sladek's book The New Apocrypha (though I can find no text online to ( Read more... )

BUN: William Hazlitt: Melvin Bragg spent a worthy hour on him a few months ago, and you can get his On Poetry In General at audible. Edited later: nevermind about the audiobook, it's worse than a wikipedia entry.

SHOE: My favorite new podcast KunstlerCast, during which you overhear a really awesome conversation that just keep going on and on and ( Read more... )

I remember a scene in an Indian film, I think it was from the 50s or 60s, and I think it was Ray, a very long take of a dusty road, either from the point of view of the back of the moving truck viewing the receding landscape, or from someone in the landscape watching the truck recede (can't remember which, though I think it's a small boy who's ( Read more... )

On Treme

A valentine with a devious, violent heart: Alyssa Rosenberg's first volley in the Atlantic's continuing conversation on the show,* and a fair statement of the critical object of affection thus far: realism vs. sentimentality. The creators, for their part, don't give a shit if you want to revoke their artistic license, folks! It will be " ( Read more... )

I'm crap at writing reviews. I would rather let others do my expositional dirty work; I find myself lacking the will to explain. So go read this (which is what led me to the novel) and then come back. Sounds like fun, huh? It's been a while since I was so enchanted with a world-builder, perhaps not since Geoff Ryman's The Child Garden. The action ( Read more... )