This 47-minute analysis of Lolita and Lolita on film is more intelligent than anything I've thought about the sexualization of Lolita, "four foot ten in one sock", as Humbert writes about her when he first sees Dolores ( Read more... )

Some crazy English teachers singing this to the tune of "California Dreamin'". I learned more about them than I remember from high school:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBa5nN_JyPk

Lessons on science writing from a 17th-century know-it-all, Sir Thomas Browne

The review of the book, In Search of Thomas Browne... is really a book about science, nature, faith, toleration, humility, and public debate-the modern world seen through the lens of Browne. (The British title, The Adventures of Sir Thomas Browne in the 21st Century, ( Read more... )

Nice to read:
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/television/2015/06/bbc_america_s_jonathan_strange_and_mr_norrell_reviewed_the_show_makes_magic.html

This tells me all I need to know:

http://www.quora.com/Why-do-more-women-seem-to-like-50-Shades-of-Grey-than-men/answer/Franklin-Veaux

1. The Bible, to learn that it’s easier to be told by others what to think and believe than it is to think for yourself
   
2. The System of the World by Isaac Newton, to learn that the universe is a knowable place
   
3. On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin, to learn of our kinship with all other life on Earth
   
4. Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift, to learn, ( Read more... )

Just one photo of the two in a library (maybe Norrell's Hurtfew Abbey ( Read more... )

http://www.buzzfeed.com/alexiscoe/book-historians-curators-specialists

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/02/13/william-blake-paradise-lost/

I think he's wrong on the Satan, Sin & Death illustration, but other than that: not bad.

And a pretty good reason for never making Paradise Lost into a movie ( Read more... )

The Hobbit 2 Is Bad Fan Fiction