On Editing
Throughout my undergrad writing experience, “editing” simply meant speed-reading my paper out loud to catch any glaring errors (full disclosure -this is also about all the editing I do for…
Adam Rogers’s “Proof: The Science of Booze” and Why a Little Light Journalistic Fun Never Hurt Anybody
“Proof: The Science of Booze” is a wonderfully fun read about alcohol in it’s every context. Wired writer/editor and Übergeek journalist Adam Rogers has a contagious passion for the study…
Carl Jung’s “Psychology of the Unconscious” and the Value of Primary Texts
Jung’s seminal work is a treatise on the universal unconscious manifestations of the human libido, in religion, in art, and -most importantly- in religion and myth. Is there any reason…
On Posting Regularly
I'm sure some of you have noticed that I've been posting a little less, and with a little less regularity. Fear not. I have every intention of continuing to publish…
Dashiell Hammett’s “The Maltese Falcon”, and Why You Should Read Good Genre Fiction
Dashiell Hammett's "The Maltese Falcon" is one of those books that has its fingerprints over everything. In the same way that Melville's turns of phrase have trickled down to every…
Reading Log: Stephen Fry’s ‘Moab is my Washpot’ and the Balance of Authenticity and the Curated Self
Stephen Fry has a very “created” persona. He’s the public-school smartass all grown up, always funny and always a little bit quicker than everyone else in the room. It’s a…
Reading Log: ‘Barrelhouse 13: Comedy’ or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Ephemeral
I have a hard time with pop culture. Specifically, I have a hard time with intellectually rigorous examination of pop culture, because it always seems like too much thought is…
Reading Log: April Recap
April was a great month for reading. I knocked out thirteen titles, all very diverse (graphic novels, male and female authors, works in translation, nonfiction, anthologies, etc.). Beyond the ones…
Reading Log: John Muir’s ‘My First Summer in the Sierra,’ In Which Very Many Plants are Described
I have recently come into a more nuanced appreciation of the out-of-doors, simultaneously for mature and more childlike than that which had previously characterized my experience in the wilderness, which…
Reading Log: Herta Müller’s ‘Nadirs’ and the Value of Juxtaposition in Bleakness
This is a very well-written book. In a series of short stories that bookend a much longer novella, the author presents her oppressive life as a young girl in a…