Today is hot. Hot for London, that is. I met with my classes for the first time in London today, and despite the heat and noise, I think we’re off to a great start.
Archive | June, 2011
First Student Photos
It’s four days and counting. Yes, Thursday evening I jet off to London for five weeks of photography, travel, and beer. I can’t wait.
Mailer as Novelist
Norman Mailer saw the responsibility of the novelist is a double-edged sword: he must posit an authoritative vision of structure in form and content, yet always be aware that “no authorities exist that have certain knowledge.” This places the novelist in an ethical and existential position of great responsibility.
The Web v. the Book
When I spoke at the Norman Mailer Society Conference in 2005, I was asked to discuss the position of literature and English Studies at the beginning of the twenty-first century, how the work of Norman Mailer fit into these cultural and intellectual trends, and recommend ways that the Society might continue to flourish in a still incunabular information age.
The Novel and the Order
Arguably, the dominant form of literature in the twentieth century was prose fiction, of which the novel was a titan, if not a god. Indeed, there is something god-like about the novel and its relation to western civilization’s sense of identity and order.
Exercise and Life
Exercise is like anything else in life that’s important: it must be practiced regularly and deliberately. It needs to be fostered in children from a young age if it’s going to have a life-long impact. To see how necessary this is, just look around you.
