Illustration from Where the Wild Things Are I see that Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are (1963) has been turned into a film, which has led Slate columnist Jack Shafer to revisit a controversy about the book. Apparently Sendak still can’t let go of a critique by psychologist Bruno Bettelheim. I was surprised to learn […]
Monthly Archives: October 2009
Honoring Our Inner Wild Rumpus
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Cat in the Hat, censorship, Children, Dr. Seuss, Maaurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are Comments closed
You, Sir, Are No Jay Gatsby
Everyone has something to say about Barack Obama, who has been the subject of non-stop scrutiny since last year’s Democratic primaries. It therefore is not surprising that some would turn to literature to understand what he means. Including, in recent weeks, two New York Times columnists. Stanley Fish, the subject of three posts this […]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Oven Bird", American Dream, Julius Caesar, Nationalism, Obama, politics, Robert Frost, Roger Cohen, Stanley Fish, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Ignoring the “Advice” of Doctors
Oscar Wilde Among literature’s gifts is its ability to bring humor into even the darkest of situations. On Tuesday I mentioned that one of Alan’s doctors told him that he’d probably be dead by this past June. I’m thinking that Alan decided not to follow the advice of his doctors—unlike Bunbury in the Oscar […]
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Yes, Stanley, Lit Can Change Lives
George Herbert I’m trying to figure out why Stanley Fish bothers me so. Maybe it’s because I’m already worried that our society doesn’t take poetry seriously enough. Then an English professor with a national forum comes along and confirms that people should consider the study of literature as an arcane study yielding satisfactions only to […]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Collar", "Love (3)", "Matins", Christianity, College Teaching, George Herbert, Stanley Fish Comments closed
Lit Is More than Just an End in Itself
Alan Paskow Yesterday I talked about how Alan Paskow (in philosophy) and I violently disagreed with a series of columns that Stanley Fish wrote on his New York Time blog about the humanities. Fish was going after those who use the humanities “instrumentally”—as good for something else rather than as ends in themselves. Alan, […]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Will the Humanities Save Us?", Alan Paskow, College Teaching, Humanities, Stanley Fish Comments closed
Fish’s Claim that Lit is of No Use
Stanley Fish Last week I was talking to my colleague in philosophy Alan Paskow about a Stanley Fish New York Times column. (Cancer update: Alan had one of the five tumors in his lungs removed two weeks ago through cyberknife surgery.) Although an old post—last January—it had stuck with us because it contradicts so […]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Anthony Kronman, Education's End, English teachers, Humanities, Literary Theory, Stanley Fish, Terry Eagleton Comments closed
Now for Something Completely Different
Georgia O’Keefe This past week I seem to have taken as a challenge Elaine Scarry’s observation (in The Body in Pain) that representations of physical pain in literature are rare. Two more I add to the list are the Blake professor in Gail Godwin’s The Good Husband, who is dying of cancer, and Rosie, the […]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Body in Pain, Elaine Scarry, Gail Godwin, Good Husband, James Stephens, Leaps of Faith, Pain, Rachel Kranz, Shell Comments closed
Trusting that Good Can Come from Ill
Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus What have I learned about literature and pain this past week? First, that writers have taken up the topic, just as they take up every aspect of human existence. They imagine what it is like to feel pain and, through poetic images and fictional stories, convey that experience to readers. By entering […]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Alfred Lord Tennyson, Christopher Marlowe, death of a child, Death of Ivan Ilych, Doctor Faustus, Heart of Darkness, In Memoriam, John Milton, Joseph Conrad, Leo Tolstoy, Name of the Rose, Pain, Paradise Lost, Rachel Kranz, Suffering, Umberto Eco Comments closed
