In which I share an excerpt from Maryanne Wolf’s “Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World.”
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Monthly Archives: June 2026
Read Novels Like a Victorian
My response to an article lamenting that the presence of screens destroyed his love of novels.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Henry Fielding, Laurence Sterne, Middlemarch, Our Mutual Friend, Tom Jones, Tristram Shandy Comments closed
Trump’s Punishment
From early in Trump’s first term, I was comparing him to Milton’s Satan.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Anthony Trollope, Beowulf, Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus, Donald Trump, John Milton, Paradise Lost, resentment, ressentiment, Small House at Allingham Comments closed
Entering Retirement
In my memoir, I finally reach my retirement years.
Posted in Uncategorized Comments closed
Robinson’s Cli-Fi Predicts a Grim Future
In his novel “New York 2140” Robinson rants about how his climate change warnings fall on deaf ears.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged cli-fi, climate change, Kim Stanley Robinson, New York 2140 Comments closed
DJT and Hegseth, Utopians of Violence
Think of DJT and Hegseth as (to cite Timothy Snyder) “utopians of violence.” Cormac McCarthy explores the phenomenon in “Blood Meridian.”
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy, Donald Trump, Gunfighter Nation, January 6, Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove, Regeneration through Violence, Richard Slotkin, stochastic terrorism, utopia of violence, violence Comments closed
Soccer Ecstasy
A Diane Ackerman poem from the 1970s celebrating the beautiful game.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged “Soccer at the Meadowlands", Diane Ackerman, Soccer, World Cup Comments closed
The Reflecting Pool and the Dead Marshes
Washington’s Green Marsh (a.k.a. Reflecting Pool) conjures up images of the Dead Marshes in “Lord of the Rings.” In every way, the parallel fits.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged DJT, J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, Reflecting Pool Comments closed