Last night I gave a short lecture and then moderated a talkback following a college production of George Bernard Shaw’s play Arms and the Man (1894), directed by my colleague Michael Ellis-Tolaydo. I hadn’t read the play since I was in high school, when I went on a Shaw kick. (I first became enamored with […]
Tag Archives: adolescence
Shaw Cuts through the Bull
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Arms and the Man, George Bernard Shaw, Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad Comments closed
She Stoops to Circumvent Inhibitions
Oliver Goldsmith Discussions in my 18th Century Couples Comedy class are proving to be a lot of fun because, almost seamlessly, we move between the 18th courtship scene, challenges faced by young people today, and contemporary movies and television shows. Comedy rushes in where wise men fear to tread, giving us a way to talk […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Oliver Goldsmith, Relationships, She Stoops to Conquer Comments closed
Bridging the 18th-Century Generation Gap
Yesterday my 18th Century Couples Comedy class concluded our discussion of Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones. We spent a lot of time talking about how it was popular with youthful readers in the 18th century, an idea I owe to J. Paul Hunter, my dissertation director at Emory University. Paul explores the issue in Before Novels: […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Child rearing, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Values Comments closed
The Rebellious Thrill of Gothics
Emily in the Castle of Udolpho In yesterday’s post I discussed anxious parents and proposed Northanger Abbey as a sane approach to teenage reading (and movie watching and internet using). I elaborate here. I start first with the reading material in question. Heroine Catherine Moreland and her best friend Isabella Thorpe are enthralled with the […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Anne Radcliffe, Italian, Jane Austen, Mysteries of Udolpho, Northanger Abbey, Novel reading Comments closed
Mocking Adult Anxieties about Novels
“Before,” by William Hogarth (1736) What can happen to your daughters if they read novels? According to William Hogarth, something like the above. Check out the lower left hand corner where a side table is falling over. The drawer has been left casually but deliberately open so that one can see the book that is […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Before", Child rearing, Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey, Novel reading, Rambler #4, Richard Sheridan, Samuel Johnson, School for Scandal, William Hogarth Comments closed
Danger: Georgian Teens Reading Novels
Samuel Johnson If we need proof that adolescence has always been a difficult age, we can look at those 18th century moralists that were panicked about young people reading novels. Of course if you’re young (to build off of a comment that Barbara makes in response to Friday’s post), part of the fun of reading […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged censorship, Henry Fielding, Novel reading, Rambler #4, Samuel Johnson, Tom Jones Comments closed
I Was a Secret Holden Caulfield
I contrasted Lord of the Rings with J. D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye the other day. It’s not a contrast that anyone other than I would make, and it’s all based on the fact that I loved the one and hated the other. In my post today I explore my dislike of the Salinger […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger, J. R. R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings Comments closed
Fantasy: Help or Hindrance?
My friend Alan Paskow, who is struggling with cancer, queried me about my post on Alfred Noyes’ “The Highwayman,” wondering whether the poem wasn’t just an insubstantial fantasy. I’ve been writing about The Lord of the Rings as a fantasy perhaps indulged in by a World War I veteran who wasn’t willing to face up […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Catcher in the Rye, Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, fantasy, J. D. Salinger, J. R. R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings Comments closed
Aspiring to Be a Dwarf
Continuing the Lord of the Rings discussion, here’s an interesting insight passed on to me by my friend Rachel Kranz about my last entry. I was interpreting my adolescent fondness for Gimli the dwarf as an indication that I felt myself a dwarf, hunkered down and plodding. Rachel says that she was stunned by this self-description […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Flies, J. R. R. Tolkien, Jean Paul Sartre, Lord of the Rings, Lucille Clifton Comments closed
