Craft | Literature
12:00 pm on July 2nd, 2009
Emily Dickinson. Robert Frost. Allen Ginsberg. These are famous poets (not an oxymoron, for better or worse — I’ll leave that to the experts). But no one seems to have heard of Anne Carson.
And why should they have? After all, she’s notoriously — okay, maybe that’s stretching a bit, but at the very least, she’s, shall we say, notably reticent about her personal life. Even in fits of spontaneous Googling, I’ll catch the leak on you, Carson!, the only readily available info out there seems to be that she lives in Canada and does a lot of translation, plus some poetry.
What kind of poetry? The pretentious kind, according to critic James Pollock.
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Literature
3:51 pm on July 1st, 2009
I decided a few weeks ago to read the first two Sookie Stackhouse novels, Dead Until Dark and Living Dead In Dallas, by Charlaine Harris. It seemed like a good idea at the time - I love the HBO series True Blood that’s based on the books and the show’s second season hadn’t aired yet. But much like wearing tights as pants (something that seems smart when you slip them on, but not so after deep contemplation), I found that this was a terrible mistake.
Harris’s writing style is weak, the characters are two-dimensional caricatures of real people, and the plots are shallow. For some godforsaken reason, this book series is hugely popular in the horror genre. I guess I should be grateful that the vampires here are at least real vamps - they actually kill people, unlike the lamepires in the Twilight series that don’t feed on humans and sparkle in the sun.
My advice to other True Blood fans? Skip the books because the show is a thousand times better.
Literature
12:00 pm on June 11th, 2009
Everyone has heard of — and most of us have seen — American Psycho. Less idolized but equally fantastic is the uber-90s rush of The Rules of Attraction. Both of these quaint little films are based on novels by Bret Easton Ellis, a young writer who work tends to center on empty individuals with a bent toward insanity, typically oversexed and drug-addled yuppies with enough money to buy a small island or three. Glassy-eyed viewings of MTV frequently play into the “like totally” dominated lives based in L.A. and New York City.
I recently picked up Less Than Zero, an Ellis novel about… well, kids with lots of cocaine and Ferraris. The prose is simultaneously flat and breathless, like the lives of the characters — non-stop rushes from party to party, speeding on coke but nonetheless apathetic, motionless.
I’m halfway through… and I’ve noticed I’ve been wearing my cliché MTV shirt a lot more frequently, lately.
News
3:52 pm on June 5th, 2009
I’ve embarked on the task of applying for post-college scholarships and fellowships. Aside from the long applications, letters of recommendation, and countless other bits of personal information, the hardest part has been writing my personal statements. For each program I have to pinpoint, craft, and frame why each is vital to my intellectual, personal, and career goals. I haven’t really written personal essays of this sort since I was applying for undergrad in high school. It feels like ages ago. Though I’ve written what seems like hundreds of papers in my college career, I haven’t felt the “oh my god this piece of writing is going to change the path of my life from here on out” until now. Here’s to hoping I can find the right words.
Anecdotes | Craft | Literature
12:00 pm on June 4th, 2009
So the other night–
(I swear, this isn’t the beginning of a bad joke. Bear with.)
So the other night, myself and a friend of mine are watching the remake of Halloween. I should hope, as a film major, that I know a little bit about film, and this friend certainly does. So we’re complaining, a bit pretentiously, about the movie we’ve voluntarily set out to watch: “Ugh, why would you remake such a classic?” “Ugh, Rob Zombie’s directing style is all wrong for the atmosphere.” “Ugh, why would you try to totally explain away all the mystery that makes Halloween creepy in the first place?”
Of course, the movie was terrible. Or at least nothing like the original us horror elitists tend to idolize.
But it got me thinking — why don’t people remake books?
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Literature
By Lydia Smith
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10:30 am on June 4th, 2009
Usually when reading I tend to like a supporting character. They aren’t usually admirable characters- like Cecilia in Ian McEwan’s Atonement, or Daisy in The Great Gatsby- they are usually the characters class discussions rip apart. But I’m fascinated by them.
In order to really love a book, I feel I have to connect to some aspect of the story, but usually it’s a character that I like to connect to. I like the characters with flaws, unique and sort of unexplained. And I like the novels that are entirely crafted- where there isn’t a sentence or word or period out of place- like I found Fitzgerald and McEwan be.
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News
By Justin Sachse
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12:08 pm on June 2nd, 2009
Any baseball fan who hasn’t been in a coma for the past ten years has heard of Michael Lewis’ book Moneyball. The book follows Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane. The book is pointed to as the turning point in baseball philosophy when in terms of evaluating players. An emphasis of On Base Percentage over batting average changed the game. It changed how the American League plays baseball, relying prominently on the home run. Either way, they’re making a movie out of it. Brad Pitt is going to be in the movie as Billy Beane. I’m somewhat excited about the movie, and I’m kind of not. Who wants to see a movie of a bunch of baseball guys sitting around agruing over statistics?
I guess we’ll see how it turns out. Well, I just wanted to use this blog post as a blog before I submit my magnum opus next week. Enjoy finals week.
News
By Rachel Semigran
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4:06 pm on May 29th, 2009
Check out the premiere of the Good Works Tour documentary TONIGHT at 8pm in Audobon, New Jersey. Good Works consists of three high school pals - my good friend Tim Urian and his comrades James Introcaso and Zach Wiseley . They spent all of last summer driving across our country and stopping to volunteer or do a “good work” wherever they pulled over. It was a long journey, but a fulfilling and eye-opening one to say the least. While the guys were in their “man van” they posted video blogs to their youtube channel on a regular basis. As I sat, sweltering in my apartment last summer I watched the guys make positive changes, meet selfless, hardworking people, and see our nation in a different light - all for the sake of doing good and hoping others will follow suit. It’s inspiring and rare. They’ve worked incredibly hard to put the film together and I’m just doing my part to get the word out.
100 West Merchant Street in Audubon, New Jersey
8PM
Free!!
http://auctionhouseloft.wordpress.com/
News
By Gwenna Johnson
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3:22 pm on May 29th, 2009
Lens is the photojournalism blog of the New York Times. On Tuesday they requested that Times readers submit their polaroid photographs in an attempt to bolster interest in instant photography in conjunction with an effort to restart an abandoned Polaroid film factory in the Netherlands. Polaroid’s instant film was one of the great inventions of the 20th century and has recently become defunct as a result of digital cameras and newer technology. Many artists such as Andy Warhol and Walker Evans (among other film enthusiasts) used the instant film in their projects. Times published almost 1,000 photographs in celebration of the possible return of instant Polaroid film. Check out http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/29/readers-photos/ to view submitted photographs.
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