Throwback Thursday: The Quiet American by Graham Greene
At its heart, The Quiet American is the story of a struggle between extreme cynicism and idealism—the juxtaposition of intentions and actions, the disconnect between the native and the foreigner.
Writ in Water: Cowboy State of Mind
Wyoming is the Cowboy State. The University of Wyoming mascot is Cowboy Joe. The Bucking Horse & Rider is a registered trademark. Rodeo is the state sport. The state is home to a thriving fossil fuel industry. It has always prided itself on its ruggedness, its self-sufficiency, its don’t-give-a-damn
On Jess Walter’s “Beautiful Ruins”
In that moment, with the strings swelling to crescendo in your mind as you read it, as Dee Moray the beautiful (but not too beautiful) American actress steps off the boat and onto the shore, Walter writes how Pasquale, the dreamer, fell in love “Not so much with the
In HBO’s Westworld, Literature Is the Key to Personhood
HBO’s Westworld is rife with literary references that, like the androids populating the titular park, have started to take on a life of their own.
What Would Orwell Make of This Election?
Orwellian. The word has become a catch-all describing an invisible yet ubiquitous bureaucracy whose tentacles influence every corner of citizens’ lives. Conservatives and liberals use the term with disgust. Would that it meant something else, if only because it identifies the author with his best-known—if not best—work, 1984, while
Launching
Today, my first book launches. It’s kind of a wonderful word, launch: such propulsive force in its sound. Such muscular, fearless leaping. To mark the occasion, I thought I’d take a look at launchings of various kinds in literature. Not gradual beginnings, not slow evolutions into different forms, but sudden
The Technological Extinction of the Short-Story Writer
The march toward human obsolescence is relentless, yet the job of the writer is considered relatively safe from the threat of automation. For empathy and creativity are two qualities that it would be difficult to bundle within artificial intelligence. And empathy and creativity are perhaps the two primary calling
Round-Up: Frankfurt Book Fair, Bob Dylan, and HENRY VI
From the rise in attendance at the Frankfurt Book Fair to the research that names Christopher Marlowe as a co-author of Henry VI, here are last week's biggest literary headlines.
What Country?
In a 2001 Penguin introduction to the novel, Colm Tóibín writes: “In Another Country, Baldwin created the essential American drama of the century.” Baldwin’s novel is rife with symbols of life in the USA: jazz, cocktails, the movies, and the idea of “making it.” It’s a story of searching
11 Thoughts about the Internet and Mike Meginnis’s “Angband, or His 55 Desires”
The internet is a compost heap full of old websites and technology and expired pop culture leftovers. Every once in a while, some enterprising artist grabs his or her pitchfork and turns the heap to reach the richest, oldest, most decomposed material. That fertilizes new growth. Vaporwave, a new