The Olympics Poem

So my sister, Julie, doubted whether one could write a good poem about the Olympics in a hurry. This may not be good, but it's not terrible, I think, and it was written in a hurry (under an hour). The Olympics Poem O! Lympics, Now so many thousands of years old, Still tempting one-dimensional … Continue reading The Olympics Poem →

The Cantor Poem

Here's the latest in my series of love poems a la the Great Philosophers. Cantor was technically a mathematician, of course, but apparently he regarded himself as more of a philosopher. Anyway... THE CANTOR POEM In the house we once shared There were old wooden stairs On which we etched a Lemniscate. … Continue reading The Cantor Poem →

The Dostoevsky Project – My Final Thoughts

The library was deserted during the break. I entered with a keycard and took a novel by Dostoevsky down from the shelves. I placed the book on a table and opened it and then leaned down into the splayed pages, reading and breathing. We seemed to assimilate each other, the characters and I, and when … Continue reading The Dostoevsky Project – My Final Thoughts →

The Hobbes Poem

For some reason I like the idea of writing love poems organized around themes from the Great Philosophers. The Hobbes Poem Our Love was a Prisoner’s Dilemma. ... And you defected first.

Love Poem

Here's another gem from my collected works. This one isn't as serious as the last. Love Poem My love for you is a rash That comes and goes. Burns, irritates, embarrasses-- Then clears. Where does it go when it's not upon me? This prickly heat for which I've found no salve.

Dostoevsky Wrap-Up #3 (C) Bakhtin’s _Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics_ (from the bottom up)

Everything in Dostoevsky’s novels tends toward dialogue, toward a dialogic opposition, as if tending toward its center. All else is the means; dialogue is the end. A single voice ends nothing and resolves nothing. Two voices is the minimum for life, the minimum for existence (Bakhtin, Mikhail, Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics, 252). The problem I … Continue reading Dostoevsky Wrap-Up #3 (C) Bakhtin’s _Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics_ (from the bottom up) →

Dostoevsky Wrap-Up #3 (B) – Joseph Frank’s Dostoevsky (From the Top Down)

Dostoevsky from the Top Down or the Bottom Up? While reading all these books, I had the help of two significant secondary sources – all along the way, Joseph Frank’s five-volume Dostoevsky, and at the end, after having finished all the original Dostoevsky writing, Mikhail Bakhtin’s Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics. These two works represent two … Continue reading Dostoevsky Wrap-Up #3 (B) – Joseph Frank’s Dostoevsky (From the Top Down) →

Dostoevsky Project Wrap-Up #3: Final Thoughts (part A) – The Experience of All This Reading

(It turns out I'll make this final post multi-parted. Just too much to say...) By my estimation, Dostoevsky’s published works run somewhere between 7500 and 8000 pages. That means I’ve read more words written by him (at least published words) than by any other human being. I might have come close with George Eliot when … Continue reading Dostoevsky Project Wrap-Up #3: Final Thoughts (part A) – The Experience of All This Reading →

The Dostoevsky Project Wrap-Up #2: Superlatives

Here's just a little snapshot of my reading. Best Opening Line: Notes from Underground - “I AM A SICK MAN… I am a wicked man. An unattractive man. I think my liver hurts.” D. seems not to have thought to much about the effect of opening lines (unlike, say, Tolstoy, Dickens, or Jane Austen). Still, … Continue reading The Dostoevsky Project Wrap-Up #2: Superlatives →

The Dostoevsky Project Wrap-Up #1: Everything I Wrote

I know this is spread out over more than two years, and you might not have read everything I wrote, or might not want to. But just in case you do - below are links to everything I've written about Dostoevsky over this time, in chronological order. It's 43 entries I think. I have to … Continue reading The Dostoevsky Project Wrap-Up #1: Everything I Wrote →