Remainder

The premise behind this book is one you might think you’ve encountered before: its main character (who narrates in the first person, and I think remains unnamed otherwise) begins by explaining that he’s recently been struck on the head in an industrial accident of some sort, and it’s caused him some memory loss. I think … Continue reading Remainder →

C – by Tom McCarthy

The steward leaves. As he passes the kitchen door on his way back to the stairs a Sudanese cook comes out and tips scraps from a bucket over the Borromeo’s stern. The steward pauses and watches the scraps bobbing in the churned-up water for a while. The moon’s gone: only the ship’s electric glow illuminates … Continue reading C – by Tom McCarthy →

Don DeLillo’s _The Names_

For a long time I stayed away from the acropolis. So opens an early-ish DeLillo novel, The Names. I have read many other books by Don DeLillo – probably at least 10. This is the first book that, at least as far as I can remember, I thought about the opening line the whole time. … Continue reading Don DeLillo’s _The Names_ →

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) →