The Eternal Husband

As compared with The Idiot, this book was way, way easier to understand. As opposed to the 15+ randomly related cast of characters, most of the main action of this (also much shorter) novella takes place between two principal characters: Valchaninov, an almost 40 urbane Petersburg bachelor, and Pavlov Pavlovich, a provincial official and serial … Continue reading The Eternal Husband →

The Idiot

The Idiot "... We feel that we must limit ourselves to the simple statement of facts, as far as possible without special explanations, and for a very simple reason: because we ourselves, in many cases, have difficulty explaining what happened" (The Idiot, trans. Peaver and Volokhonsky, 573) So writes the on-again off-again omniscient narrator towards … Continue reading The Idiot →

All Things Shining, part one

So, I was looking for something to read on the beach last week (other than student papers), and I decided to go with All Things Shining, by Hubert Dreyfus and Sean Dorrance Kelly. Many things were shining that day, so it seemed like a good choice. Actually, with its mix of history, philosophy and literature, … Continue reading All Things Shining, part one →

The City and the Suburbs – Part 1

A while back I threatened to write a three-part series about three great albums that feel thematically connected: Sonic Youth’s Daydream Nation, the Smashing Pumpkins’ Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, and Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs. So here goes. Daydream Nation I remember vividly the first time I ever listened to this – I was … Continue reading The City and the Suburbs – Part 1 →

Reading Aloud

After my students too the AP English exam in May, I had some extra time, and wanted to try something new. We're supposed to read The Great Gatsby during the junior course, and, now having read that book something like 10 times, I wanted to mix it up a bit. What I decided to do … Continue reading Reading Aloud →

The Oxbow Incident

There is a possible world very close to ours, differing ever so slightly, in which I drowned yesterday on the Oxbow river in Portland, OR. Here's what happened. I was with my friends Margaret and Hector--we had been rafting together before, and were actually lamenting how calm the river seemed. This would make it difficult … Continue reading The Oxbow Incident →

Point Omega

The summer novel-reading season is here. Though this latest effort of Don DeLillo's is probably better designated as a novella, coming in at just less than 120 pages, and they're pretty tiny pages. There's some interesting stuff here - the book is bookended by its protagonist viewing an art installation at the Met in New … Continue reading Point Omega →

Just Another Word for Nothing Left to Lose

A Review of Jonathan Franzen's Freedom "what is most essential to our personhood is not the ends we choose but our capacity to choose them... It makes the individual inviolable only by making him invisible, and calls into question the dignity and autonomy this liberalism seeks above all to secure" (Michael Sandel, Liberalism and the … Continue reading Just Another Word for Nothing Left to Lose →

The Big Lebowski

It's been very quiet here at OP, so I thought I may as well use the venue to announce some good news. My friend Adam and I heard yesterday that an essay we proposed for Blackwell's The Big Lebowski and Philosophy was accepted and will be published in 2012--released at that year's "Lebowskifest," no less. … Continue reading The Big Lebowski →

The Freak Book

Now a large herd of swine was feeding there on the hillside; and they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them leave. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned. When the herdsmen saw … Continue reading The Freak Book →