Karmic Wisdom

I’ve wanted to meet Margaret Atwood for a long time. I first read her in high school; the essay I wrote to get into my PhD program was on her; my dissertation was about her work; my Atwood reading group has been meeting weekly for six years or so. As the former President of the [...]

Okay–it’s been awhile since I’ve written. First, I had to get the blog to stay up–let us all thank my faithful friend and reader, Ken, who donated his time and money to enable me to do so. Then, it was finals, and then I headed off to Canada for ten days.
Today I wanted to share [...]

In celebration of Margaret Atwood’s birthday, I’d like to share two poems that feature her name:
Americans Who Read Poetry
We spot each other easily it seems
Something about us wants to be
Bohemian
Which is confirmed when we learn the names of the other’s pet
Atwood
and
Burns
This alone
Will make us sleep together
We don’t need conventional dating
A little talk
Some world music
And [...]

In the September 09 edition of Wired, Clive Thompson has a short article in which he basically cites and agrees with Andrea Lunsford (a writing teacher at Stanford) that our students are more literate in the age of facebook and texting–they actually write (even if it’s just tweets) when they aren’t required to by a [...]

I actually finished this book a few weeks ago, but life has been even more busy than normal lately.
I didn’t want to let too much time go past, however, without mentioning it. (Bookgroup members: we will read this when Courtney returns, fear not).
The Year of the Flood does what no previous Atwood book has done [...]

If I could make it, I would so make it.  Tell your friends in Canada!
From www.pagesbooks.ca

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 SHE’S SHAMELESS / SHE’S WRITING

What media event five years ago transformed the lives of teenaged girls across North America? Here’s a clue: it had nothing to do with a boy wizard or the misadventures of trust fund brats.  In June [...]

As many of you know, my most common form of artistic expression is making lists.  Usually these free-form poems take the form of “to do” and “groceries,” but occasionally, something with more substance emerges.  For example, my book group is currently making a list of books we know we should have read, but haven’t.  We’ve [...]

I recently read Payback by Margaret Atwood.  It’s been hailed as another example of her amazing abilities of prediction.  Atwood is known for her keen observation of social trends.  Her predictive talent is so famed that she recently donated a prophecy for charity (the woman who bought it posted a blog about it–there was mention [...]

Some blogger believes I “forgot” things; not mentioning things in a non-comprehensive list is not to have forgotten them.  His title is also weird–I distinctly mention that there have been lawsuits, so his claim that they’ve not had them in 20 years is off.  The article is here:  http://reporter.blogs.com/thresq/2009/05/the-simpsons-20-years-of-lawsuitfree-funny.html
My touching tribute to Dom DeLuise (via [...]

I wanted to read The Last Witchfinder by James Morrow because I know a lot about witch history. I did my Masters on Witch Literature (about, not by) and I taught a course on witch mythology last summer.
Thus, this book did not teach me a damn thing, except that I don’t like this book.
As it’s [...]