Top 100 US Literary Authors

In looking through my books, I thought it would be interesting to compile a list of American authors who have contributed to the formation of the modern novel. I took a stab at listing authors and then looked them up on Bookscan to see what their biggest novel was (I may have taken a liberty [...]

E.M. Forster’s Aspects of the Novel

Last year I read Percy Lubbock’s THE CRAFT OF FICTION, which was insightful and entertaining in a slightly dated way. Reading it made me realize how few books have been devoted to the structure of the novel, and I believe this is one reason E.M. Forster’s ASPECTS OF THE NOVEL receives so much praise. Forster [...]

Contemporary Literary Criticism

The NY Times has posted a series of articles on why criticism matters. The series attempts to further the dialogue Alfred Kazin began fifty years ago. Here is an excerpt from Stephen Burns’ piece:
Some writers may try to seal themselves off from the crackling energy of the Web, but the contemporary novel’s form is always [...]

Book rec for Crime and Punishment lovers

While working on my manuscript for The Babe and the Wolves, I have been reading Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. I have tried reading it a couple of times, but I am not a great fan of Dostoevsky’s writing style, but this time I powered through it.
Why read it if I did not think I [...]

Deconstructing Neo-Pragmatists

A little hip hop ditty on a semiotic tip. Neo-pragmatists deconstructed with digital turntablism, reducing anti-foundationalism to its very foundations.
As the man says, we just do what we do, baby, we do what we do.

You can download by right clicking here

Conceptual Art in NY Times: Jumping the Shark

Denis Dutton, a professor of the philosophy of art at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand and the author of “The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure and Human Evolution”, has written a poor and limited view of concpetual art for the NY Times. He asks if conceptual art has jumped the shark by placing too [...]