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Midwest Mod Squad no. 04: Chris Arp’s “Gormley”
Midwest Mod Squad no. 04: Chris Arp’s “Gormley” (Read Midwest Mod Squad no. 03 here) Chris Arp graduated from NYU’s Creative Writing Program. His story “Gormley,” is set in mid-nineteenth–century...
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Midwest Mod Squad no. 05: Nicole Cuffy’s “Steal Away”
Midwest Mod Squad no. 05: Nicole Cuffy’s “Steal Away” (Read Midwest Mod Squad no. 04 here) Nicole Cuffy is a New York based writer with a BA from Columbia University and an MFA from the New School....
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How Tolstoy Tells Story
How Tolstoy Tells Story According to Count Tolstoy: He [Borís] could not tell them simply that everyone went at a trot and that he fell off his horse and sprained his arm and then ran as hard as he...
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Hosting the Italians: Part II of III
Hosting the Italians: Part II of II (Read Part I here.) Onto the plains [of west Texas] you issue as onto a lighted stage, and with that sudden sense of isolation and exposure. The farther behind you...
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That “Religion” does not Equal “Culture”
That “Religion” does not Equal “Culture” I don’t quite understand Rod Dreher today when he writes: In 1966, Philip Rieff [(1922–2006)] observed [in Triumph of the Therapeutic]: The death of a culture...
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Book Treasures from Germany
Book Treasures from Germany This translation of Dickens’s Oliver Twist comes from 1927, printed in Stuttgart, contains some beautiful illustrations by H. Grobet. It was a gift, and I believe it was...
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Midwest Mod Squad no. 6: Stories of Drugs and Bullies
Midwest Mod Squad no. 6: Stories of Drugs and Bullies (Read Midwest Mod Squad no. 5 here.) As done previously in this series, in this post I will describe the essences of four short stories I’ve...
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What a Polish Social Scientist Thought of Immigration in the U.S. (c. 1934)
What a Polish Social Scientist Thought of Immigration in the U.S. (c. 1934) From Florian Znaniecki’s (1882-1958) The Methodology of Sociology (1934): Even real active participation in foreign social...
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Hosting the Italians: Part III of III
Hosting the Italians: Part III of III (Read Part II here.) I. So the gang got back to Austin early Saturday afternoon, their bellies full of eclairs and kolaches and peach cobbler from die gut Volk...
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Midwest Mod Squad no. 07 When Memory Melts into Water
Midwest Mod Squad no. 07 When Memory Melts into Water (Read Midwest Mod Squad no. 06 here.) I. These actions [of remembrance] are inward, in the vast hall of my memory. There sky, land, and sea are...
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The Written Word is Not the Spoken Word in Any Language
The Written Word is Not the Spoken Word in Any Language From Kenneth Jackson’s (1909–1991), Language and History in Early Britain, (Edinburgh: University Press, 1953): In the Lowland Zone [of Britain]...
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Midwest Mod Squad no. 08: Comedy and Calamity
Midwest Mod Squad no. 08: Comedy and Calamity I. What is my method for reviewing short fiction in this series? Basically, I’m just comparing things I’ve recently read (or reread) to the texts and...
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A Sociology of Texas, 1978-2018
A Sociology of Texas, 1978-2018 I’m very excited to have my review of Lawrence Wright’s God Save Texas: a Journey into the Soul of the Lone Star State (2018) published in the Berlin Review of Books! A...
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Thursdays with Hobos
Thursdays with Hobos My great-grandfather’s autobiography mentions that he was a hobo in North Texas during the early 1920’s. While researching some of his claims, I came across some wonderful...
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The Stress of Balancing Time to Read Versus Time to Write
The Stress of Balancing Time to Read Versus Time to Write For about the past month, I’ve been lagging on blogging. Part of it is trying to find a better balance of time spent reading versus time spent...
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To Learn a Language, You Must Live in that Language
To Learn a Language, You Must Live in that Language At least according to Gregory Bateson (1904-1980): Perhaps a curriculum is like a hand in that every piece and component of what they would call a...
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The Missionaries of Texas Politics
The Missionaries of Texas Politics Might Beto or Cruz employ this old tried-and-true method? Via Robert Caro’s Means of Assent: Vol. II of the Life and Times of Lyndon Baines Johnson, (New York:...
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The Purpose of this Book Blog
The Purpose of This Book Blog I’ve pointed out before that George Steiner has pointed out: What we need (I have argued this elsewhere) are not ‘programs in the humanities,’ ‘schools of creative...
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10 Interesting Online Items I’ve Read Since October 2017
10 Interesting Online Items I’ve Read Since October 2017 Here are some links to some interesting things I’ve lately read. I’ve been saving them for myself to eventually reread and probably get some...
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Four New Pieces that Think Seriously About Reading
Four New Pieces that Think Seriously About Reading Grace Olmstead, “How Did You Read This Summer?” The American Conservative, September 3, 2018. Matthew Hennessey, “The Cost of Our Digital...
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