Having finished watching Season 4 of Breaking Bad, and having no access to Season 5 till it emerges on DVD or streaming, I’m going to go ahead and speculate a bit about the show’s eventual direction and conclusion. Many of the issues raised and provoked by the first four seasons seem to require resolution ifContinue reading “Breaking Bad Season 5 Speculation: Reconciliations for Redemption”
Category Archives: Writing
Seamus Perry on Samuel Palmer and the Laying Bare of the Artist
A quick pre-disclaimer: Pardon me for referencing the London Review of Books two days in a row, but that’s what weekend-catching-up-with-a-stack-of-unread reviews can do to you. In reviewing Rachel Campbell-Johnson‘s Mysterious Wisdom: The Life and Work of Samuel Palmer (‘The Shoreham Gang‘, LRB, 5th April 20120), and in particular, on Palmer‘s ‘The Valley Thick with Corn,’Continue reading “Seamus Perry on Samuel Palmer and the Laying Bare of the Artist”
Roald Dahl’s Magical Chocolate World
The editors of the London Review of Books blog have reminded me–not personally, silly, I don’t know them that well, or rather, at all–that September 13th was Roald Dahl Day. They do so by noting Michael Irwin’s review of George’s Marvelous Medicine (which, sadly, I have not read), one that references in turn, Charlie andContinue reading “Roald Dahl’s Magical Chocolate World”
Monument Valley and The Familiarity of the New
One of the strangest, and yet entirely unsurprising, reactions to seeing Monument Valley (my journey to which had served as occasion for rueful wonderment at the continued plight of the Native American), is a sense of familiarity: I’ve seen this before, somewhere, somehow. Among the curious welter of emotions too, that the Valley evokes isContinue reading “Monument Valley and The Familiarity of the New”
Buying ‘Used’ and Loving It
It’s a bit of a perfect storm, really, of triggered memories and associations: Larry McMurtry’s post on selling second-hand books makes me think about my recent travels out in the American West, which included a small book-shopping spree at a used-book store in Boulder, CO. And thinking about that in turn reminded me that wheneverContinue reading “Buying ‘Used’ and Loving It”
Finding Philosophy in Literature
This semester, I am teaching Philosophical Issues in Literature. PIL is one of Brooklyn College’s so-called upper-tier core courses; all graduating students are required to take a pair of these. Unsurprisingly, just about every student registered for my class told me during the first day’s introductions that they were taking the class because of aContinue reading “Finding Philosophy in Literature”
Tim Parks Overrates the Indispensability of Copyright Regimes
Tim Parks has an interesting article on copyright over at the New York Review of Books Blog. (Parks concentrates almost exclusively on copyright for literary works and does not mention movies or software executables.) There are some interesting observations in it, which lead up to a puzzling conclusion. Roughly, copyright law is indispensable because itContinue reading “Tim Parks Overrates the Indispensability of Copyright Regimes”
RIP Neil Armstrong
Upon graduating from high school–confused and directionless–I considered taking on an undergraduate education in the US. I pursued the application process for as long as I could, before the financial impossibility of it all made me cease and desist. Among the majors I thought of making my own was aeronautical and aerospace engineering, and theContinue reading “RIP Neil Armstrong”
Off The Road, Back In Town
Returning from vacation and getting back to work is always hard. This year, returning to a three-class, ten-credit teaching load after driving some six thousand miles through New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming and South Dakota feels particularly onerous. Syllabi still need finishing touches, and despite my best attempts to hike as much as possible,Continue reading “Off The Road, Back In Town”
The Distraction of Distraction
I’ve written on distraction on this blog before (several times: detailing my ‘Net distraction; comparing the distraction attendant when trying to write with a pen as opposed to a word processor or blog editor; describing the effect of changing locales of work on distraction and of persistent online activity on the ‘offline’ world; noting howContinue reading “The Distraction of Distraction”
Samir Chopra 