Bernard Rose‘s The Kreuzer Sonata might be the best cinematic treatment of insidious, corrosive, and ultimately self-destructive sexual jealousy that I have seen recently. Based on Leo Tolstoy‘s 1889 novella, and part of a trilogy of Tolstoy-adaptations by Rose–I have not seen his Anna Karenina and Ivan’s XTC yet, but I intend to–the film belongsContinue reading “Bernard Rose’s Kreuzer Sonata: Sex and Jealousy Forever”
Category Archives: Writing
Starting to Understand the Reactionary Mind
My Brooklyn College colleague Corey Robin‘s new book, The Reactionary Mind, has, thanks to its provocative thesis (and its brilliant prose, a rare quality in an academic book), sparked a great deal of discussion in academic and non-academic circles alike. Given the relevance of the book to modern American political life, and its provision ofContinue reading “Starting to Understand the Reactionary Mind”
Cary Sherman is Upset SOPA and PIPA Were Not Enacted
I am thankful to the RIAA‘s Cary Sherman for having provided a wonderful sample of writing, which may profitably be used by those teaching classes on rhetoric and critical thinking. I’m referring to Sherman’s screed in today’s New York Times, which alternates between self-pity and bluster in complaining about the failure of the passage ofContinue reading “Cary Sherman is Upset SOPA and PIPA Were Not Enacted”
Cyberflânerie Contd.
My post yesterday on cyberflanerie sparked a couple of thoughtful and interesting comments in response. John says: [T]he social web also permits us to make ‘friends’ on the basis of common interests. On blogs or on Twitter, we regularly see conversations between former strangers on subjects of common interest. And David Barry said: [T]o a smallContinue reading “Cyberflânerie Contd.”
Epistolary Warfare in the Letters Section
Readers of the New York Review of Books are used to the sometimes intemperate, bordering-on-pedantic, yet-always-carefully-crafted display of bruised egos that takes up so much space toward the end of each issue. I am referring, of course, to the Letters section. Here the author, formerly delighted to find out his masterpiece was to be reviewedContinue reading “Epistolary Warfare in the Letters Section”
Concurring Opinions Online Symposium on A Legal Theory for Autonomous Artificial Agents
Remember that New York Times article about all the legal headaches that Google’s autonomous cars are causing? Well, if you found that interesting, you should read on. On February 14-16, the Concurring Opinions blog will host an online symposium dedicated to a discussion of my book A Legal Theory for Autonomous Artificial Agents. (Many thanksContinue reading “Concurring Opinions Online Symposium on A Legal Theory for Autonomous Artificial Agents”
Lorin Stein on Ben Lerner’s Adam: An Aspiring Poet’s Worries
In reviewing Ben Lerner’s novel Leaving the Atocha Station (“The White Machine of Life”, New York Review of Books, December 8 2011, Vol 58, Number 19), Lorin Stein notes that Adam, the novel’s central character, is “a poet who doesn’t have much feeling for poetry, for art in general.” And this poet is confronted aContinue reading “Lorin Stein on Ben Lerner’s Adam: An Aspiring Poet’s Worries”
Marcus Aurelius On Correcting Others
In his Meditations (Book One), Marcus Aurelius offers us a lesson in constructive criticism: From Alexander the grammarian, [I learned] to refrain from fault-finding, and not in a reproachful way to chide those who uttered any barbarous or solecistic or strange-sounding expression; but dexterously to introduce the very expression which ought to have been used,Continue reading “Marcus Aurelius On Correcting Others”
Milton’s Satan, Heaven and Hell, And The Mind
A few posts ago, in writing about the detritus that can be found on professor’s office doors, I had recounted a little self-indulgent story about first finding Cavafy’s The City. Today, I want to point you to another ‘found’ poem–more accurately, a fragment–located, not on an office door but rather, in a budding poet’s workspace.Continue reading “Milton’s Satan, Heaven and Hell, And The Mind”
Things You Could Find On A Professor’s Office Door: Cavafy’s City
Professors put the darndest things on their office doors: I’ll-be-back-in-five-minutes notices, announcements of conferences, descriptions of new classes, suitably anonymized student grades, political posters, stickers. And then it gets wierd: vacation photos, children’s drawings, cartoons (a perennial faculty favorite in New York appears to be New Yorker cartoons), and of course, jokes culled from theContinue reading “Things You Could Find On A Professor’s Office Door: Cavafy’s City”
Samir Chopra 