Category Archives: Uncategorized

big thoughts, little thoughts

The semester is finally up and running, and my head is crowded with Big Thoughts like What exactly is the difference between mastery in Freud and jouissance in Lacan? and What thirty Suggested Topics can I generate for my students … Continue reading

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Hatteras moment II

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Hatteras moment

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on vacation with a literary type

You know the simile “clinging like a limpet”? Or is that one of those expressions I learnt in a novel and no one actually says? The line between conversational savvy and irritating (or worse, amusing) literary obscurantism has been fuzzy … Continue reading

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adventures in wildlife management

Alas, more springtime heartbreak is upon us: The other day Neil and I set traps for the rat that’s been enjoying the bird-feeder scatterings in our front yard. He sits demurely under the fence watching us with bright black eyes, … Continue reading

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schadenfreude

It’s one of those splendid German borrow-words we can’t use in real life, due to pronunciation insecurities (and the fear of sounding like Frasier Crane).  Schaden=harm + Freude= joy. Pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others explains a lot of … Continue reading

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picture your plot

Sometime during the first lecture of every term, I draw this diagram on the whiteboard.  Fiction or non-fiction, Macbeth or an IKEA commercial, a narrative can almost always be mapped onto this trajectory of rising action, crisis and wrap-up. I’m … Continue reading

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I love my neighborhood

 

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On board with random?

Is randomness as cool in fiction as it is everywhere else in the YA world? Look at the comments on TomSka’s ASDF Movie (10 million views and counting!):”this is the randomest ever!”  The wiki for the videos also cites, as … Continue reading

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