Okay, here it is. The first foray into a new series whereby I record myself reacting to a literary text I’ve never read. My first choice, Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain, a book that has sat atop my “should read” list for many, many moons now. Below you will find a video of my readingContinue reading “The Magic Mountain (Reaction Vlog #1)”
Category Archives: Literature
I’ve Got An Idea: The Literary Reaction Vlog
If you’ve perused the video introduction above, you get the gist of the idea. In keeping with the new interest in the REACTION vlog, in which a person reacts in real time to a media artifact like video or music that they have never seen or heard before, I propose to try a reaction vlogContinue reading “I’ve Got An Idea: The Literary Reaction Vlog”
Journal of the Plague Year: #19
The United States is dealing with two plagues simultaneously: the plague of the coronavirus pandemic and the plague of racism. It’s pretty clear to most white folks how they can protect themselves against COVID-19: social distance, wash your damn hands, don’t touch your face, wear a mask, stay home if you’re feeling sick, get testedContinue reading “Journal of the Plague Year: #19”
#356: Another Triolet for Moby Dick
Almost seven years ago today, I wrote a triolet about not being able to finish Moby Dick by Herman Melville. Here I am, in the same boat, so to speak, in 2020. A double poetic feature today: first, the triolet from 2013 (with some minor revisions), then today’s triolet. What’s a triolet, you ask? On Trying toContinue reading “#356: Another Triolet for Moby Dick”
#355: Ophelia Was Really On To Something
There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance. Pray you, love, remember. And there is pansies, that’s for thoughts. There’s fennel for you, and columbines. There’s rue for you, and here’s some for me. We may call it herb-grace o’Sundays. O, you must wear your rue with a difference. There’s a daisy. I would give you someContinue reading “#355: Ophelia Was Really On To Something”
A Journal of the Plague Year: #12
Jesus, I wish the sun would come back out. The weather is still shitty, and it is Monday, March 30, the day we would have returned to the classroom after Spring Break had we no pandemic. Even in the early stages, the first school closure only included the five school days preceding the break andContinue reading “A Journal of the Plague Year: #12”
A Journal of the Plague Year: #6
This morning (upon waking? in the shower? during meditation, while Sam Harris spoke to me about conscious awareness? over breakfast?), I found myself thinking Thoreau. Passages from Walden were emerging from the memory banks where favorite books are stored. It occurred to me that if one were to grab a classic from American Literature off the shelfContinue reading “A Journal of the Plague Year: #6”
The American English Teacher Rereads a Clean Copy of Beloved
I’ve posted a slightly different version of this piece before, two years ago and some change. It seems appropriate to post this revision now in honor of Toni Morrison, whose fiction has over the course of my adult life completely changed my heart and my brain in immeasurably powerful and positive ways. The American EnglishContinue reading “The American English Teacher Rereads a Clean Copy of Beloved”
The Book I Read: The Trouble With Men, Indeed
In this fourth month of 2019 I am making good on two of my new year’s resolutions, one, to write more, and two, to read more. I begin this endeavor by writing a poem every day for a month, while simultaneously writing more about what I’m reading more. Let’s start with this. For me, thereContinue reading “The Book I Read: The Trouble With Men, Indeed”
Diary of an English Teacher in His Penultimate Year, Redux: Kids These Days, Part the Third–On Being and Unbeing
I’ve been writing lately about student behavior. In one blog I commiserated with my elementary school colleagues about young children who cause violent disruptions and I bemoaned the high school apathy I saw at my own school, and in another blog I wrote about surprising teenage shenanigans, you know, like bringing communion wafers to class.Continue reading “Diary of an English Teacher in His Penultimate Year, Redux: Kids These Days, Part the Third–On Being and Unbeing”
michael jarmer 