Reading Nabokov

2024-03-12T03:26:53+00:00

Initially, Lolita was considered unpublishable. Even I was reluctant to read it. But this story is just as much about Dolores and the world that allows her to be defiled and corrupted by men like Humbert. And it is brilliant.

Reading Nabokov2024-03-12T03:26:53+00:00

Banned Books Week: The Burning of the Mayan Codex

2024-09-07T00:21:29+00:00

The Mayans believed that writing was sacred (as I do). They had one of the most advanced writing systems in the ancient world. Deciphering them was difficult since few books survived the Spanish Inquisition.

Banned Books Week: The Burning of the Mayan Codex2024-09-07T00:21:29+00:00

Virginia Woolf: Genius and Madness

2024-03-12T03:25:49+00:00

Published in 1931, The Waves pioneered a stream-of-consciousness style that really just mimicked the voices in her head. She battled mental illness all her life, and in the end, she lost, filling her pockets with rocks and drowning herself in the River Ouse.

Virginia Woolf: Genius and Madness2024-03-12T03:25:49+00:00

Banned Books Week: The Rise and Fall of Moorish Spain

2024-02-21T21:58:51+00:00

The Moors pulled Europe out of the Dark Ages by bringing agriculture, architecture, medicine, science, and libraries. But after the Reconquista of Moorish Spain in 1492, over 1 million non-Catholic books were burned, most of them Arabic, but also Jewish books and those on the sciences.

Banned Books Week: The Rise and Fall of Moorish Spain2024-02-21T21:58:51+00:00

Banned Books Week: Soviet-Era Writers

2024-02-21T21:58:46+00:00

Upon the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the state library in Moscow had collected over 27,000 books that were banned.

Banned Books Week: Soviet-Era Writers2024-02-21T21:58:46+00:00

Life and Literature, The Kite Runner

2024-02-21T21:58:38+00:00

Khaled Hosseini describes an Afghanistan before the Taliban and the wars that ravaged it, where childhood dreams soared as high as the kites they flew, girls were educated to become doctors, and the Buddhas of Bamiyan once stood safely. Now, two decades after publication is another generation who might know nothing of it but war.

Life and Literature, The Kite Runner2024-02-21T21:58:38+00:00

Intellectual Equals: Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre

2024-02-21T21:58:35+00:00

Like Kahlo and Rivera and Henry Miller and Anaïs Nin, they were intellectual equals who had polyamorous affairs. But de Beauvoir was unique - she would take on young female lovers, as if in training, and then pass them on.

Intellectual Equals: Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre2024-02-21T21:58:35+00:00

The Fire This Time, Rereading James Baldwin

2024-02-21T21:55:10+00:00

Born in 1924 in a segregated Harlem as the son of a preacher man, Baldwin would go on to become one of the most resonant voices of the Civil Rights Movement. There was always something fearless and revolutionary in his writings. And I love him most for that.

The Fire This Time, Rereading James Baldwin2024-02-21T21:55:10+00:00

Haunted by Hemingway

2024-02-21T21:56:50+00:00

"𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘰 𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘦𝘵, 𝘐 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘰𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨." Early one summer morning, Ernest Hemingway took his favorite double-barrel shotgun, bent himself over it, and pulled the trigger.

Haunted by Hemingway2024-02-21T21:56:50+00:00

Life and Literature, 1984

2024-02-21T21:56:59+00:00

Orwell's seminal dystopian novel was written in light of Nazi Germany and the consequences of hate-filled ideologies. Set in the future, this story about governments driving perpetual wars, cameras tracking our private lives, and the use of psychological and physical torture has become frighteningly true. It was only meant to be a warning.

Life and Literature, 19842024-02-21T21:56:59+00:00
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