Tag Archives: literature
A Literary Trip
Posted by on Jul 5, 2014
A recent post on the introduced me to the book Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons. I had heard of the book but hadn’t read it or any other works by this authoress. Intrigued by ‘Aunt Ada Doom’s glimpse of “something nasty in the woodshed” that left her traumatised and confined to her room for decades, utterly dependent upon the Starkadders’, I went in search of the book and came across a review by ‘Anna’ on things mean a lot – a reading journal Read more of this post
Zen and the 17th chapter
Posted by on Oct 30, 2012
There’s a large fragment concerning Phaedrus’ first class after he gave that assignment on
“What is quality in thought and statement?”
The atmosphere was explosive. Almost everyone seemed as frustrated and angered as he had been by the question. “How are we supposed to know what quality is?” they said. “You’re supposed to tell us!”
Then he told them he couldn’t figure it out either and really wanted to know. He had assigned it in the hope that somebody would come up with a good answer. That ignited it. A roar of indignation shook the room. Before the commotion had settled down another teacher had stuck his head in the door to see what the trouble was. Read more of this post
From Bowdler to Gribben
Posted by on Jan 19, 2011
Stefan Kanfer writing in City Journal- Gribbenizing Finn, claims that a valuable new verb has entered the English language with the exit of a noun from a classic novel.
He writes that Alan Gribben, a member of the English faculty at Auburn University in Montgomery, Alabama, has been called a Mark Twain scholar by no less an authority than Entertainment Weekly. It’s in that role that this learned teacher joins with the great censors of the past.
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