What Google Thinks of the Great Books
Google autocomplete is where word association meets global group-think. Renee DiResta of the no upside blog recently asked Google “Why is [State] so” and let the search engine fill in the rest. Jim Romenesko did the same thing with major media figures. The results are both amusing and unsurprising. The New York Times and NPR are liberal; Fox News is biased; … Continue reading
Laughter and the Agelasts in Rabelais
What a post title that is! Writing about Rabelais and Gargantua and Pantagruel reminds me of the foolish errand of the men who try to scientifically parse what makes something funny. That is like determining the materials used to paint the Mona Lisa by seeing how fast it burns. Rabelais is, or at least was, … Continue reading
A New Book: Gargantua and Pantagruel
Little Women is completed and so we move on to a new book on the Master List. A quick glance at the Books Left to Read list, and I see there are very few left in the top tier. Nine, to be exact, ranging from St. Augustine in the 4th Century to William Gaddis in the … Continue reading
Little Women: The Sequel!
So a peculiar packaging issue faces the publisher of Little Women: is it two books or one? Way back in 1868, Part I was titled Little Women and included the first two dozen chapters. Part II was a completely separate book titled Good Wives, and was published a year later after the first volume became … Continue reading
What Novels Make You Feel Uneasy on the First Page?
On page 126 of If on a winter’s night a traveler a character obsessed with reading everything she can get her hands on makes this statement: The novels I prefer are those that make you feel uneasy from the very first page. What kind of novels are those? I have to say that the experience … Continue reading
Letters Republic 