Nabokov, Joyce, and Shakespeare’s Second Best Bed

Subtitle: Burn, Nabokov, Burn!
The current discussion of what to do with Nabokov’s posthumous work, which he wanted burned (Tom Stoppard says to burn it. John Banville says save it), reminds me of a New Yorker piece from 2006 on James Joyce’s grandson and his battle with the literary critics pulling Joyce’s work apart.
These [...]

I am overwhelmed.

Orwell, Kipling, NYTimes, William Kristol (this is the link to the piece)…I slump in amazement.
And wouldn’t you say Obama’s read Kipling? (”If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, / Or walk with kings–nor lose the common touch” (Isn’t that the rhetorical feat he’s perfected?).)

On Blogging

I’ve blogged (I had it in quotes, but it’s not a dirty word) on and off for a number of years now, although never with the intention of having other people read what I’ve written.
For a long time, I thought of blogging with an audience in mind as egotistical, so I would use the blog [...]