Foucault, in the introductory lecture of Wrong-Doing and Truth-Telling, asserts that philosophy begins in the wonder at being, critical philosophy in … More
Category: Reading Journal
265. (William Empson)
With each return to Empson’s criticism, a new fulcrum point on which it can be turned. The chapter on “Candid … More
263. (Marlon James)
Marlon James’ The Book of Night Women is, like, A Brief History of Seven Killings, a book about plotting and … More
261. (Mary Douglas)
For a while, I tried to think through Mary Douglas’ “cultural theory” in relation to attitudes towards waste in nineteenth-century … More
257. (T.S. Eliot)
Since the age of 16 or 17, when I discovered the criticism of T.S. Eliot for myself, I’ve met with … More
256. (Samuel Beckett)
Beckett said Samuel Johnson was always with him; yet reading the trilogy, Molloy etc, one feels also (Kenner remarked on … More
252. (Hart Crane)
It’s been more than fifteen years since I’ve taken a surprisingly beat-up copy of The Complete Poems of Hart Crane … More
251. (William Makepeace Thackeray)
Vanity Fair asks that we accept the affection that the novelist-narrator feels for the creatures of the Fair, animated as … More
249. (Charles Dickens)
The similarity between Molière and Dickens illuminates what is essential to the power of each: the insight into self-deception that … More
248. (James Thomson)
Among the reasons Thomson’s “The City of Dreadful Night” can be enjoyed is that it is a second-rate poem that … More
Critical Provisions 