This iBook is what I want. I want, want, want. There’s no real needfor it, so I feel guilty about lusting over it, but it’s there, and I’mdrooling over it. It’d be *so nice* to be able to take it to class andtype notes on it, take it to the library when I read reserve […]
Each month we’ve been spending more or less $600 more than our meager $1000/month budget. Once Josh gets a job, we’ll have hopefully another $4,000 a month. Horrors! How, you might ask yourself, will we find ways to continue spending beyond our means? I’ve thought of some ways… The minute Josh gets a job, we’re […]
All four of the short stories from Ficciones that I read for today’s class with Professor Sandra Cypess seem to me to be centered around a celebration of the act of creation – but none so much as “Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius,” and “Las ruinas circulares.” In these two stories, Borges creates entities that have […]
what should I get for my birthday? the choices abound. Here are some options so far… 1. A massage ($50)2. The Scar by Miéville3. A “gentle” sea-kayaking trip for two (might be sold out, though) ($70)4. hm…. Must think some more. Remember when we were kids and had lists about three pages long of allthe […]
(Before we start today’s blog: yes, I know my blog is ugly. I keepasking Josh to make it look like his blog (http://mindsound.org/blog/)but he doesn’t have the time. :P) But here’s today’s announcement: I just finished another text summary(Quincas Borba this time), adding it to the hella extensive listI’ve already got up: http://munge.net/~diana/comps/compsindex.html It’s perhaps […]
I’ve recently discovered my favorite writer of all time, ChinaMiéville. Yup, on my list he’s right up there with NealStephenson (The Diamond Age and Cryptonomicon, my othertwo favorite novels). As an interviewer puts it, “China Miéville’s urbanworlds are dark, dreary, decayed… and utterly magical. From the grimy,seedy underbelly of London to the twisted and hauntingly […]
I finally got my lazy butt online last night to learn, to my chagrin, that it’s impossible to purchase tickets to SNL. You have to send an email – ONLY during the month of August – and be entered in a lottery. Either that, or stand in line “no later than 7am” to get standby […]
not just words written on a page? Traditional literary criticism has itthat there are only two ways of understanding any text, a binaryconception of literary criticism based upon the dichotomy activevs passive reader. As an example of the principle divisionbetween active/passive reader, one can read Rayuela by JulioCortázar; the author presents two ways of reading […]
Sandra Cisneros is my idol. Really. I just finished reading The House on Mango Street for the second time, and am realizing just how much that work has influenced my own writing. This is exactly the kind of book I want to do my dissertation on – the Bildungsroman of a girl growing up in […]