January 2012
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Last exit to Llanview: Michael Malone looks back... →
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“After I learned how to read I liked to copy pictures and trace them and I still...”
– Lynda Barry, from Blabber Blabber Blabber: Volume 1 of Everything
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I would like to read something by Colette this year. Any recommendations?
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“An aristocracy of swans pushed haughtily through a commonality of ducks and a...”
– from “Badger,” as printed in The Drummer of the Eleventh North Devonshire Fusiliers by Guy Davenport
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Imaginary Danish Books
How To Be Sure As To What Is And What Isn’t
The Doll’s Guide to Existentialism
If This, Then What?
You Are More Miserable Than You Think You Are
[This is a list of the books that Belinda the doll sees in the window of a Copenhagen bookshop, in Guy Davenport’s story “Belinda’s World Tour.” Belinda notes “the Danes are melancholy and drink lots of...
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“Yet Kafka’s stay in the city was not utterly bleak; hence the first of my...”
– Mark Harman in “Missing Persons: Two Little Riddles About Kafka and Berlin” via the Kafka Project.
Guy Davenport wrote a story about this episode called “Belinda’s World Tour.”
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December 2011
16 posts
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“Though Mr. Jubber presented, to all appearance, the most scoundrelly aspect that...”
– Wilkie Collins, in Hide and Seek (1854).
Hooray for Wilkie Collins villains! The phrase “climax of blackguard perfection” is my new favorite. A few paragraphs hence Mr. Jubber says accusingly, “What do you mean by enticing away my Mysterious Foundling?” I love it.
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Victorian Cribbage Lingo
From Hide and Seek by Wilkie Collins (1854):
Zack took Mrs. Blyth’s advice, and sat down by her, with his back towards the cribbage players.
“Well, the question is, What present am I to give her?” he went on. “I’ve been twisting and turning it over in my mind, and the long and the short of it is—”
(“Fifteen two, fifteen four, and a pair’s...
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RIP Dick Adler, you were the best →
Very sad to discover that Dick Adler, the king of mystery book critics, passed away last month. I have so many fond memories of curling up with the Chicago Tribune book section on Sunday, anxious to read his latest.
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world AIDS day
maybe should have expected it, but felt deep dark sad all day. however, it felt wrong not to post a “get tested!” bit to mark the day. seriously: get tested. unless you are celibate, you really can’t know for certain that you are HIV negative today without getting tested. and if you are positive, it’s important to start getting treatment as soon as possible. please do...
November 2011
41 posts
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languagehat: The etymology of the word pie →
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“Because I don’t like theories and don’t have the wisdom to design a...”
– Guy Davenport, born today in 1927. This is from his essay “What Are Revolutions?” reprinted in The Hunter Gracchus. Davenport’s enthusiasm for Denmark—which comes up fairly often in his writing—is endearing. Born in South Carolina, he spent almost his entire adult life...
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“Socrates’ daimon was an inheritance from the Pythagoreans. All of our...”
– Guy Davenport, born today, in the essay “Keeping Time,” as reprinted in The Hunter Gracchus.
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“Daimons, Plutarch tells us, are laundered and polished souls of the dead sent...”
– Guy Davenport, born today, in the essay “Keeping Time,” as reprinted in The Hunter Gracchus.