The Literary Madhouse @professorclark - Tumblr Blog

And So It Goes… Tumblr grades have been recorded. Thank you for a really lovely semester. You probably didn’t know that coming to our class every Monday and Wednesday was a real joy for me. Getting to talk about books, ideas, writing, authors - that is why booklovers, writers, poets, linguists - any creative, really - ends up teaching: A chance to advocate for a thing she loves, for something that feels authentic. I’m glad for it. :)

Some of you have asked for other reading ideas, so… I’ll post more contemporary selections as they come to mind for those of you interested. Off the top of my head, though:

Miranda July - No One Belongs Here More than You (Short stories)

Dave Eggers - A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (autobio novel)

Rick Bragg - All Over But the Shoutin’ and Ava’s Man (Southern fiction)

Dorothy Allison - Bastard out of Carolina (Southern Fiction)

Junot Diaz - This is the Way You Lose Her and The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Novels)

Ta Nehisi Coates - Between the World and Me (Non-fiction)

Claudia Rankine - Citizen (poetry/prose)

Roxane Gay - Bad Feminist (Essays)

Zadie Smith - White Teeth (Novel)

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Americanah (Novel)

Jeffrey Eugenides - Middlesex (Novel)

Tom Robbins - Still Life with Woodpecker or Jitterbug Perfume (Novels)

Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse-Five (Novels)

Olena Kalytiak Davis - And Her Soul Out of Nothing (Poetry)

Richard Siken - Crush (Poetry)

Ocean Vuong - Night Sky with Exit Wounds (Poetry)

Marlon James - Night Women and A Brief History of Seven Killings (Novels)

Maggie Nelson - The Argonauts (Novel/autobio)

Cheryl Strayed - Tiny Beautiful Things (When Strayed was finally “outed” as the anonymous Rumpus columnist “Dear Sugar”, her letters were collected and published. This should probably be required reading for the human race)

Marissa Meyer - The Lunar Chronicles (YA Series - Mishnahs) If you haven’t had a chance to watch David Foster Wallace’s videos that I posted earlier in the semester, maybe take some time this summer to go back listen to them… This is water. This is water. This is water

The drama, from MGM Television, is based on the book by Margaret Atwood.

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG.

Neil Postman wrote...

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture... In 1984, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.

Spoiler: Here’s an animated video summary of BNW!

Alan Rickman -Proust Recitation This is a placeholder (mostly for me), but it’s nonetheless a beautiful reading of Proust, and apropos of the last week..

larry763-blog

professorclark

If this is your house, Larry, I know where the class party will be held.... :)

Fiction is one of the few experiences where loneliness can be both confronted and relieved. Drugs, movies where stuff blows up, loud parties - all these chase away loneliness by making me forget my name’s Dave and I live in a one-by-one box of bone no other party can penetrate or know. Fiction, poetry, music, really deep serious sex, and, in various ways, religion - these are the places (for me) where loneliness is countenanced, stared down, transfigured, treated. — David Foster Wallace

This is Water - Part 1 / David Foster Wallace DFW gave this really beautiful Commencement Address at Kenyon College. I've uploaded it in 2 installments of about ten-minutes each. Subtitled "Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life", this speech is made even more poignant (and important to heed, IMHO) given his suicide in recent years at age 46. Try to listen to both segments at the same sitting - when you have time (I think it's about 17 minutes long). This is not required. Just a speech I love, and a nice way to push your reset button.

#David Foster Wallace #This is Water