High Comedy and Melodrama: Henry James on Screen
It’s James’s special gift to draw us so far inside this world that the smallest hint of a hidden truth, catching the silvery glint of an unexpected phrase or an unorthodox encounter, can strike us with the power of an earthquake.
A Stately, Plump Bronze Medalist: Oliver St. John Gogarty and the Olympic Art Competitions
Oliver St. John Gogarty, the real Buck Mulligan, received a bronze medal in “mixed literature.” Surprised? An Olympic medal for literature?
Full Stop Recommends (August 1, 2012)
Full Stop’s recommendations for reading, watching, and listening in August, the most peaceful month.
The Woman at the Table: Nora Ephron
Nora Ephron is clearly someone who grew up in love with the snappy patter and verbal gymnastics of classic screwball romances, but she made only a halfhearted attempt to achieve those same heights in her own movies.
Inalienable Resurrection: Tan Lin’s The Patio and the Index
If we can find birds on the pages of books, and gods within concrete, it does not seem fantastic to encounter our parents inside of their pots and patios.
Fantasies of Contact: Erica Baum, Susan Howe, and the Poetics of Paper
The most enduringly interesting meditations on paper are always more than acts of mourning or expressions of nostalgia.
The Situation in American Writing: Blake Butler
The nebulous enemy is not terrorism, it is us. I mean that in the kindest way.
The Terrible Affliction of Beauty
“You wish to speak about beauty and the modern world,” Mishima would say while lighting a hand-rolled cigarette. “I wrote about this back in ’59…Surely, Professor Scruton, you’ve read my book?”
Full Stop Recommends (June 5, 2012)
Full Stop contributor recommendations for reading, watching, and doing.
The scent of madness is in the air.