Not wanting to be left out of the fun, over at What I’m Reading I’ve begun the annual ritual of reading retrospection, highlighting some of my favorite reads from the past year. I’ve begun with five of my favorite short stories read in 2009. I’m hoping to follow up with posts on poetry, non-fiction, and…
In the midst of grading papers from a Philosophy of Language seminar now past, seeing students wrangle with Wittgenstein, Rorty, and Brandom–with the game-relative nature of meaning, the contexts of our linguistic practice–and looking for any sort of sloth-inducing distraction from this work, somehow Albert Goldbarth’s poem, “Sentimental” came to mind. (Perhaps because the overarching…
My guess is that, like me, you’re receiving a barrage of end-of-year solicitations from all sorts of good organizations and ministries who are struggling to continue their good work–particularly in a difficult economic climate. There are many that deserve our support. Let me encourage you to consider just two: The Christian Reformed World Relief Committee…
In Jay Neugeboren’s review of Beg, Borrow, Steal: A Writer’s Life (Other Press, 2009), which tracks Greenberg’s (relatively late) emergence as a “writer” (in his early fifties), Neugeboren makes the following disclosure, reflecting on Greenberg’s tale: “I found myself noting that I had myself accumulated, by my count, 576 rejections before I sold my first…
Kelly Reichardt’s film, Wendy and Lucy, is a mesmerizing adaptation of Jon Raymond’s story, “Train Choir.” Reichardt well captures Raymond’s Pacific Northwest–a solitary, derelict region, yet populated with quick conversationalists and in-breakings of charity, bringing to mind other Oregon films like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, or even The Postman (indeed, Will Patton makes…
I’m currently reading J. Kameron Carter’s book, Race: A Theological Account with an interdisciplinary group of faculty from across the college (and the seminary). Much to ponder here, and it will take me til next spring to digest it, but I couldn’t resist sharing this gem from the end of chapter 3 (on Albert Raboteau,…