Essays
January 23, 2012
Where Parents Get Their Power: Evidence from The Brothers Karamazov 7
by Kevin Hartnett
It occurred to me that the Grand Inquisitor’s interpretation of the Temptation of Christ effectively describes the power I hold over my two sons.
January 20, 2012
The Literary Pedigree of Downton Abbey 7
by Garth Risk Hallberg
The current PBS Masterpiece series mashes the “class” buttons hard, in both the literary and the economic senses. But its relationship with the English novel is more complicated than it might appear.
January 20, 2012
HBO (Isn’t) Filming The Corrections at My Parents’ House: TV and Fiction 16
by A-J Aronstein
She cut me off and asked whether she should call HBO. She added that they offered anywhere between $1,000 and $3,000 for every day they were filming. My response was something along the lines of: “YOU HAVE TO TELL THEM THAT YOU WILL DO WHATEVER IT TAKES TO FILM THIS SHOW IN OUR HOUSE.”
January 18, 2012
Escapism for Moms: Three Chronicles of Fatherhood 5
by Polly Rosenwaike
I found myself cheering these elusive mothers: Let her work! Let her sleep! Let her leave town! Some of my fondest feelings toward my daughter, I must admit, rise up in me when I imagine her at home with her dad.
January 11, 2012
My Hour of the Star: On Clarice Lispector 3
by Magdalena Edwards
Whether through direct address or the urban intensity and flat out strangeness of the prose, the reader cannot lurk behind the book’s spine, but rather is constantly called upon.
January 10, 2012
Writing the City 6
by Madison Smartt Bell
They say fiction requires conflict; well, when New York was a war of all against all, you had all the conflict you could handle any time you put your feet on the street.
