Nostalgia for a Life Never Lived and The Work of Rumer Godden

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When Godden isn’t escaping into the scents and colors of India, she escapes into a world of nuns.
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Dissecting the List: An Excursus

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The Bourdieuvian posture - I've come to think of it as the Who-Are-You-Going-to-Believe,-Me-Or-Your-Lying-Eyes? school of criticism - may be as much an infection as a diagnosis. It seems to have invaded, unexamined, online discourse about books, movies, music, and art.
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Working the Double Shift

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The phrase 'day job,' of course, implies that one’s passions lie elsewhere.
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The Writing Dance

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The life of an artist is all about flinging yourself into the world, the muck and annoyance and pleasure of it, and then pulling yourself out, to make art.
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Seeing Red at the Frankfurt Book Fair

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Standing in the US, where NEA studies claim that just over half of the population has pretty much stopped reading entirely, the Chinese government’s concern over the printed word seems slightly anachronistic
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The Beautiful Gifts That Students Bear

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I found myself reaching for the students (in my mind) as they piled into the elevator while I stayed behind to gather my things; I thought, hey, wait, we were just getting started.
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A Bolaño Syllabus

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For the kind of person who prefers to adjust to the swimming pool by inches rather than jumping straight into the deep end, the massive 2666 may have felt a lot like drowning.
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Fated Love: The Work of Valerian Pidmohylny

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Decades after their creation, Pidmohylny’s characters remain poignant.
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Required Reading: The Medicine of Poetry

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They think I have stopped mid-thought, suddenly discovering that I am in the wrong place, writing the wrong thing to the wrong students.
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Decompensate Your Way To Better Fiction

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I’ve been working the last two years on my first novel, which has certain elements of autobiography to it, and in that time I can’t help but notice a certain decline in the indicators of good mental health.
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Ah! Bright Wings

This new apocalyptic cast suits me, overeducated and apparently unemployable, as it suits California's less than golden state.

Slow Me Up, Slow Me Down

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My life is running away from me, and I can’t keep up. Maybe you can relate. I’m starting to wonder if humanity is divided between those who thrive on speed and those who are pummeled by it.
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On Walking and Reading at the Same Time

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Narrative and walking—as Chaucer knew—are a fortuitous match.
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The Technology Fails Essay

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When my technology fails, the lack of it consumes me. When someone else’s technology fails them, I am vaguely sympathetic, but I’m losing my ability to feel anything in response.
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T.V. Party Tonight!

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Maybe rather than asking “Is this indie?” we should satisfy ourselves with asking “Is it a good show?” or even better, “Do I like it?”
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What I Read on My Summer Vacation

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Sometimes I feel like everyone's eating this thing called scrambled eggs (What are those, I wonder. They look good.), while I'm enjoying a delicious chantarelle and pecorino frittata.
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The Bronx is Yearning

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As far as the media (including the arts media) is concerned, the Bronx is a bad hand you get dealt.
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A Hunger for Reality Hunger

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Essayist and author David Sheilds' forthcoming book Reality Hunger bears "Manifesto" as a subtitle, and it may break the mold.
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