Category Archives: Fiction

Cocteau on myth

Posted on October 17, 2011 by Brian

“I’ve always preferred mythology to history. Because history is made up of truths which eventually turn into lies. Mythology is made up of lies that eventually become truths.”

Posted in Fiction, Literature, Movies, Poetry | Tagged , | Leave a comment

A Gloss of Royal Illusions in RICHARD II

Posted on October 7, 2011 by Brian

I thought maybe it would be helpful to post an essay I wrote five years ago about Shakespeare’s Richard 2.   Stylistically, I wouldn’t write the same essay today, but the essay gets at a few important points, and it is … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Literature, Poetry | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

On Protestant Elizabethans practicing Catholicism in the theater

Posted on September 18, 2011 by Brian

The principle of  “the double” functions in Shakespeare on both a character’s interior and exterior.  As for the exterior: There are doubles such as the twins Antipholus, and a doubling of the doubles with the twins Dromio, and this is … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Literature, Poetry | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sex, money, and art in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

Posted on September 18, 2011 by Brian

The reason to be interested in Shakespeare’s comedies is because they offer Shakespeare’s most direct thoughts and critiques (and some funny jokes) about social dilemmas, particularly those of love and marriage and family and money.  With these matters, Shakespeare suggests, … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Literature, Poetry | Tagged | 1 Comment

Some Ado about Shakespeare

Posted on September 18, 2011 by Brian

“Much Ado About Nothing” isn’t a play that consistently delights me, and  I would say that it is significantly inferior to Shakespeare’s four or five best comedies. But I think “Much Ado” is a good play for actors. When I … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Literature, Poetry | Tagged | Leave a comment

CHINATOWN, plot, and the Noir plot

Posted on September 18, 2011 by Brian

I was looking at a long old essay I did in 2006 about the Polanski/Towne movie Chinatown, an example of neo-Noir.   Although I wouldn’t write the same essay today, some portions of the essay may contain some useful thinking about … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Literature, Movies | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Thoughts re Notes From Underground

Posted on September 7, 2011 by Brian

After reading this short Dostoevsky novel, I’m left wondering why anyone much cares for it.  It seems to me that the book’s finer moments are weak versions of what you mind find in Kafka or Beckett, for example.   It’s also … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Literature | Tagged | Leave a comment

On O’Neill’s Netherland

Posted on September 7, 2011 by Brian

I finally got around to reading Netherland, and I enjoyed it a great deal.  I also read Zadie Smith’s somewhat-negative take on the book in her New York Review of Books essay of three years ago, “Two Paths for the … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Literature, New York | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

A shame that Ellroy won’t tip his hat to a good shamus

Posted on August 28, 2011 by Brian

I was just looking again at Ian’s post of July 20 on this blog.  I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that James Ellroy’s criticism of Raymond Chandler is frivolous, and is based purely on Ellroy’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Literature, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

What Woolf’s ‘The Waves’ Says About Anders Behring Breivik

Posted on August 17, 2011 by Ian

Brian– Your mention of the Norway attacks reminds me of something I’d meant to post a while ago. I finished Virginia Woolf’s The Waves just a few days before I was called over to Oslo. I was very much taken … Continue reading →

Posted in Cape Cod, far-away lands populated by foreigners, Fiction | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment