Category Archives: Literature

JANE AUSTEN’S FAMILY SCANDAL.

Posted on June 15, 2013 by Philip

JANE AUSTEN’S FAMILY SCANDAL. I, and others, have thought of Jane Austen as a proper lady from a proper family. So I was startled while reading Peter J. Conradi’s review in the May 1 TLS of Paula Byrne’s THE REAL … Continue reading →

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NELSON ALGREN HAS A PHYSICAL ENCOUNTER WITH FRENCH PHILOSOPHY.

Posted on June 2, 2013 by Philip

NELSON ALGREN HAS A PHYSICAL ENCOUNTER WITH FRENCH PHILOSOPHY. The relationship between Sartre and de Beauvoir gives piquancy to a passage in CHICAGO’S NELSON ALGREN. In response to a rumor, Algren said that the only desks that he and de … Continue reading →

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FRENCH PHILOSOPHERS AND A CHICAGO WRITER.

Posted on June 1, 2013 by Philip

FRENCH PHILOSOPHERS AND A CHICAGO WRITER. Nelson Algren’s relationship with Simone de Beauvoir involved him in her lifelong relationship with John-Paul Sartre. De Beauvoir and Sartre had entered into a pact soon after they met in 1929, and the pact … Continue reading →

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NELSON ALGREN AND THE MURDERER.

Posted on May 31, 2013 by Philip

NELSON ALGREN AND THE MURDERER. I posted here five years ago about Art Shay’s photograph of a nude Simone de Beauvoir, which was receiving quite a bit of attention at the time in French publications as well as in the … Continue reading →

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HOW THE WHITE SOX-CUB RIVALRY CHANGED NELSON ALGREN’S LIFE.

Posted on May 30, 2013 by Philip

HOW THE WHITE SOX-CUB RIVALRY CHANGED NELSON ALGREN’S LIFE. The Crosstown Cup, as it is now known, is going on this week with White Sox fans and Cub fans seated peaceably together. Nelson Algren’s life is evidence of how intense … Continue reading →

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IS “WHOM” DOOMED?

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Philip

IS “WHOM” DOOMED? Megan Garber had an article in the March Atlantic about the future of “whom”. Google’s collection of digitized books shows that the use “whom” has been declining since 1826. Says Garber: “Articles in Time magazine included 3,352 … Continue reading →

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TWITTER MESSAGES AS AN AMERICAN ART FORM.

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Philip

TWITTER MESSAGES AS AN AMERICAN ART FORM. It seems to me that Twitter has led to a flowering of a traditional American art form, the wise crack. (I realize that referring to twitter messages rather than tweets in the caption … Continue reading →

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ORWELL—WRITING SHOULD BE LIKE SPOKEN LANGUAGE.

Posted on May 6, 2013 by Philip

ORWELLL—WRITING SHOULD BE LIKE SPOKEN LANGUAGE. It may seem that the extreme space limitations on texts and tweets and the short cuts and abbreviations that they have produced show that the internet is corrupting the language. Simon Kuper, who takes … Continue reading →

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“LOL” FULFILLS AN HISTORIC NEED.

Posted on May 5, 2013 by Philip

“LOL” FULFILLS AN HISTORIC NEED. Megan Garber in an article in the May Atlantic points out that “LOL” fulfills a long-felt need. She identifies a poet in the late 1800′s who proposed to indicate irony by a “pointe d’ironie” in … Continue reading →

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“INNIT, BRUV” AS GRAMMAR.

Posted on May 4, 2013 by Philip

“INNIT, BRUV” AS GRAMMAR. McWhorter says that the process that makes “LOL” a way of signaling empathy is operating also in speech. He gives the example of “You know what I’m sayin’?”— sometimes, he says, pronounced as “noam sayin’?” or … Continue reading →

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