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- “Ballet taught me to stay close to style and tone. Literature taught me to be concerned about the moral life.” — Joan Acocella
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Tag Archives: Jack London
“I look back on my life and draw one great generalization: IT WAS MY REFUSAL TO TAKE CAUTIOUS ADVICE THAT MADE ME.” — Jack London
“I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent … Continue reading
2017 Books Read
I got into a good rhythm with reading this year. I did a lot of re-reading, going back to books I haven’t read in 20 years or whatever. It was fun, like a reunion with an old friend. Much of … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged 1984, A.S. Byatt, Bette Davis, books read, Camille Paglia, Christopher Hitchens, Edgar Allan Poe, England, France, George Orwell, Hannah Arendt, Herman Melville, Hitler, Ireland, Jack London, Janet Malcolm, Jean Renoir, Jeanette Winterson, Joan Crawford, Joan Didion, John Milton, Kim Stanley, Mark Danielewski, Mary Astor, Mary Gaitskill, Olivia Laing, Poland, politics, Robert Altman, Robert Conquest, Robert Kaplan, Russia, S.E. Hinton, Shirley Jackson, Tana French, Tennessee Williams, The Great Terror, war
4 Comments
The Books: “The Call of the Wild” (Jack London)
Daily Book Excerpt: Adult fiction: The Call of the Wild by Jack London This is one of those books I was forced to read in 8th grade (not even 10th or 11th grade – when I was a bit older … Continue reading
“Like Peter Pan…”
Like Peter Pan, he never grew up, and he lived his own stories with such intensity that he ended by believing them himself. — Ford Madox Ford on Jack London, 1916
Famous epitaphs
John Keats, great poet, who died in 1821 (and I think his birthday was Sunday), wrote his own epitaph, which is now rightly famous: “Here lies one whose name was writ in water.” But actually, the full epitaph reads like … Continue reading
“It was an old song”
More from Jack London’s “Call of the Wild” Here and there, Buck met Southland dogs, but in the main they were the wild wolf husky breed. Every night, regularly, at nine, at twelve, at three, they lifted a nocturnal song, … Continue reading
“The summit of life”
From Jack London’s “Call of the Wild” There is an ecstasy that marks the summit of life, and beyond which life cannot rise. And such is the paradox of living, this ecstasy comes when one is most alive, and it … Continue reading
Re-Reading Books
I’m re-reading Call of the Wild right now. Which got me to thinking about books you read in junior high and high school which made little to no impression on you, and then you went back and re-read them, as … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged Call of the Wild, Herman Melville, Jack London, Moby Dick, Thomas Hardy
19 Comments
Man’s Proper Function
“The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.” — Jack London