Tag Archives: Oscar Wilde

“[My ambition is to] give something to our literature which will be our own.” — Walt Whitman

Posted on May 31, 2025 by sheila

“I like to think that eventually he will shame us into becoming Americans again.” — Guy Davenport on Walt Whitman Whitman is the organizing principle behind my review of Martin Scorsese’s Rolling Thunder Revue. Bob Dylan quotes Whitman all the … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, On This Day, writers | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

“When I aim at praise, they say I bite.” — Alexander Pope

Posted on May 21, 2025 by sheila

How happy is the blameless vestal’s lot! The world forgetting, by the world forgot. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! -— Alexander Pope, from “Eloisa to Abelard” Alexander Pope was born on this day in 1688. He was so huge … Continue reading →

Posted in On This Day, writers | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

February 2025 Viewing Diary

Posted on March 2, 2025 by sheila

Twin Peaks: The Return (2017; d. David Lynch) There’s nothing else like it in all of God’s green earth and I am just so grateful it exists. It’s so pure. Suze (2025; d. Dane Clark and Linsey Stewart) I liked … Continue reading →

Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 118 Comments

2024 Books Read

Posted on December 30, 2024 by sheila

1. Brotherhood of Tyrants: Manic Depression and Absolute Power, by D. Jablow Hershman I was talking with the doctor who helps me manage my bipolar. He saved my life back in 2013. Well, it was a group effort. He knows … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, James Joyce | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Stuff I’ve Been Reading

Posted on November 16, 2024 by sheila

— Unacknowledged Legislation: Writers in the Public Sphere, by Christopher Hitchens There are a couple of his collections of older pieces – pre 9/11 – I haven’t read before. Many of these pieces were put in later collections (Arguably, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Books | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

“I was never afraid of failure, for I would sooner fail than not to be among the greatest.” –John Keats

Posted on October 31, 2024 by sheila

I was just beautifying him, don’t you know. A thing of beauty, don’t you know. Yeats says, or I mean, Keats says. – James Joyce, Ulysses Born in 1795 on this day, John Keats was orphaned at fifteen. Because his … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, James Joyce, On This Day, writers | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 19 Comments

“It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.” — Oscar Wilde

Posted on October 16, 2024 by sheila

It’s his birthday today. One of my heroes. His mother, Jane Speranza Francesca Wilde (aka Lady Wilde, aka “Speranza”) was an incredible woman – also in the canon of Irish literary history certainly, not to mention its politics and social … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, On This Day, Theatre, writers | Tagged , , , , | 22 Comments

“A ‘smartcracker’ they called me, and that makes me sick and unhappy.” — Dorothy Parker

Posted on August 22, 2024 by sheila

“Oh, good Lord, what’s the matter with women, anyway?” “Please don’t call me ‘women,’” she said. “I’m sorry, darling,” he said. “I didn’t mean to use bad words.” — Dorothy Parker, “Dusk Before Fireworks” It’s her birthday today. I cannot … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, On This Day, writers | Tagged , , , , , | 18 Comments

“Tennyson’s rank is too well fixed and we love him too much.” — Oscar Wilde

Posted on August 6, 2024 by sheila

He was not only a minor Virgil, he is also with Virgil as Dante saw him, a Virgil among the Shades, the saddest of all English poets. – T.S. Eliot It’s Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s birthday, born on August 6, 1809. … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, James Joyce, On This Day, writers | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

2023 Books Read

Posted on December 31, 2023 by sheila

I think I might have read more books by non-American authors than American this year. Countries represented below: Austria, Hungary, Poland, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Croatia, Ireland, France, Russia, Colombia. I revisited some old favorites, which I will continue to do in … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, James Joyce | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 16 Comments