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- 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- “I don’t represent anything.” — Liz Phair
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- “Some syllables are swords.” — Metaphysical poet Henry Vaughan
- “To me, music is no joke and it’s not for sale.” — Ian MacKaye
- “All I need to make a comedy is a park, a policeman and a pretty girl.” — Charlie Chaplin
- “As a cinematographer, I was always attracted to stories that have the potential to be told with as few words as possible.” — Reed Morano
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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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- Bryce on The Books: “Nine Stories”- ‘The Laughing Man’ (J.D. Salinger)
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Tag Archives: The Dead
The Books: Nora: The Real Life of Molly Bloom, by Brenda Maddox
Daily Book Excerpt: Biography Next biography on the biography shelf is Nora: A Biography of Nora Joyce, by Brenda Maddo I may be blind. I looked for a long time at a head of reddish-brown hair and decided it was … Continue reading
“Falling as in the silence falleth now / Dusk from the air.”
James Joyce’s poem “Tutto è Sciolto” appeared in the May, 1917 issue of Poetry. Beautiful. That line I excerpted calls to mind the final four paragraphs of The Dead. Perhaps she had not told him all the story. His eyes … Continue reading
Happy Birthday, Mary Gordon
Best-selling author Mary Gordon has her birthday today. I am particularly taken by Gordon’s essay on James Joyce’s “The Dead”, which I post here. Mary Gordon on James Joyce’s “The Dead” It begins with a slap in the face. “Lily, … Continue reading
“O tell me all about Anna Livia!
I want to hear all about Anna Livia. Well, you know Anna Livia? Yes, of course, we all know Anna Livia. Tell me all. Tell me now. You’ll die when you hear.” — Finnegans Wake, James Joyce A wonderful post … Continue reading
Posted in Books, James Joyce
Tagged Finnegans Wake, Ireland, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Samuel Beckett, The Dead, Ulysses
6 Comments
The Books: “John Huston: A Biography” (Axel Madsen)
Daily Book Excerpt: Entertainment Biography/Memoir: John Huston, by Axel Madsen Axel Madsen (who died last year) is one of those writers I envy. I would love that kind of career. He wrote in-depth biographies of John Jacob Astor, the Marshall … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Directors, James Joyce
Tagged entertainment biography, Humphrey Bogart, John Huston, Peter Lorre, The Dead, Truman Capote
10 Comments
The Books: “Dubliners” – ‘The Dead’ (James Joyce)
Daily Book Excerpt: Adult fiction: Dubliners – by James Joyce – excerpt from the final story in the collection: “The Dead”. The story never loses its power. To describe the plot of it doesn’t do it justice, and I also … Continue reading
First Novels
This is a great page – I’ve been having a lot of fun scrolling through it. Anne linked to it (a reference to George Eliot, of course!) – and I’d bookmarked the page to read later. I finally just got … Continue reading
Posted in Books, James Joyce
Tagged John Banville, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, The Dead
12 Comments
Mary Gordon on “The Dead”
The course material for this writing class I am doing is very simple – we are working solely out of the anthology You’ve Got to Read This: Contemporary American Writers Introduce Stories that Held Them in Awe I love the … Continue reading
“His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe …”
A lovely piece on endings in art. The ends of books, plays, symphonies … An excerpt: A great artistic ending, by contrast, is both startling and inevitable, mysteriously certain. It clarifies even as it complicates, crystallizes and expands. Think of … Continue reading