Postmodernism is dead I have some good news—kick back, relax, enjoy the rest of the summer, stop worrying about where your life is and isn’t heading. What news? Well, on 24th September, we can officially and definitively declare that postmodernism is dead. Finished. History. A difficult period in human thought over and done with. How [...]

First, a shameless plug: I have a poem in the new issue of Used Gravitrons. Check it out, the whole issue is quite wonderful, really. Second, and maybe a little late, but Miracle Jones at The Fiction Circus posted a wonderful guide to writing fiction: How to be a Fiction Writer. And I’m not sure [...]

The term “nonsense” is one of the most baffling words in our vocabulary. It has a negative quality only, like death. Nobody can explain nonsense: it can only be demonstrated. To add, moreover, that sense and nonsense are interchangeable is only to labor the point. Nonsense belongs to other worlds, other dimensions, and the gesture [...]

Where Have All the Mailers Gone? | The New York Observer. Alas: The practice of fiction is no longer a vocation. It has become a profession, and professions are not characterized by creative mischief. Artistic vocations are about embracing more and more of the world with your will; professions are insular affairs that are all [...]

10 tips on writing fiction from some big names in writing The biggest one I took away from this is that I need to actually do the damn thing. Which is something I’ve been overlooking for too long now, aside from this bloggy-blog thing. I love writing and used to plop down and write a [...]

Merry Christmas everyone.  I’m getting primed for New Years Eve and things will probably slow down even more around here while I sort out the issues with my web-development stuff.  Expect Echoes and Mirrors to move soon.  Also, I’m not sure if Craig has plans to post here anymore – he just started a new [...]

Confessions of a Middlebrow Professor: What has been lost, according to Jacoby, is a culture of intellectual effort. We are increasingly ignorant, but we do not know enough to be properly ashamed. If we are determined to get on in life, we believe it will not have anything to do with our ability to reference [...]

‘Going Rogue,’ a memoir by Palin, now due this fall “Governor Palin has been unbelievably conscientious and hands-on at every stage, investing herself deeply and passionately in this project,” said Jonathan Burnham, publisher of Harper. I read that as “Governor Palin has been very cooperative with her ghost-writer and actually talked to him/her.” The publisher [...]

I’m writing a criticism of Jane Austin for school. Nothing special, nothing new. It’s in the “New Critical” style, which makes it somewhat boring and restricts my ability to say, “they’re flirting. duh.” That’s not the nerdy part. No, the nerdy part is that in my frustration to note something, I actually went looking for [...]

Upon further reading of Jane Austin’s Emma, I’ve taken to it a bit more than I thought I would. It is quite worthy as literature, although the actual text itself is a bit stuffy – and insufferably long-winded. But it does avail itself to insight on perspective. Specifically, it reaches deep into the psyche of [...]