Literally Blogging

I recently read Erin Harvey’s post on the Movie-Weblog on the film Adaptation, a film about making a film about making a film!?! It was an interesting post about an interesting film. This type of thing has been done before, even in the realm of writing.
Writing about writing is not new. Let’s observe Keats as he does this:
On First Looking Into Chapman’s Homer
Much have I travelled in the realms of gold,
And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;
Round many western islands have I been
Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.
Oft of one wide expanse had I been told
That deep-browed Homer ruled …read more

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I had an interesting conversation with my good friend Mark who has studied English Literature in England. This makes sense, as this is his home. He suggested that if one desired to study English Literature it really ought to be done in England. I am a Canadian, and have enjoyed studying Literature in Canada, and was mildly offended at the idea that an education in England should so matter-of-factly be held as superior to one earned in the poor colonial schools here in Canada.
This sparked some conversation about the Ivory Tower of learning. To lock one’s self away in …read more

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So sorry that I haven’t put up any content for awhile. I expect that I am now settled enough to resume regular blogging type activities, which means that Literally-blogging is back up and running, and I am very thrilled to be writing from my very own Toronto Apartment, on my very own new Laptop, on my very own scammed wireless from some guy on another floor named David.
I am looking forward to diving in to loads of new books, checking in to the Toronto dub/beat scene (yes there really is one).
So check back for all literature blogging you and your …read more

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Oh my, the memories.
At age ten I moved from a farm in Nova Scotia to the largest Canadian city, Toronto. The population of my town in Nova Scotia was 115. That’s right, it was small. We had a book-mobile that came through our town every thursday afternoon, and we could borrow books from them.
At that time, in 1988, Toronto had over 2,000,000 people, and one of the first places I can remember going in Toronto was Mimico Public Library. It was only a short walk from my Mother’s house, and they had more books than I had ever seen. …read more

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In the realm of fine Arts there has always been a conflict between art created for the purpose of expressing some sacred theme, and art for art’s sake. With the Greeks, slightly less so with the Romans, in the High Rennaisance, it has been present. This has been referred to as the Sacred versus the Secular. But this has had more to do with painting and sculpting (and maybe music too to a certain extent). The debate has gone on for centuries, as artists like Michelangelo would occassionally generate art for wealthy patrons in and around Florence, like the Medici …read more

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I was reading with some students at St. Stephen’s University and we were talking about John Donne’s The Flea.
I think that this is a hilarious poem, and it’s wonderful to sit in a room full of people as their eyes slowly quicken when they realize what Donne is writing about. It is essentially about a man and a woman in bed. That’s right, they are in a bed, and yet she won’t sleep with him. So he comes up with a metaphyisical arguement about how they are already married because they have both been bitten by the same flea.
These students …read more

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When I find myself in a bookstore, I always head first toward the classics section. I will be the first to admit that pulp fiction is a faster read, and the books are cheaper. But there is a love inside of me for opening a classic piece of literature that I know has inspired other writers throughout the ages.
St. Stephen’s University’s Lit.150 survey has just finished with the Aeniad and the general consensus amongst students in the first year course suggest that it is very interesting, very well written, but altogether too long. Yowch. But that is the same opinion …read more

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I was checking out TodayIn Literature and found today’s article interesting. Here’s a vignette:
PEN, Djaout, Saro-Wiwa
On this day in 1921 the first branch of PEN, the now worldwide writers’ organization, was founded. Their campaign for freedom of expression is inspired by these lines from the assassinated Algerian writer, Tahar Djaout:
Silence is death. / If you are silent you are dead, / And if you speak you are dead, / So speak and die.
I remember learning about Baudelaire and his imprisonment for using certain four letter expletives. I kinda smirked and thought “how silly. We’ve come …read more

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I revisitted a short story that I read in a Post-Modern Lit. class. It’s entitled The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas and it is a beautiful telling of the Utopian society of Omelas. It’s also very short, so follow the link and give it a quick read.
As a story I find it unimaginably brilliant. There is no plot, essentially no characters, no theme, only setting. The entire story is a pictorial of Omelas. And I believe that it still has something to tell us.
I don’t believe that I live in Omelas, but I know that many of the things …read more

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Today I am writing from the hallowed halls of the library of Acadia University. I studied at St. Stephen’s University, which is a small Liberal Arts University in a small town in Canada. The library is devoted to Literature, Philosophy, History, and Religious studies, and that’s it. There are only about 10 000 books in the entire library.
Here I sit at my computer, scamming the unsecured wireless, surrounded by millions of books. It’s somewhat humbling.
But I didn’t come to this area for the Library, but rather to visit my father before leaving the Maritime Provinces for …read more

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