Have you ever noticed how obsessed literature is with food? Quality literature, I mean. One of the exercises I have my students do when they experience writer’s block is to write about a favorite meal with the most detail possible. Food is one of the few things that forces us to use all five of our senses, and the more sensory detail writing has, the better it is. It never fails to break the block.
When I was a kid and finished reading a book I loved, I would write a fan letter. But not to the author. To the character I liked the most. I copied the publishing company’s address from the book, and sent the letter away, figuring they’d forward it to Ramona Quimby or whoever I wrote to that day.
Even as a youngster, I understood the concept of writing, as I wrote my own stories from a very young age. I knew about ‘making up’ people and places, but it never seemed right that my favorite characters weren’t ‘real.’ And sometimes I …read more
My name is Rhys Alexander, and I am honored to have this opportunity to try my hand at Literally Blogging.
I think it is impossible to understand the passion someone can hold for literature unless you feel that same love, an existence of words in your blood and fire in your mind and heart.
My love affair with literature began when I was two years old, when my aunt brought over a stack of Little Golden Books she’d purchased for me at a garage sale. Scientists say you can’t remember things from when you were two years old. But …read more
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
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
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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