Category Archives: LITERATURE

LITERATURE: Lolita – Psychology

The reader will regret to learn that soon after my return to civilization I had another bout with insanity (…).  I owe my complete restoration to a discovery I made while being treated at that particular very expensive sanatorium.  I … Continue reading Continue reading

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LITERATURE: Lolita

Tried to keep away from the litpile, but couldn’t be left with just S/Z, Hypertext 3.0, and Ethics on the table.  So Vladmir Nabokov’s Lolita is next up. I am trying to get through the others but I’m beginning to … Continue reading Continue reading

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LITERATURE: S/Z – Comprehension

The tree fell. Not a but the.  So a particular tree.  What kind?  As I write, I am thinking of a birch.  Do they have birches in Australia?  What tree would my brother call up as an image?  How big … Continue reading Continue reading

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LITERATURE: Glimmer Train #52 – Shades of Grace & Trip!

Deja vu all over again. (that, from Yogi Berra, I believe) By Kevin Canty, the short story Sleeping Beauty features Andrew, a bachelor, holding a dinner party for two married couples who are all old college friends.  There is that … Continue reading Continue reading

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LITERATURE: Ivan Denisovich – Finale

Finished this last night and have been trying to put together a post on it since.  For me, there’s a hopefulness about human nature in this story.  Ivan (Shukhov) is living under cruel conditions in the prison, and yet he … Continue reading Continue reading

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LITERATURE & WRITING: Glimmer Train No. 52 – Story

While enjoying the readings of this and other lit journals, I’m as well looking at the potentiality of submission and naturally where my writing style and story might possibly fit.  Well, I’m learning a lot. One thing that surprises me … Continue reading Continue reading

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LITERATURE: Glimmertrain Issue 52 – Layers and POV

It is very hard for me to critique one of the particular stories in this issue because for one thing, the timing is bad–just got one of my best stories ever rejected by Glimmertrain today; the story I’m commenting upon … Continue reading Continue reading

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LITERATURE: Ivan Denisovich – Story

This relates back perhaps to an earlier posting, but there’s a thread of story I’m following beneath the story of Ivan (Shukhov) and the routine of his day in this prison camp, regardless of the backstory information we get. People … Continue reading Continue reading

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LITERATURE: Ivan Denisovich – POV

While the story is told in third person pov, with the protagonist Ivan Denisovich a.k.a. Shukhov, there is what seems like narrator intrusion but which Solzhenitsyn uses as a tool to bring the reader into the cold world of Ivan’s … Continue reading Continue reading

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LITERATURE: S/Z – Deep Reading

As opposed to my slowly waning inclination to tell Barthes to cut the crap, read for enjoyment and meaning instead of ruining a simple story through dissection. Haven’t quite felt comfortable yet with the theory to argue it one way … Continue reading Continue reading

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LITERATURE: Ivan Denisovich – Metaphor

The column passed the wood-processing factory, built by prison labor, the workers’ settlement (the huts had been assembled by prisoners too, but the inhabitants were civilians), the new club (convict-built in entirety, from the foundations to the mural decorations–but it … Continue reading Continue reading

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LITERATURE: Ivan Denisovich – Metaphor & Symbolism

Like I’ve said, rarely do I read the intro and foreword to a book until I’ve completed the reading, not wanting to be influenced by the kind accolades or author input that can seriously change a reader’s experience.  But with … Continue reading Continue reading

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LITERATURE: Ivan Denisovich – Character

Solzhenitsyn endows his protatgonist, Denisovich, with the instincts of everyman, pits this reality against the unreality of life in a Russian prison camp. Shukhov knew how to manage anything. Work was like a stick.  It had two ends.  When you … Continue reading Continue reading

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LITERATURE: Glimmertrain No. 52 – Another Goodie

Rafael’s father started to die in March.  By summer, it was nearly complete.  (p. 99) That’s the opening of Daniel Alarcon’s A Strong Dead Man, and the story that follows is very simple–a boy’s (Rafael’s) father is dying and his … Continue reading Continue reading

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LITERATURE: Ivan Denisovich – Pace

Within a very few pages, we are involved in the mind of Ivan Denisovich in the apathy he has towards his situation, and yet he still reveals the instincts to survive by learning about the guards and fellow prisoners and … Continue reading Continue reading

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