This post is an essay by Devon Halliday. Here's a link to the original. She's exploring an issue that I have addressed here -- the importance of making the first page of anything you're writing a real grabber. This is particularly a problem for academic writers, who tend to hold back the good stuff -- the … Continue reading Devon Halliday — How to Write a First Page that Grabs the Reader
This post is an essay by Devon Halliday, "Literary Fiction Has Lost the Plot," recently published in her Substack. Here's a link to the original. I'm less interested in her critique of literary fiction, which I generally don't read, than in her tight focus on the need for writers to grab the reader on the … Continue reading Devon Halliday — Literary Fiction Has Lost the Plot
This post is a tribute to one of the great books of the last century and for me the greatest book about war, Joseph Heller's Catch-22. Published in 1961 it became an instant bestseller. Two years ago I highlighted another bestseller and first novel from the same period, Mrs. Bridge by Evans Connell, which was … Continue reading Catch-22
This post is a piece of mine that was published a few years ago in Inside Higher Ed. Here’s a link to the original. It's also included in my newish book, Being a Scholar. It’s about an inherent tension in the act of writing between arrogance and humility. AN EXERCISE IN ARROGANCE AND HUMILITY TO BE … Continue reading Writing as an Exercise in Arrogance and Humility
This post is an essay by Adam Kirsch from the Atlantic. Here's a link to the original. It's the most heartening piece I've read about the crucial role for human creativity in the grim new world of artificial intelligence. As he points out, the rise of photography created a crisis for painters, who found that … Continue reading Adam Kirsch — Why AI Can Never Replace Human Ingenuity
This post is an essay by Steven Mintz from his Substack, which I highly recommend. Here's a link to the original. He starts with a tribute to the golden age of the Broadway musical, showing how it emerged from a particular immigrant culture with its own emotional register. As the culture changed, this style of musical … Continue reading Steven Mintz — Why We Cannot Recreate the Broadway Golden Age
This post is a classic commencement address by David Foster Wallace from 2005. Here's a link to the transcript. Enjoy. This is Water David Foster Wallace Greetings parents and congratulations to Kenyon’s graduating class of 2005. There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, … Continue reading David Foster Wallace — Commencement Address
This post is an essay by Julia Fisher from the Atlantic. Here's a link to the original. It's about reading and writing. Here point is in the title. Here's how she puts it in her intro: In my high-school English classes, I often tell my students that they write their papers backwards: They devise a thesis and … Continue reading Julia Fisher — My Students Write Their Papers Backwards
This post is an essay by Steven Mintz, published recently in his Substack, which I highly recommend. Here's a link to the original. It's the story of how the 1930s produced a distinct and new American voice. Not in the ornate cadences of the 19th century, nor in the provincial slang of earlier popular culture, but … Continue reading Steven Mintz — The Decade That Discovered a Distinct American Voice
This post is an essay by Chris Sibben, which appeared recently in his Substack Mere Orthodoxy. Here's a link to the original. In it he addresses what for me is the key challenge that artificial intelligence poses for education. AI illuminates a problem at the core of the educational enterprise, which is the danger that education … Continue reading Chris Sibben — A Hollow Crown: AI and the Formation of Students
