Time, death, and the terrible beauty of being alive; human relationships and the modern pathology of disconnectedness, autonomy and power asymmetries of sex and gender, the construction of gender identity and the Gordian Knot thereof; Virginia Woolf explores all of this in exquisite prose, balancing her Feminist Existentialism with an Idealism like that of Keats. … Continue reading Virginia Woolf, on her birthday January 25
Subtle and deceptive, with beautiful and seductive language, Edith Wharton negotiates the boundaries between Realism and Romantic Idealism, intertwining the themes and aesthetics of Milton and Byron with those of Jean Racine and Victor Hugo. The Age of Innocence, an incontestable classic and Great Book, is a Chekhov-like interrogation of class, wealth, and gender … Continue reading Edith Wharton, on her birthday January 24
Absurdist Existentialism wrapped in confections of postmodernist satire, relativistic values, theatrical techniques, irony as well as the iron machinery of historical determinism, Julian Barnes offers visions of revolutionary change which transform as they unpack, self destruct, critique and consume themselves. Most of the time his nihilistic self mocking is witty and fun. A History … Continue reading Julian Barnes, on his birthday January 19
“The point is not to teach us something in particular. The point is to make us bold, agile, subtle, intelligent, detached. And to give pleasure.” Susan Sontag An inescapable force of protean genius, her subversion of critical theory and practice cast a looming shadow over our culture for decades. Her collections of essays, … Continue reading Susan Sontag, on her birthday January 16
Fearless, empathetic, of refined and elegant prose, heir to the European belles lettres tradition, beloved for his compelling autobiographies and his glittering, insightful literary criticism, Edmund White has polished and made beautiful our lives by the invocations of his words. His fame was won on the stunning power and lyrical beauty of his autobiographical … Continue reading Edmund White, on his birthday January 13
Strange Library, 1Q84, & Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World- who could deprive themselves of the compelling, illuminating, disturbing world of his great works after reading those first pages? Here are stories of existential dread, authenticity and other Sartrean themes, the mysteries of time, Surrealist dreamquests, the illusions of reality and … Continue reading Haruki Murakami, on his birthday January 12
Poet, mystic, champion of human rights, and anarchist, Robert Duncan sought to forge through language a grammar of cosmic design and its possibilities for becoming human. He wrote the groundbreaking 1944 essay The Homosexual in Society, 25 years before Stonewall, in which he compares historically oppressed minorities who are violently excluded on the basis … Continue reading Robert Duncan, on his birthday January 7
Umberto Eco is my Ideal of a scholar; I celebrate his endless curiosity, unbiased questioning, deep reflectivity and self-awareness, empathy, and the playfulness and humor with which he shifts the boundaries of knowledge and reveals the hidden connections of things. What insights, what language! Come with me and explore the glittering diaphanous folds of … Continue reading Umberto Eco, on his birthday January 5
Absurdist poet, playwright, theatrical director, novelist, painter, and critic who translated Samuel Beckett and Eugène Ionesco, Gao Xingjian charts the limits of language in works that investigate man’s place in the world and among others, blending dialogues, dreams, natural history, and philosophical meditations. His art grounded in the fragile beauty of the classical Taoist … Continue reading Gao Xingjian , on his birthday January 4
Greatest poet of the Arabic language and scholar of its literature, secular humanist and fearless voice of diversity and tolerance, Adonis championed freedom of conscience and individual autonomy against Islamization as political and religious tyranny. For who stands between each of us and the Infinite serves neither. Syrian born as Ali Ahmad Said, he … Continue reading Adonis, on his birthday January 1
Dollhouse Park Conservatory & Imaginarium 