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whatisliterature.blogspot.com

What is literature?: Evaluated, unplugged

http://whatisliterature.blogspot.com/2015/06/evaluated-unplugged.html

And other questions for the age of airports. Saturday, June 27, 2015. Tenkara up in Michigan. I've got a new piece up at Public Books. About the phrase "critical thinking." It's something of a continuation of a post here. From a few months prior, and might be part of a nascent short book on liberal arts. But mostly this summer I've been working on my book-in-progress called Up in Michigan. Referred to it when I described it to him when we were chatting at MLA last january. Inefficiency or incalculable pa...

whatisliterature.blogspot.com

What is literature?: The Kettle Pond

http://whatisliterature.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-kettle-pond.html

And other questions for the age of airports. Friday, August 8, 2014. A few years ago I took a walk in a huge swath of forest that is officially part of the National Lakeshore, but which is weirdly cut off from the rest of the park, in the middle of Leelanau County. That time, I got lost. Can you spot two bass in the shallows? A valley of maiden hair ferns disrupts my sense of place. At dinner a few nights later, a couple great friends told me they'd taken up the minimalist fly fishing technique Tenkara.

whatisliterature.blogspot.com

What is literature?: Minor Collision

http://whatisliterature.blogspot.com/2014/12/collision.html

And other questions for the age of airports. Tuesday, December 23, 2014. This is a report on the end of airports. Today two 737s clashed their wings on the taxiways of LGA. One was a Southwest plane, the other American Airlines. Pictures snapped and tweeted by passengers showed the broken winglet of the Southwest plane, and stupefied workers ambling around the scene, dragging the shorn part across the tarmac. This was the moment they'd all been waiting for. The moment they'd trained for. An anthology of ...

whatisliterature.blogspot.com

What is literature?: Revisiting Air Force One

http://whatisliterature.blogspot.com/2015/02/revisiting-air-force-one.html

And other questions for the age of airports. Thursday, February 5, 2015. Revisiting Air Force One. Air Force One w/ AT-ATs. Of the plane's features. But it was a fascinating text, revealing so much about the myths and fantasies embodied by this as-if self-evident aircraft.) I still have the transcript; here it is:. Air Force One Background Info. Air Force One is a Boeing 747-200B aircraft that was extensively modified to meet presidential requirements. The nation's chief executives for nearly 30 years.

whatisliterature.blogspot.com

What is literature?: Art

http://whatisliterature.blogspot.com/2015/03/art.html

And other questions for the age of airports. Monday, March 9, 2015. I've been thinking a lot about art lately. Cleaning up my office recently, I stumbled on some old paintings I made in Bozeman and in Davis, between ten and fifteen years ago. The one above is of the tamarc at the Bozeman airport, where I worked and even once spent the night. When I lived in Bozeman I watched my friend Greg Keeler turn gloppy acrylic paint into eerie post-western landscapes ( like this one. We think he got the latter idea...

whatisliterature.blogspot.com

What is literature?: Real World College

http://whatisliterature.blogspot.com/2014/10/real-world-college.html

And other questions for the age of airports. Tuesday, October 21, 2014. Below is a brief talk I recently gave to the Visiting Committee to the College of Humanities and Natural Sciences at Loyola. As an undergraduate I went to a rather crazy, small liberal arts college in the Midwest—I won’t name names. I spent the first two years there wondering what I was doing, where I was going, how I was supposed to figure out my major…. I currently edit a series of essays and pithy books published by The Atlantic.

whatisliterature.blogspot.com

What is literature?: Canoeing, a brief personal history

http://whatisliterature.blogspot.com/2014/07/canoeing-brief-personal-history.html

And other questions for the age of airports. Thursday, July 3, 2014. Canoeing, a brief personal history. In the canoe last summer, on the big lake. Were we rescued by a motorboat? I know I cried. I sobbed, blubbering my tiny tears into indifferent cresting waves. I never went out on a sailboat again. (Maybe once, on a tranquil day ten years later, on a Sunfish with an expert sailor—I don't know, I've blocked it out.). Later I was wooed by sea kayaks: they seemed more elegant and sporty (the colors alone!

whatisliterature.blogspot.com

What is literature?: Teaching at the End of the World

http://whatisliterature.blogspot.com/2014/10/teaching-at-end-of-world.html

And other questions for the age of airports. Tuesday, October 28, 2014. Teaching at the End of the World. Below is the short paper I gave at the BABEL Working Group conference. And a student invariably will ask, Why is the ground always wet? Well, because we're under water, basically. That’s why when an oil tanker churns by, headed upriver, you find yourself looking up. To see it: the Mississippi River is actually above us. Will the new airport be unquestionable, an utterly straightforward social text?

whatisliterature.blogspot.com

What is literature?: Terminal 2, STL

http://whatisliterature.blogspot.com/2014/11/terminal-2-stl.html

And other questions for the age of airports. Sunday, November 30, 2014. Terminal 2, STL. The gate area is minimalist—not in an ultra-modern way, but simply pared down to the bare necessities. Still, it has frayed ends. For instance, plastic wrapping balloons from the ceiling every fifteen or so feet, evidence of some interior ductwork or insulation project that seems to have been left incomplete. Associate professor of English and Environment, Loyola University New Orleans. View my complete profile.