Our own Kevin Hartnett has an interesting theory as to how Charles Dickens came up with the idea for A Christmas Carol. At The Boston Globe, he looks at the evidence that Dickens got inspiration from the amateur writings of millworkers in Massachusetts.
Not the First Ebenezer
“Emotion, said the monk, is like a storm”
[Very Quick] Recommended Reading: “Negative Emotions” by Lydia Davis
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“Nature” Is What We See–
“[Emily] Dickinson is often portrayed as some white gossamer recluse, completely divorced from the world outside her bedroom—but that is not really true. The physical circumference of her adult life was small, but its psychological terrain was boundless.” This piece explores the ways in which Emily Dickinson’s work was shaped by her skills as a gardener and naturalist.
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Dealing with Bros
Wendy Willis advises us on how to deal with bros like Donald Trump and Robert Bly. Pair with Greg Chase’s recent piece on understanding the Trump supporter through Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury.
The Purpose of Punctuation
Recommended Reading: Artist Nicholas Rougeux removes all the letters in a text and meditates on the punctuation that is left on the page.
The Elmore Enigma
Elmore Leonard was a very cinematic writer, yet why are most adaptations of his work so bad? Christopher Orr explores what he calls the “Elmore Leonard paradox” in The Atlantic. “Most of the early adaptations of Leonard’s crime work missed his light authorial touch, opting instead for somber noir.” Pair with: Our own Bill Morris’s essay on why Leonard was such a good writer.
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What Do Vinyl, Heidegger, and E-Books Have in Common?
J-C G. Rauschenberg offers a loose phenomenological look at the persistence of vinyl LPs, and what they might portend for the future of the book.
Weekend (Very) Short Reading
With the help of the students in Oberlin’s Advanced Fiction Workshop, Dan Chaon whittled the 200-story longlist provided by Wigleaf’s editors into The Top 50 (Very) Short Fictions. Enjoy your reading, everybody.