Saturday, August 2, 2025

Where review, criticism, and analysis collide: "The Paper Artist" by E.K. Ota (O.Henry Anthology)

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Although this blog will mix in plenty of review, I generally prefer criticism and analysis. Maybe these last two feel more like "real...
Saturday, July 26, 2025

Commemorating a sad day with a critical contribution to world culture

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This morning, we had to put our beloved dog Manley down. He was well over sixteen, although we don't know his exact age, and after surpa...
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Friday, July 25, 2025

I guess I'm being fair to this mediocre Covid story: "The Honor of Your Presence" by Dave Eggers (O.Henry anthology)

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It's taken me a while to post on the next entry in the 2024 Best Short Stories  collection, mostly because I wasn't sure I was being...
Wednesday, July 16, 2025

Therapy as art and art as therapy: "The Last Grownup" by Allegra Goodman (O.Henry Anthology)

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For reasons I only sort of understand, the show Rick and Morty  is very polarizing and sometimes written off as puerile, sexist, or misogyni...
Monday, July 14, 2025

The thing about the narrator in "Marital Problems" by Robin Romm is that she doesn't have any

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Organizing a story around the search for an item is both an ancient practice and also still a ubiquitous one in modern times. Jason looking ...
Friday, July 11, 2025

Nancy Drew learns the value of abstract art: "Rain" by Colin Barrett (O.Henry Anthology)

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Most literary theory is painful to read, but there's one story from the discipline that is actually kind of a good yarn. Stanley Fish wa...
Wednesday, July 9, 2025

Everything out there is dangerous: "The Castle of Rose Tellin" by Kate DiCamillo

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There is a bit of a joke in literary theory that with a certain brand of New Criticism, all poems tend to be about poetry. If I say that at ...