“Do we have to read a book this year?” Any fool who loves literature cringes at the expression from a student who doesn’t want to read.
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Monthly Archives: September 2015
Dave Eggers’ The Circle, part 3: PRIVACY=THEFT
SECRETS ARE LIES
SHARING IS CARING
PRIVACY IS THEFT
[Continued from parts 1 and 2]
The circle is about to be complete. Mae is at the center of it all. Everyone at the circle, and everyone across the world, seem to have bought into the idea that transparency of all things is best, that putting everything about yourself out there is best. Now we are on the verge of making everything mandatory. [spoilers ahead]
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Dave Eggers’ The Circle, part 2: SHARING = CARING
[Continued from part 1]
It’s one of the most innocent and compelling mottoes for young children. Sharing Is Caring. Nobody would dispute this. Until you start talking about communism.
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Dave Eggers’ The Circle, part 1: SECRETS ARE LIES
In his novel The Circle Dave Eggers branches out into dystopian fiction. You’d think a writer like Eggers wouldn’t bother with a genre many contemporary literary writers might find too cliche, commercialized, and predictable. “Society looks perfect, but it all goes downhill. Seen it before.” But Eggers doesn’t go for a distant, war-torn future. He takes us back to the roots of modern dystopian masterpieces: 1984 and Brave New World. What we get is a glimpse of the near future that is—I’ll admit—more relevant than one of my favorites, The Hunger Games.
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New Poem—Kansas
Kansas
In
Kansas
Dorothy
Loved Aunt E.M.
A
Cyclone
Took her to
The munchkin land
Bad
Witch died
Ruby shoes
Good witch told her
Go
To the
Wizard through
Yellow brick road
The
Scarecrow
Tin man and
Lion killed witch
Got
Courage
Beating heart
And diploma
Shoes
Remind
Dorothy
There’s no place like
Home…
Being In the Wrong Body Every Day: Gender ID Commentary in Levithan’s YA Novel
David Levithan’s YA novel, Every Day, harkens back to the show Quantum Leap. Remember when Scott Bakula would jump to a new person’s body every week, and have to live out their lives until he solved a problem?
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Avett Brothers 9-11 Virginia Tech Concert Review
“We tune because we care.”
Back in 2002, about to record A Carolina Jubilee, The Avett Brothers were hired as a wandering band during freshmen orientation at Virginia Tech. Nobody wanted to listen to them. They kept following people around trying to find an audience.
Seth and Scott told this story to their VT audience twelve years later, as if to say, “look where we are now.” In all the shows I’ve seen since 2007, the band has inflated and changed their style, but they have not lost what makes them who they are. I saw the same energy, passion and soul.
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Kirkus Reviews Takes on My Debut Novel
“Spot-on satire or earnest picture of youth in transition?…”
“Coy’s voice is strong and sure; he captures Neil’s voice and tone with specificity and confidence. However, readers’ tolerance for Neil and his impressions of the Nashville scene may strongly depend on whether they see the novel as a satire of the hip, ironic detachment and self-reflexive views of the millennial generation or an earnest attempt to capture their thoughts and hopes in the second decade of the 21st century. Those who see Coy’s work as being meant seriously will likely find the characters vacuous and talkative to a fault, and the thrust of the narrative will be greatly diluted. For those who see a satirical purpose to Coy’s prose, the narrative will likely carry more resonance, and the end result of Sedgwick and Oberlin’s relationship will have a particular melancholy weight, even when seen through the satirical lens.”
“A well-defined social milieu and articulate characters make Coy’s is it/isn’t it novel an interesting, if uncertain, experience.”
–Kirkus Reviews
[Bold emphasis mine]
You can find the full review here
What Will Happen if Someone Says Something Politically InCorrect Today
WHAT WILL HAPPEN THIS WEEK IF A PUBLIC FIGURE GOES TO A GATHERING, GIVES UTTERANCE OF SOMETHING POTENTIALLY OFFENSIVE OR MISLEADING, AND THEN MAKES HEADLINES
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New Poem—At Least I Tried
[My junior year in college I entered a poetry contest and won 2nd place. Fittingly, the title of the poem was “At Least I Tried.”]
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CALEB COY 