5Vote!
Library Grape (Free subscription) | 11/24/2009
Gherald highlighted a great graphic illustration comparison of the different kinds of dystopias* envisioned by Aldous Huxley and George Orwell. I've always found Huxley's formulation more compelling. Orwell's vision is scary, to be sure, but I've always felt that civilization will be ultimately undone not by a nefarious top-down neo-communist 1984 construct but rather an insidious, astroturfed, pleasant-seeming,...
3Vote!
CapitalistImperialistPig (Free subscription) | 11/13/2009
The 1930's and 1940's, with depression sandwiched between war, rumor of war, and war again, were fertile ground for dystopic visions. The rise of sinister incarnations in Communism and Facism provided a collectivist theme for those visions. Ayn Rand's Anthem had the same collectivist inspired theme as Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and George Orwell's 1984 , and a publication date between them, but...
4Vote!
Recently Banned Literature (Free subscription) | 11/03/2009
California Classics The Creative Literature of the Golden State by Lawrence Clark Powell The Ward Ritchie Press Los Angeles (1971) [click to enlarge] Works and authors discussed: Anza’s California Expeditions , by Herbert E. Bolton; The Journey of the Flame , by Walter Nordhoff; Death Valley in ’49 , by William L. Manly; The Land of Little Rain , by Mary Austin; The Wonders of the Colorado...
Explore : Books,
Edward Weston,
Fine Arts,
Frank Norris,
Gertrude Atherton,
Harry Leon Wilson,
Helen Hunt,
Helen Hunt Jackson,
Jack London,
John Steinbeck,
Mark Twain,
Nathanael West,
Photographers,
Photography,
Raymond Chandler,
Robert Louis Stevenson,
Robinson Jeffers,
Upton Sinclair
5Vote!
The Gadget Blog (Free subscription) | 10/29/2009
Here’s a months-old comic that compares what what British writers Aldous Huxley and George Orwell though of the future, based on their most famous works, Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four. Despite Orwell’s classically haunting belief that technology will make us slaves to a totalitarian government, Huxley’s fears that technology is making us more shallow depressingly seems...
5Vote!
Execupundit.com (Free subscription) | 10/27/2009
Reverse decision-making is an amusing and informative exercise in which a group is asked to list what they would do if they were trying to produce a disaster. In no time, various actions such as "Don't seek legal advice" and "Alienate your best customers" may be on the board. As the participants ponder the list, someone usually says, "You know, we're sort of doing that third...
5Vote!
POE'S DEADLY DAUGHTERS (Free subscription) | 10/19/2009
I was looking at a list of banned books , and found myself amazed anew at the idea that anyone would feel so powerful and so right that they would take it upon themselves to attempt to control the flow of information into another person's life, another person's mind. And yet books are banned every year--books many of us consider great, important, wonderful works of literature. Consider the list below,...
Explore : Anne Rice,
Books,
Dan Brown,
Fine Arts,
J. D. Salinger,
John Steinbeck,
Joseph Heller,
Lewis Carroll,
Mark Twain,
Shirley Jackson,
Vladimir Nabokov,
William Faulkner,
William Golding
3Vote!
Ana the Imp (Free subscription) | 10/14/2009
The 1920s was a time of relative freedom for artists in Russia, though opportunities for self-expression were still determined by one's attitudes towards the legitimacy of 'Soviet power.' Marc Chagall was to leave Russia in 1921, having been accused of being insufficiently committed to 'socialist values' and clinging to 'bourgeois ideals.' It was the time of Proletkult, a rather misguided attempt to...
6Vote!
Got Shares? (Free subscription) | 10/01/2009
From Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death : George Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Aldous Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared...
5Vote!
Writing and Ruminating (Free subscription) | 09/28/2009
As most of you already know, I no longer do memes. That way, I don't have to worry about tagging people, etc. But I have taken the time to look at the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 novels, and to put the ones I've read in italics. The ones in bold? Yeah - they've all been banned or challenged at one point or another, according to the ALA. 42% of them have been banned or challenged over the years....
Explore : Alice Walker,
E.B. White,
E. B. White,
Ernest Hemingway,
F. Scott Fitzgerald,
Fine Arts,
George Orwell,
Harper Lee,
Henry James,
J. D. Salinger,
Jack Kerouac,
Jack London,
James Baldwin,
James Baldwin,
James Joyce,
John Irving,
John Steinbeck,
Joseph Heller,
Ken Kesey,
Kurt Vonnegut,
Margaret Mitchell,
Ralph Ellison,
Richard Wright,
Robert Penn Warren,
Sports,
Toni Morrison,
William Faulkner,
William Golding,
Zora Neale Hurston
6Vote!
Texas Oasis (Free subscription) | 09/27/2009
Read a banned book, or just be aware of the reasons that books are challenged for their right to be in libraries or classrooms. Top three reasons for targeting a book: 1. the material was considered to be "sexually explicit" 2. the material contained "offensive language" 3. the materials was "unsuited to any age group" Reasons for challenges from 2001 through 2008 (24%...
Explore : Alice Walker,
Books,
Ernest Hemingway,
F. Scott Fitzgerald,
Fine Arts,
George Orwell,
Harper Lee,
J. D. Salinger,
Jack London,
James Joyce,
John Steinbeck,
Joseph Heller,
Ken Kesey,
Kurt Vonnegut,
Margaret Mitchell,
Ralph Ellison,
Richard Wright,
Toni Morrison,
William Faulkner,
William Golding,
Zora Neale Hurston
4Vote!
G D Townshende (Free subscription) | 09/25/2009
Following the advice of Ray Bradbury, I am now reading Aldous Huxley's essay, "The Education of an Amphibian," found in his book Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.I'm not marking this with a number (WIR #xx – What I'm Reading #xx) because I intend only to read the one essay for the time being. I may later decide to read the entire book.The opening paragraph is intriguing:Every human...
3Vote!
Shakespeare Inc. (Free subscription) | 09/23/2009
The Miserific Vision All three texts you are studying - That Hideous Strength by C. S. Lewis , Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell - present to greater or lesser degrees nightmarish visions of not just the world but the future of our society. You will complete two shorter tasks for your coursework based on these texts: Compare the treatment of scientific progress...
3Vote!
The Kindle Reader (Free subscription) | 09/17/2009
Once you've purchased an Amazon Kindle e-book reader, the wonderful world of public domain, Creative Commons and free e-book promotions opens up to you. In this weekly Kindle Reader feature, I point you to a few of the most interesting new free (or very cheap) e-books available for download from the web. Free and inexpensive e-book selections for this week include classic novels you may have missed...
11Vote!
The Corner (Free subscription) | 09/17/2009
Dan Brown has a formula, no doubt about that; one might call it a cross between Hardy Boys and Umberto Eco, sparking up puzzle-solving and historical (albeit sometimes faux) arcana with a Jack Bauer-style cliffhanger every 50 pages or so. The amazing thing is that even with so obvious a formula, Brown is still able to pull off so many nifty surprises. His new book, The Lost Symbol , succeeds in large...
Videos