fieldus

James Ryerson in The New York Times, 12 December 2008:
A report on DFW’s very analytic deconstruction of a paper by Richard Taylor which draws metaphysical conclusions from a simple thought experiment.
In summary,
…his own analysis of the problem “seems to warrant the following conclusion of our own: if Taylor and the fatalists want to force upon [...]

Interesting conversation between Krauss and Oz in Jerusalem. They discuss Israel, each other’s work and, interestingly, the process of writing.
Having just finished THE HISTORY OF LOVE, it’s interesting to their discussion of the book. Amos Oz is very warm in his praise and in particular commends Nicole Krauss on her ear for dialogue. He says [...]

Kakutani tugs on Robert Stone’s beard.

From The New York Times:
Jonathan Lear, a professor of philosophy at the University of Chicago who is teaching a course with Mr. Coetzee this semester, said: “One of the things he looks at, which other people including myself lack the courage to look at, is human cruelty and insensitivity as it occurs in all sort [...]

As a recent reader of GREAT EXPECTATIONS, it was good to have some articulation of why I enjoyed it as much as I did:
From Jon Michael Varese, writing the Guardian books blog:
“We need to read Dickens’s novels,” she wrote, “because they tell us, in the grandest way possible, why we are what we are.”
There it [...]

David Ulin - the LA Times book editor writes about information overload:

Found this from GK Chesterton after searching for essays on Great Expectations (of which, more to follow).

Nothing is important except the fate of the soul; and literature is only
redeemed from an utter triviality, surpassing that of naughts and crosses,
by the fact that it describes not the world around us, or the things on the
retina of [...]

Interesting paean to Amy Hempel and the minimalist approach to writing in The LA Times.

Simon Schama in surprisingly good form wriiting in The FT about Updike and more specifically his last collection of short stories, My Father’s Tears.

Too good to let this pass unremarked - Julian Barnes on the underrated Frank O’Connor in The Spectator. For readers unfamiliar with his work, a good place to start is the classic GUESTS OF THE NATION. Interestingly mangled by Neil Jordan in The Crying Game.
More background information on Frank O’Connor via Michael L Storey’s [...]