Maybe you’ve heard the old saying about teachers not being competent enough to actually do the thing they’re teaching. After all, the logic goes, if someone is proficient at their craft, why would they forgo fame, acclaim, and the ability to purchase frighteningly expensive houses just to slum it as a teacher? The horror. I […]
Teachers and Doers, or: Those Who Can Do May Also Do Teaching Read More »
I’m Gary, and I’m an introvert. It’s no big deal, really, but there it is. If you know me casually, you might be surprised. Close friends, on the other hand, will probably get it. They know I can hold my own in social situations, but every now and then I have to disappear to recharge
Hanging on the Periphery: The Life of an Introvert Read More »
Most everyone has dreams, some good and some not so much. Every time we drop off to sleep, our hard-worked brains get the chance to screw with us, and who can blame them for exploiting it? The nightmares vary from one person to the next: I’ve known people who routinely dream of being chased by homicidal lunatics, being
The Recurring, Unsettling Dream of Accidental Reenlistment Read More »
Here’s a thought: If Alan Parker hadn’t directed his 1991 film version of The Commitments, chances are good I would never have read Roddy Doyle’s 1987 novel of the same name. That would have been a shame. When I started the book, though, I knew I was going to have a slight problem. The film version
“Have You Got Soul?”: Love, Music, and Clashing Egos in Roddy Doyle’s The Commitments Read More »
When the poet and critic Ezra Pound issued his famous literary proclamation to “make it new,” he uttered a phrase that became so identified with modernist literature that it’s difficult to imagine modernism happening without it. Of course, like many fitting pronouncements, over the years this one’s become a cliché, having been extensively quoted and
Making It New (Again) Read More »
Science fiction writer Philip K. Dick, hailed by many readers as one of the most prolific and influential visionaries of the twentieth century, died in the early 1980s, but his legacy remains relevant today to an extent that he probably could never have imagined. What viewers of Dick-inspired films and series like Minority Report, Total
Does Philip K. Dick Dream of Unfaithful Adaptations? Read More »