Monthly Archives: December 2007

Freud’s pivot

This month’s PsychoSlut column is about Volume III of the Standard Edition: Early Psycho-Analytic Publications, which means it’s about the moment when Freud has, on the one hand, started to figure out repression, but, on the other hand, still subscribes … Continue reading

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Sometimes, you only *think* they’re talking about you . . .

Last Thursday, “Lisa Douglas” published a Chronicle first-person narrative on “The Trailing Ex-Spouse”: The plight of the trailing spouse whose marriage subsequently dissolves and the former spouse (whom the dept. had hired first) moves on.  It’s usually difficult when a … Continue reading

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An interview about shyness

At Bookslut this month, I have an interview with Christopher Lane about his new book, Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness (Yale UP, 2007).  From the interview: You have a great deal of fun with the psychiatrists for their … Continue reading

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Book review: Part of the World, by Robert Lopez

Yesterday’s mail brought a welcome break from holiday catalogs: contributor’s copies of Mid-American Review.  I’ve got a review of Robert Lopez’s terrific short novel, Part of the World (Calamari Press).   Here’s the opening: Part of the World is a gripping … Continue reading

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Even that giant wooden horse can’t save you from your mother

It turns out that it’s bad karma to talk smack to your mother.  In the morning, when we were all going out to “shovel” the quarter-inch of snow so we could play basketball, The Little Man was slightly irritated about … Continue reading

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Book review: The Iron Whim, by Darren Wershler-Henry

At PopMatters this morning, I have a (slightly tardy) review of Darren Wershler-Henry’s recent book, The Iron Whim: A Fragmented History of Typewriting:  The Iron Whim‘s thesis is that the iconography of typewriting is almost preternaturally self-deconstructing. Typewriting produces the … Continue reading

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Dead Brits wish you happy Christmas

Via Paraphernalian, the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography advent calendar/contest.

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A note to future students: They put the dates on the readings for a reason

Attention future students in my Brit Lit II (and perhaps The Victorian Age) courses:  When it’s time to sit the exam on the Victorian period, you can count on the following question appearing as extra credit:  Why can’t Tennyson’s famous … Continue reading

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