Poe: The Murders in the Rue Morgue
Of all the stories by Edgar Allan Poe that I’ve been reading during these past few weeks, I considered “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” my least favorite. Please do not read too much into […]
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Poe: The Masque of the Red Death
“The Masque of the Red Death” reads like a fable. One could imagine it beginning with the stock line, Once upon a time… It’s loaded with irony, symbolism, and poetic justice; in fact, I think […]
Coffee Sunday: Friday, Sylvia Plath, Spider-Man, Upcoming Posts
The current novel I’m reading is Friday by Robert R. Heinlein. It’s a 1982 science-fiction novel about an android—or artificial person as she’s called in the novel—who’s a trained assassin and spy. At least that’s […]
Poe: The Pit and the Pendulum
The Spanish Inquisition began in 1478, under the reign of Ferdinand II and Isabella I. It started with the mundane but morally questionable goal of identifying heretics. That was a slippery slope that eventually led […]
Poe: The Raven
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary/Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—so reads, arguably, the most famous couplet in American poetry. It’s surely is the most famous […]
Coffee Sunday: August 4
This last week, I rewatched The Amazing Spider-Man (2012). I’ve heard it said that Toby Mcguire understood Peter Parker but not Spider-Man, but Andrew Garfield understood Spider-Man but not Peter Parker. Tom Hollands understands both […]
Feature Writer: Edgar Allan Poe
On December 26, 1811, the Richmond Theatre in Richmond, Virginia burned down. Since seventy-two people died, it was the worst disaster to date in American history. To commemorate it, they built the Monumental Church on […]
Coffee Sunday Returns
I finished reading A Storm of Swords last night. It’s the third novel in George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series. I keep saying that I’m never going to catch-up with […]
Coffee Sunday: New Directions
I should call this Sniffles Sunday. On Thursday, I became sick with a spring bug. I took Thursday and Friday off from work, and I spent most of my time since Thursday in bed. That […]
Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel García Márquez
Memories of My Melancholy Whores begins with its protagonist and narrator declaring the objectionable goal of wanting to have sex with a teenaged virgin. It’s the gift he wants to give himself for his ninetieth […]