Digging around in the online archives of the C18-L discussion list, I found this interesting thread on Ian Watt’s 1957 book, The Rise of the Novel: Studies in Defoe, Richardson, and Fielding. Still highly influential more than 45 years after its original publication — though not without its flaws, as the C18-L discussion makes clear — Watt’s book argued in part for the importance of considering the contextual circumstances (economic, philosophical, literary historical) of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries when trying to understand the appearance and development of this new genre of writing. This book is all the more remarkable given that in 1957, most literary scholars were taking a New Critical approach that assumed the ahistorical formal autonomy of a text.

Clearly an emphasis on Defoe, Richardson, and Fielding obscures a great deal about the early history of the novel, but I’m still enjoying (re)reading this book. I particularly like these lines from the first page of the first chapter:

Continue reading →

As you can see, I’ve added a “recent comments” section to my blog sidebar. I can’t take credit for figuring it out on my own, however. Back at the beginning of April, Liz generously posted some of her template files, and I’ve just used the relevant portions from her pages in my pages.

Here’s how you do it, provided you’re using Movable Type for your blog.

Continue reading →

I went by a local record store yesterday with the idea that I would buy some new music. I had three candidates in mind:

1. Something by The Cucumbers, because I really dig that song, “Illegal,” they posted for download on the Protest Records website.
2. Something by Built to Spill, because I really dig the song Jenny posted on her site. (You have to scroll down to find it.)
3. Double Nickels On The Dime, by the Minutemen — who, being a defunct band, do not have their own homepage, but whose former bass player, Mike Watt, does — because I saw a commercial for the movie Jackass and I swear they were playing a clip from a song on this album, and I thought, “Either something terrible is being done with the music of the Minutemen, or this movie is a lot more interesting than I thought.”

In any case, three swings and three strikes.

So I’m soliciting suggestions for a new music purchase. Any ideas?

Airing on t.v. tomorrow night is the first installment of the new season of P.O.V., the fantastic, long-running series on PBS of what they call “independent non-fiction films.” Check online to see when it’s playing in your area.

In some sort of weird blogging convergence, everyone’s reporting their weekend adventures. Heidi went to a picnic on Saturday and was rewarded with allergies and chigger bites. Jason saw a bear (for only the second time in 20 years, he says) on a camping trip with his dad in Virginia. After a trip to Annapolis with Matt, Kari made meatloaf. Randy’s weekend featured photography, slugs (no, that’s probably not right), and barbecue. Deb — who, alas, does not have permanent links to her individual entries — went to DC without knowing exactly where she would be staying. Liz took a jaunt to Niagara Falls. Chuck — also without permanent links to individual entries: curse you Blogspot! — had yummy Lebanese food and took in a movie.

Meanwhile, on Saturday, we walked down to the River Market farmer’s market — which is one of the best things about Kansas City — had a cup of coffee while people watching, bought enough fresh produce to fill our backpack, then perused the Asian Supermarket for some wasabi, dried seaweed sheets, and a bamboo rolling mat. Later that evening, The Matrix: Reloaded — more on this later, perhaps — followed by a post-movie snack at Fedora’s.

Then on Sunday, following this guy’s instructions, I tried my hand at making sushi (not sashimi, mind you: nothing raw). It wasn’t perfect, but given that this was my first attempt ever, it was surprisingly good.

So…what did you do?