This excerpt from Emma Larkin’s Finding George Orwell in Burma seemed particularly appropos today: The world of Nineteen Eighty-Four is divided into three powerful superstates…These three states are permanently at war with each other, fighting in the murky frontier areas between their territories…the war serves no purpose other than to boost nationalism and support for…Continue reading our orwellian world
Category: Litbits: excerpts from good books
sweetening the babe
I’ve been reading The Montessori Method, Maria Montessori’s classic text on the education of children. First published in Italy at the beginning of the twentieth century, the book outlines a set of principles which are still used in Montessori schools today. The Montessori method is all about encouraging the development of children by allowing them…Continue reading sweetening the babe
What We Are Doing
What then shall I do this morning? How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing. ~Annie Dillard, The Writing Life Of course it is a rather stupid thing to spend one’s morning reading a book about…Continue reading What We Are Doing
Borges on Criticism & Compulsory Happiness
“I have tried to disregard as much as possible the history of literature. When my students asked me for a bibilography, I told them, ‘A bibliography is unimportant–after all, Shakespeare knew nothing of Shakespearean criticism. Why not study the text directly? If you like the book, fine; if you don’t, don’t read it. The idea…Continue reading Borges on Criticism & Compulsory Happiness
Ian McEwan on domesticity
Women authors in general are often criticized for working in the realm of the so-called “domestic novel,” as if the arena of home and love is not big enough a subject, as if there is something intellectually lacking in narratives of human relationships. There is still a prejudice among publishers (i.e. marketing departments) and review…Continue reading Ian McEwan on domesticity