Blog Profile / OF Blog of the Fallen
| URL : | http://ofblog.blogspot.com | |
|---|---|---|
| Filed Under: | Genres / Fantasy | |
| Posts on Regator: | 1099 | |
| Posts / Week: | 6.9 | |
| Archived Since: | April 27, 2010 | |
Blog Post Archive
Now that the school year is ending shortly, a plan for June
Ever since I took a part-time ESL teaching position in February and then an evening job working with autistic children, my time has been short. I have several books that I want to review but haven't had the time/energy to do them. So...Show More Summary
What's been released so far in 2013 that I should consider reading/reviewing?
The titular question pretty much says it all: what books, whether they are novels; poetry collections; short fiction collections; anthologies; realist fictions; speculative fictions; weird fictions; non-Anglophone works in languagesShow More Summary
Maturation and reviewing
For the past two and a half months, I have busy with two jobs that take up 13 hours of my waking days/nights during the weekdays. I have not written as much here or at Gogol's Overcoat as I would have liked due to prioritizing sleep (and to a lesser extent, some reading) over writing reviews and commentaries. Show More Summary
The Great Gatsby (1974 film)
Cinema is a very different medium from literature, no matter how
frequently and how in-depth directors appropriate literary works in
creating their cinematic adaptations. Often films labeled "based on the
novel" are wretched, turgidShow More Summary
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
I'm inclined to reserve all judgments, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me and also made me the victim of not a few veteran bores. The abnormal mind is quick to detect and attach itself to this quality when it appears...Show More Summary
Flannery O'Connor, "Good Country People"
In February 1955, just as she was readying the order of stories for A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories,
Flannery O’Connor wrote a story, “Good Country People,” over the course
of four days that she later gushed about in letters to publisher Robert
Giroux (Feb. Show More Summary
Why reviewing "the classics" matters in this day and age
This past Friday saw the release of the 2013 cinema version of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel The Great Gatsby. Doubtless in the days to come, there will be several articles, online and print alike, comparing the novel with the cinematic adaptation. Show More Summary
Be afraid, be very, very afraid!
Apparently this is an actual movie. I think it should be the early favorite to win an Oscar next year, duh.
Flannery O'Connor, "A Late Encounter with the Enemy"
In several of Flannery O’Connor’s stories, character foibles provide
he main narrative drive. There is something satisfying, in a
Schadenfreude sort of way, in seeing a character’s preconceptions of the
world torn to shreds. This certainly...Show More Summary
Flannery O'Connor, "A Circle in the Fire"
Out of the stories covered so far from her 1955 collection, A Good Man is Hard to Find,
“A Circle in the Fire” (1954) might be one of the hardest of Flannery
O’Connor’s stories to decipher on a thematic/religious level. It’s not
so much...Show More Summary
Zoran Živkovi?, The Five Wonders of the Danube
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?? ????? ??? ?????? ?????. Show More Summary
Flannery O'Connor, "The Artificial Nigger"
It is little secret to anyone that the American South has had a long,
roubled history regarding racial relations. If anything, it likely is
viewed as the epitome of racism, with its chattel slavery, Jim Crow
laws, and being the birthplace of the Ku Klux Klan. Show More Summary
Here are the openers to two books. One of them won a major award. Can you guess which one?
Here are two quotes, each from books recently read or at least in the process of reading. One of these two has won a major award. Can you identify which won the award and who the two authors are for these quotes. Quote #1: One should...Show More Summary
Flannery O'Connor, "A Temple of the Holy Ghost"
If “A Stroke of Good Fortune” can be considered one of Flannery
O’Connor’s least substantive stories, then the next story found in the
1955 collection A Good Man is Hard to Find, “A Temple
of the Holy Ghost” (1954) is perhaps one of her deepest, most
symbol-laden stories. Show More Summary
April 2013 Reads
April was an odd reading month, as I barely read anything the first half of the month and then managed to read over half of the month's 35 reads/re-reads in its final week, a week that saw me bedridden for much of the time with multiple viral infections of my intestines, sinus, lungs, ear, and eyes. Show More Summary
Flannery O'Connor, "A Stroke of Good Fortune"
Not every single story that Flannery O’Connor wrote was “serious
literature,” the type that allows for extensive textual pulling and
prodding to yield bumper crops full of symbolism and portentous
commentary on the human condition(s). Show More Summary
What is the state (or states) of SF/F writing today?
I've slowly been catching up this weekend on certain online debate topics. Plenty on women in SF, awards critiques, and other sundry items, most of which are reiterations of previous discussions on these points. I then found myself thumbing through certain works that I was in the midst of reading or am considering reading in the next few days. Show More Summary
Flannery O'Connor, "The Life You Save May Be Your Own"
Unlike the previous Flannery O’Connor stories reviewed here, her 1953
short story “The Life You Save May Be Your Own” defies easy
description. There are no preachers of a Church without Christ, no
Misfits giving the lie to “good breeding”...Show More Summary
Flannery O'Connor, "The River"
Religious life in the American South has fascinated and repulsed
non-natives for the past few generations. The South’s complex
relationship to the tenants of (American) Protestant Christianity
bewilders those who are not accustomed to its myriad expressions of
faith. Show More Summary
Flannery O'Connor, "A Good Man is Hard to Find"
She said she thought it was going to be a good day for
driving, neither too hot nor too cold, and she cautioned Bailey that the
speed limit was fifty-five miles an hour and that the patrolmen hid
hemselves behind billboards and small clumps of trees and sped out
after you before you had a chance to slow down. Show More Summary