No, I will NOT be watching the Lord of the Rings Amazon Series

My relationship with The Lord of the Rings is and has been incredibly intense. In the following, I will attempt to underline what I see as the core project of LOTR and why it is inherently incompatible with its co-option and commodification by Amazon. Extra challenge: I will try to do this with as little …

Shelter in Place: Day 58

Good Evening, Friends, It's me again. Today is Thursday, May 14th, 2020. First, a shout out to my sister for completing her master's program at Washington University in St. Louis! I'm so proud of you and excited for you. I know that the future is uncertain at this moment, but I know that you are …

Shelter in Place: Day 56

Hello Everyone, It's me again. 56 days in. Still writing a daily blogpost. I honestly did not think I would be able to keep this up for as long as I have. So, that's kind of nice. Today I did absolutely nothing. I virtually attended Anne Raeff's book publication party/ discussion. That was fantastic. It's …

Shelter in Place: Day 43

Mystery solved! My sister sent me the books! Thank you, Sabes! Today, I finally finished reading "Wuthering Heights". Something I've been thinking about for at least the past I'll say ten (probably more) years, and something I'll be thinking about for at least the next three, is the purpose (if there is one) of fiction. …

Shelter in Place: Day 42!

Greetings Earthlings, Today is day 42 of shelter in place. It is also Tuesday, April 28th of the year that doesn't exist. Today I cleaned the living room and kitchen of the apartment. I continued to read "Wuthering Heights". Perhaps most excitingly, I received two books with no note or return address! How exciting! I …

Shelter in Place: Day 40

Hello All, Laur here again. Just hanging out. Tomorrow I'll head to the grocery store. Today I started working on a felt octopus (pictures to come), made a strange pseudo-lasagna and also some surprisingly delicious peanut butter rice pudding. I'm trying very hard not to pack too much too quickly. I have this tendency to …

Shelter in Place: Day 36

In case I didn't make this intention clear at the beginning: I plan on writing one blogpost a day until Shelter in Place ends. Depending on how stable I am at that point, I might even continue writing one per day for the rest of my existence. Wouldn't that be fun? Anyway. Today It was …

Shelter in Place: Day 35

Over a month now. I have not gone anywhere except the grocery store and the laundromat. I'm continuing to read "Jane Eyre". I have about 180 pages remaining. At this point, I don't think there's anything that is going to get me on board with Senor Rochester. I recognize that he is miles better than …

Shelter in Place: Day 34

Squeaking it in under the wire today, folks. Mondays, am I right? Today I spent most of my time reading "Jane Eyre". I've never read it before. I quite like large swathes of it, and also have some problems with certain parts so far. I think that's probably true for many books. What I love …

In Defense of Optimism

I entered into a conversation recently that began around Kafka and ended somewhere to the left of me defending the concept of hope in the face of what was purportedly a deterministic universe. I don't know that I believe the universe has been determined, and even if it were, I don't necessarily think that excludes …