My high school IB history teacher was extremely passionate about history, so much that he would give out extra packages of notes on various events and figures associated with the time period we were studying that we most likely didn’t need to know. I remember Octavio Paz figuring in one of them, and...
In this book Eliot Weinberger examines the difficulties inherent in translating classic Chinese poetry into Western languages by considering a special case in detail: he selects one poem by Wang Wei (699/701 - 761), romanizes it, gives a literal translation and then considers 16 different translator...
Briefly. Very briefly, as the two poems which comprise this pamphlet total a mere 56 pages. Two contemporary, and by most standards, highly regarded American writers, Lydia Davis and Eliot Weinberger, consider two very different regions of the country during approximately the same time period—the mi...
I sweet story of the trials of having family with issues
I’m way out of my league on this one—out of my element, like the narrator—Icarus/Major Tom with Ground Control unavailable—free-falling through images of space earth the sea musical instrumentarians mills of numerous –ations (pages’ worth) aaaaaeeahoh. Written and revised over a span of about 12 ye...
As I sat by my window finishing the last essays in An Elemental Thing tonight, a severe storm was raging outside. Dark gray clouds descending, heavy rain pouring down, wild winds driving the water against my windows. During the worst of the storm, it felt like glass and bricks were only a very thin ...
After reading Weinberger’s An Elemental Thing, I knew that, sooner or later, I’d have to have more of Weinberger’s work under my belt. After biding my time, watching for an inexpensive used copy and to make up a minimum order that qualified for free shipping, I finally ordered and received this one....
Only read a couple stories for class, but I really enjoyed them.
What do you do when you finish a book of extraordinary writing—writing that’s unlike anything you’ve read before? Writing that’s caught you up and not turned you loose. Writing that informs, but is beautiful. Writing that leaves you breathless, but not wanting for air, rather wanting for more writin...
I read the first 95 pages of this book, which was 95 pages too many. Everything I heard about it led me to believe it would be very entertaining, so I kept reading hoping it would get funny, or at least interesting. A couple of nights ago I was struggling through another page, when suddenly I was ...
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