The Great Gatsby at 100
Sean MurphyF. Scott Fitzgerald got America in his sights, for all time Why is the The Great Gatsby the great American novel? Because it mattered then, and it matters now. Because it was…
Moby Dick, Martin Scorsese, and Making a Literary Life
Image courtesy of The New Yorker November 14, 1851 Quick, literary folks: why is this date important? Hint: Call Me Ishmael. Yes, on this day 172 years ago, Herman Melville…
The Style’s the Thing: The Inimitable Martin Amis
Martin Amis poses for a photographer June 12, 2000 at a book signing at the Beverly Hills Library in Beverly Hills, CA. (by Frederick M. Brown/Online USA) Style is not…
THE BLACKENED BLUES, One Poem at a Time: Captain Ahab’s Oil
I’m happy to announce that my first poetry collection, The Blackened Blues, is available wherever you buy books (yes, *wherever*, so you don’t have to put more money in Rocket Man’s…
1455 RECOMMENDS: A READING LIST
Coming soon: a movie list and, inevitably, some musical suggestions to accompany social distancing, working from home, reading, relaxing, and staying both healthy and sane. But first, some easily recommended books. Disclaimer:…
The Whiteness of the Whale: Remembering The White Album (Revisited)
Therefore, in his other moods, symbolize whatever grand or gracious thing he will by whiteness, no man can deny that in its profoundest idealized significance it calls up a peculiar…
This Creeping Malaise
Of course, what we write about is what we think about, and what we think about is invariably influenced by what we’re doing, what we’re reading, what we’re ceaselessly reacting…
Melville at 200 and, of course, Moby Dick
Herman Melville is not only, arguably, our most American author; he is America. Author of the most successful second act in literary history (posthumous, alas), Melville is sui generis as…
The Whiteness of the Whale: Remembering The White Album (Revisited)
Therefore, in his other moods, symbolize whatever grand or gracious thing he will by whiteness, no man can deny that in its profoundest idealized significance it calls up a peculiar…
Roky Erickson: Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Genius (Revisited)
(For the remainder of the month, I’ll be revisiting some personal favorites, all of which are available in my recently-released collection, MURPHY’S LAW VOL. ONE, which is available NOW!) Preface You’re…