Monthly Archives: August 2018

Frozen Versus Canned

Posted on August 21, 2018 by JMN

Hollie Jean Burmeister makes such a to-do over her old-fashioned frozen pies. I don’t know what the big fuss is. The canned pies at Mustang Mart cost ninety-eight cents apiece, half of what the frozen ones do. The Kandi-Whip gets … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology | Tagged | Leave a comment

Personal Goal

Posted on August 20, 2018 by JMN

When I was a student of literature I recall being influenced by a school of critical theory (Rene Wellek?) that said an author’s biography was irrelevant to a consideration of his or her text. Once it was loosed from the … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Tale of Two Treatments

Posted on August 18, 2018 by JMN

I once took a poetry writing seminar conducted by a prominent American poet based at the time in Colby College. She was already an eminence in the early stages of her career and has achieved Olympian status since. I lunched … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary | Tagged | Leave a comment

Comment on a Comment

Posted on August 18, 2018 by JMN

I very much appreciate supportive comments. They encourage me to up my game. I quoted a paragraph from a remembrance of V.S. Naipaul published by Aatish Taseer in the NYTimes: Taseer is a writer I had not encountered previously. What … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotations | Tagged | 3 Comments

On V.S. Naipaul

Posted on August 16, 2018 by JMN

He never looked away. I was with him in Wiltshire soon after my father, the governor of Punjab in Pakistan, was assassinated. I had been estranged from my father and was not sure how to mourn him. Mr. Naipaul, with … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology, Quotations | Tagged | 2 Comments

Proportion

Posted on August 16, 2018 by JMN

The most important word in art is “proportion.” How much? How long is this joke going to be? How many words? How many minutes? And getting that right is what makes it art or what makes it mediocre. (Jerry Seinfeld, … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotations | Tagged , | Leave a comment

A Curtsy to the Cognoscenti

Posted on August 15, 2018 by JMN

The poetry editors of The Atlantic apologized recently for a poem they had accepted and printed. They say the poem “caused harm to members of several communities.” The author, a young white man named Anders Carlson-Wee, adopts the vernacular of … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary | Tagged , | Leave a comment

It seems as if…

Posted on August 14, 2018 by JMN

It seems as if I had to divest myself of my own library before I could start reading any of it. The sheer weight of unread books can neutralize a person. I don’t know if I ever told you the … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology | Tagged | 3 Comments

Stoicism (I got past the gloom. Happy now. This is about reading, not suicide.)

Posted on August 13, 2018 by JMN

[Domestic strife can cause one to seek comfort in odd places. During a time of gloom and stress I found relief by delving into some writings about the Stoics. I was retail advertising manager for the local newspaper, a highly … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology | 3 Comments

The Art of Typing

Posted on August 13, 2018 by JMN

[Frank Bruni and I share an alma mater — UNC-Chapel Hill. I enjoy his columns. His account of learning touch typing at age 17 mirrors my own experience. One semester of typing class in the tenth grade has served me … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology | 2 Comments