Marjorie Garber – “The Use and Abuse of Literature”

"The absence of answers or determinate meanings is exactly the set of qualities that make a passage or a work literary." - Marjorie Garber The world is forever asking us to to join feuding mobs, each clamoring they have the truth. Any attempt at independence always causes suspicion; it suggests shiftiness. Nothing is more confusing to a dogmatic party than …

To Kill a Famous Reclusive Author : Stephen King – “Finders Keepers”

"Finders Keepers" is second in Stephen King's new genre-shifting trilogy, after "Mr. Mercedes," and it's another very successful action thriller even if you can see King straining to keep up with publishing trends. (Is a YA supernatural romance far behind? Or does "Carrie" already sort of cover that territory?) I mentioned the first novel had a certain "Michael Connelly" smell to it, …

Keep Countin’ : Walter Scott – “Count Robert of Paris”

More about Counts! They used to CONtrol "countys". The English word Count is French Comte; Spanish Conde; Italian Conte; Turkish Kont; Irish, er, "Cunta" (be careful how you pronounce it.) It has Latin roots in "Companion," as in Companion to an Emperor, leader of a military Company. Its Saxon / British equivalent is "Earl" but, interestingly, there is no such …