Tag Archives: literature

“After Jews and Arabs: Remaking Levantine Culture”

Posted on March 18, 2012 by zjb

Levant Fair, Tel Aviv, 1934 (http://www.middle-east-pictures.com/middle-east/Levant-fair-1934-Aviv-002.htm)   Just read Ammiel Alcalay’s After Jews and Arabs: Remaking Levantine Culture. Published in 1993 ahead of its time, I can’t think of a more timely meditation from some time ago for anyone today … Continue reading →

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Literature, Trust, and the Return to the Real (Jonathan Franzen or Why Can’t I?)

Posted on March 12, 2012 by zjb

(photo taken from the SU Daily Orange)  Jonathan Franzen spoke at Syracuse University last week, so I figured this might be interesting. Great excitement at Hendrick’s Chapel. Incredibly tall, the author stepped up to the podium.  I’ve never seen a … Continue reading →

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Science and Myth (Henri Atlan)

Posted on February 29, 2012 by zjb

(page from Stéphane Mallarmé, “A Throw of the Dice Will Never Abolish Chance”) (found at: http://kottke.org/10/08/active-passive-or-playing Just finished reading Henri Atlan’s The Sparks of Randomness, vol1, Spermatic Knowledge.  Among the author’s many titles and honors, an incomplete list of Atlan’s … Continue reading →

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Literature and Religion: Brooklyn Bridge

Posted on February 3, 2012 by zjb

I’m also in the tank with Alfred Kazin, the great literary critic, randy man about town, and New York Jew. A selection of his journals had just been published and they sounded interesting. I first his memoir, Walker in the … Continue reading →

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