Literature

Archilochus

I think of him as the anti-Homer poet. While Homer’s subjects are gods and heroes, Archilochus writes of drunkenness, running away to live and perhaps fight another day, the common man with his feet planted firmly on the ground — and, occasionally of sweet love. Not much is known about him other than that he

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Chekhov’s artistic choices (and the artist as a god)

Anton Chekhov is a great writer, in large part because he follows ruthlessly a principle of selectivity named after him: “Chekhov’s gun” is principle of writing that says that every element in a narrative must be essential and irreplaceable, and anything that is neither must be eliminated. But I don’t like reading Chekhov. I read

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Haruki Murakami on standard education and Russian novelists

Reprising this post from reading Murakami’s Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. A character comments: “Everyone must have one thing that they can excel at. It’s just a matter of drawing it out, isn’t it? But school doesn’t know how to draw it out. It crushes the gift. It’s no wonder most people

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