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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is too hard on Mike Teavee
You probably remember the story: five children win a lifetime supply of chocolate, and a tour of Wonka's factory.
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Brad Skow
1
The Grotesque in Flannery O’Connor
Flannery O’Connor’s stories are, by her own account, “preoccupied with the grotesque.” The reason, some argue, is that the grotesque is fascinating to…
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Brad Skow
4
Before Washington
We’ve forgot, but ”for many years it was possible to assert that Samuel Adams ranked with, if not above, George Washington," as a hero of the American…
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Brad Skow
3
Hitchcock / Van Gogh
In the third scene of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, Gavin Elster asks his old college pal Scottie (Jimmy Stewart) to spy on his wife, because, Elster…
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Brad Skow
2
Book Review: Shakespeare’s Metrical Art by George T. Wright
Iambic pentameter, the dominant verse form used by Shakespeare, permits a great deal of rhythmic flexibility; and that flexibility can be exploited for…
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Brad Skow
6
On Taste
Sam Phillips created and ran Sun Records in the 1950s.
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Brad Skow
10
2024 Year in Review
This transcript has been edited for clarity.
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Brad Skow
Antony and Antony
Mark Antony’s funeral oration is the turning point of Julius Caesar. Brutus had just finished his own speech, and seemed to persuade the people that…
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Brad Skow
Ancient footsteps, like the motion of the sea
In 1979 Bob Dylan became a born again Christian, and worse, released three albums of songs about God.
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Brad Skow
3
Mr Death
Mr Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr., directed by Errol Morris.
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Brad Skow
On Free Verse, with Applications to Walt Whitman
Part 1: Robert Bridges Hated Free Verse
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Brad Skow
2
The Coming of the Reign of Terror
Part 2: The Revolution Devours its Children
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Brad Skow
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