Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Hermann Hesse’S 'Siddhartha' As Divine Comedy, Bryan Bardine

Bryan Bardine

Comedy has always been more difficult to define and pin down than tragedy. Part of the difficulty may be that comedy is, by its very nature, more protean than tragedy: comedy often takes delight in breaking the rules. Moreover, tragedy has been so memorably described in The Poetics that Aristotle may have unintentionally molded the shape of tragedy through the ages. There are different kinds of tragedy, to be sure, but they are usually variations of a similar theme and form. Perhaps because Aristotle's treatise on comedy has been lost, comedy was left free to develop in numerous ways. In …

From Haiku To Collage, A Body Based Poetics, Judy Halebsky

Judy Halebsky

Made In China, Justin Wadland

Justin Wadland

Remembering Gina Berriault, Marianne Rogoff

Marianne Rogoff

"Near Sequoia movie theatre in downtown Mill Valley, in the space now occupied by Champagne French Bakery, I shared many lunches with the late, great Marin County writer Gina Berriault. I was her student then (MA in English: Creative Writing, SF State, 1983) and she was my thesis advisor, a one-to-one mentor relationship that did not involve a classroom full of other needy writing students. I cherished this focused attention: all about me. The professor’s long fingers often reached up to move her straight, dark hair away from her face so she could emphasize a point with serious eye contact; …

Review Of "Reversible Monuments: Contemporary Mexican Poetry", Marianne Rogoff

Marianne Rogoff

"From the center and edges of the vast and diverse landscape of contemporary Mexico, whose 'boundaries are largely the accidents of history,' the poets in Reversible Monuments ponder the limits of consciousness and search for meaning(s)."

Two Necessities Of Poetry: Plenitude And Exuberance, Marianne Rogoff

Marianne Rogoff

"Alicia Ostriker advocates a 'poetics of ardor,' one which is not detached, objective, or merely intellectual, instead a poetry that embraces a big-hearted and practical definition of what erotic means. Dancing at the Devil’s Party is mostly about women’s poetry but Ostriker also reminds us of the wide-reaching sensuality of Whitman, Hopkins, Keats, and other sexy male forebears who permitted love to appear in their work."

Irreconcilable Differences With God: On "The Monk Downstairs" By Tim Farrington, Marianne Rogoff

Marianne Rogoff

"The Monk Downstairs is an easy read about God. It seriously ponders the split between the contemplative life and life in the world while describing the most bedeviling aspects of simple survival on the secular plane."

Review Of "Into The Beautiful North" By Luis Alberto Urrea, Marianne Rogoff

Marianne Rogoff

"There are still many places in the world where electricity is a luxury and bandidos regularly assert power over powerless villages, where a plate of beans has to suffice as daily bread, and the lure of Hollywood cowboys and television heroes encourages the imagination to believe in fantasies. Escapism is a form of hope. The men of Tres Camarones, the dusty pueblito in Sinaloa, Mexico, at the center of Luis Alberto Urrea’s new novel, Into the Beautiful North, have escaped to the U.S. The fantasy was, the men cross the border, acquire riches, and return to the land of lagoons …

In Search Of Our Brains: On Teaching "Proust Was A Neuroscientist" By Jonah Lehrer, Marianne Rogoff

Marianne Rogoff

"I have always wanted to teach a semester of freshman English using a single text, moving students via rich allusions out beyond it for further reading according to their individual interests. Proust Was a Neuroscientist by Jonah Lehrer is a collection of essays linking contemporary findings in neuroscience with visionary knowledge dreamed up by writers and artists a hundred years ago. Concepts like Walt Whitman's poetic "body electric" and Virginia Woolf's psychological "stream of consciousness" are proven to have physical origins in our brains and bodies. I created a whole course around the book in Fall '08 at California College …

Is The Internet Ruining Our Lives? On "The Cult Of The Amateur" By Andrew Keen, Marianne Rogoff

Marianne Rogoff

"Not everyone will agree with the premise of Andrew Keen’s book, The Cult of the Amateur: How Blogs, MySpace, YouTube, and the Rest of Today’s User-generated Media Are Destroying Our Economy, Our Culture, and Our Values, recently out in paperback. Are you a throwback if you do? Are you a cultist if you don’t? Which is worse?"

Penquest Volume 2, Number 1, Janet Collins, Judy Gozdur, Susan Reed, David Reed, Rick Wagner, Carol Groover, Linda Banicki, Helen Hagadorn, Tammy Hutchinson, Sissy Crabtree, Sandra Coleman, Ann Harrington, Mark Touchton, Bruce Warner, Tom Schifanella, Laura Jo Last, David Whitsett, Bill Slaughter, S. Trevett, Richard L. Ewart, Valerie Williams, R. E. Mallery, Modesta Matthews, David Olson, E. Allen Tilley, Joseph Avanzini, Beth Goeckel, Donna Kaluzniak, Paul Cramer, Lucinda Halsema, Maria Barry, Roger Whitt Jr., Lori Nasrallah

David E. Olson

Table of Contents for this Volume:

Untitled by Janet Collins

Untitled by Judy Gozdur

Last Hour of Light by Susan Reed

Untitled by Judy Godzur

Untitled by Rick Wagner

Untitled by Carol Groover

Untitled by R. Wagner

Only in the Portico by Linda Banicki

Untitled by Helen Hagadorn

Private Place, Pubic Place by David Reed

Untitled by Tammy Hutchinson

Untitled by Tammy Hutchinson

Madison Knights by Susan Reed

Untitled by Sissy Crabtree

The Price by Sandra Coleman

Untitled by Ann Harrington

Invasion of Privacy by Mark Touchton

Untitled by Bruce Warner

Untitled by Tom Schifanella

Untitled by Tammy Hutchinson

Bloodwork …

Advice About Advice (Faultlines), Sharon Black

Sharon Black

Crown Royal, Lydia Copeland Gwyn

Lydia Copeland Gwyn

Tour Guide Of My Brain, Lydia Copeland Gwyn

Lydia Copeland Gwyn

In My Window, Lydia Copeland Gwyn

Lydia Copeland Gwyn