Category Archives: Climate change

Ilium, Iowa City: Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five

October 23, 2013 For someone interested in the twentieth-century epic, Slaughterhouse Five is a no-brainer.  How else would one call a story set in Ilium, talking about war, about death and the counterfactual? But did I ever stop to think about … Continue reading

Posted in Boostores, Cities, Climate change, Contemporary novel, Environmentalism, epic, public universities, Science fiction, Twentieth century literature | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Ann Petry, Katharine Hepburn: the 1938 Hurricane

September 25, 2014 I found out only quite recently that Ann Petry had a second novel, very different from her first.   And I bet I’m not alone — another version of the Invisible Man syndrome.   Except that Country … Continue reading

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Ishmael Reed’s Canada: black, Jewish, indigenous

February 20, 2013 Ishmael Reed isn’t into tragedy, so Flight to Canada is funny about the African-American presence up North. Raven Quickskill is there of course, having flown in “non-stop/ Jumbo jet this A.M.  Had Champagne/ Compliments of the Cap’n/ … Continue reading

Posted in African-American literature, Black-Jewish alliances, Canada, Climate change, Environmentalism, Ethnicity, indigenous communities, planet, slavery, Twentieth century literature, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Edward Weston, Walt Whitman: Grass

November 7, 2012 Whitman, poet of New Jersey and New York.   Also poet of grass, the force of demographics, what comes up from the ground. He would have been unsurprised by Hurricane Sandy, or by the rising sea levels … Continue reading

Posted in Atlantic, Autobiography, Cities, Climate change, collaboration, Environmentalism, Modern art, Nineteenth-century literature, oceans, Photography, planet, print medium, Publishers, Remediation, twentieth century art, Vernacular dialects, Visual arts | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Unending Katrina: Dave Eggers’ Zeitoun

October 31, 2012 I never made it to the World Humanities Forum, a small story in a big storm. New Orleans and New York: this is the tale of two cities that is now unfolding.   I wish I could say: … Continue reading

Posted in Cities, Climate change, Contemporary novel, Environmentalism, Ethnicity, Genre, Islam, Media, Middle East, oceans, World religions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Rob Nixon: Slow Violence

January 11, 2012 The last day of the MLA: anyone still around?   But it was one of the best panels I’d been to.  A resonant title: “Velocities of Ecocriticism.”  A full audience.  And three great papers: Ursula Heise, Timothy Morton, … Continue reading

Posted in Climate change, Environmentalism, Media, scale, Theater | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 20 Comments