Category Archives: epic

Octopus for Christmas

Posted on December 25, 2013 by wcd2

December 25, 2013 No, not salmon, that eminently respectable candidate for a fishetarian dinner. Octopus instead, still exotic and dubious-looking in this part of the world, but a common food staple in Japan and throughout the Mediterranean: in Spain, Portugal, … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, epic, Food in literature, Global South, oceans, Uncategorized | Tagged Frank Norris, G. Frederick Keller, Hawthorne, Japan, Mediterranean, Melville, Morocco, Portugal, Salmon, Southern Pacific Railroad, Spain, The Octopus, Tunisia, Turkey, Victor Hugo | Leave a comment

Ilium, Iowa City: Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five

Posted on October 23, 2013 by wcd2

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 Dresden firebombing, Floods 2013, Guggenheim Fellowship, Iliad, Ilium, Iowa City, John Irving, Kurt Vonnegut, Prairie Lights Bookstore, Slaughterhouse-Five, World War II | Leave a comment

Jazz in Australia: Yusef Komunyakaa, Charlie Parker

Posted on May 22, 2012 by wcd2

May 22, 2012 I’m heading there later today, so I’ve been doing a bit of homework. Komunyakaa, of course: it’s so strange that I should be talking about his play adaptation of Gilgamesh at the University of Sydney, when there … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, Arts communities, Australia, collaboration, Comparative literature, contemporary poetry, Cuneiform, Educational institutions, epic, Ethnicity, Global South, Handwritten script, lyric, Media, Mesopotamia, Middle East, Music, Near Eastern poetry, peripheral networks, planet, print medium, Remediation, twentieth century art | Tagged " Charlie Parker, "Testimony, Austraiia, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Dexter Gordon, February in Sydney, Gilgamesh, jazz poetry anthology, Louis Armstrong, Mandy Sayer, Melbourne International Festival of the Arts, Miles Davis, Sand Evans, Sydney Opera House, Thieves of Paradise, University of New Orleans, University of Sydney, Yusef Komunyakaa | 8 Comments

Two Toledos

Posted on April 25, 2012 by wcd2

April 25, 2012 I’m on my way to Toledo, I told people. Ohio, not Spain, I added. Then I found out that the two are in fact sister cities. The association began in the 1920s when University of Toledo President, … Continue reading →

Posted in Arabic, architecture, Classics, Educational institutions, epic, Islam, Midwest, mixed races, Spanish, Translation, Universities, world literature, World religions | Tagged 1492, Cervantes, Christians, Cide Hamete Benengeli, Don Quixote, Henry Doermann, ijtihad, Islamic Center of Greater Toledo, Jews, La Mancha, M, Mosque of Cristo de la Luz, Mudéjar architecture, Muslims, Ohio, Russell Brown, Sister Cities, Spain, Synagogue of El Transito, Synagogue of Santa Maria la Blanca, Toledo | 20 Comments

Iraq in Poetry: Brian Turner

Posted on April 4, 2012 by wcd2

April 4, 2012 Teaching his poetry was easy. There was never any doubt in my mind that it belonged in the course – along with Whitman on the Civil War; John Hersey on Hiroshima; Ha Jin on Korea; Michael Herr … Continue reading →

Posted in Arabic, Classics, collaboration, Contemporary novel, contemporary poetry, Cuneiform, Educational institutions, epic, Handwritten script, Islam, lyric, Media, Mesopotamia, Middle East, Near Eastern poetry, Translation, Twentieth century literature, Universities, world literature | Tagged Alhazen of Basra, American Civil War, analytical geometry, Brian Turner, Divisadero Street, Eulogy, Fresno, Gilgamesh. John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Ha Jin, Here Bullet, Hiroshima, John Hersey, Katyusha rockets, Korean War, Michael Herr, Vietnam, Walt Whitman | 3 Comments

Yusef Komunyakaa and Chad Gracia, Gilgamesh

Posted on February 22, 2012 by wcd2

February 22, 2012 I’ve never given a talk at UCLA. Caltech, yes, in nearby Pasadena; also the Huntington Library. But never at the famed Royce Hall, 405 Hilgard Avenue. So I’m a bit anxious about tomorrow: a graduate student … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, Classics, collaboration, Comparative literature, contemporary poetry, Cuneiform, Dance, epic, Handwritten script, Mesopotamia, Near Eastern poetry, Remediation, Theater, Translation, Visual arts, world literature | Tagged Caltech, Chad Gracia, Cunieform, Enkidu, epic, Gilgamesh, Huntington Library, Ode to the Maggot, Our Oriental Heritage, Pasadena, Sumeria, UCLA, Will Durant, Yusef Komunyakaa | 67 Comments

Charles Olson: Call Me Ishmael

Posted on January 25, 2012 by wcd2

January 25, 2012 In the early 1930s, while writing his Master’s thesis on Melville, Charles Olson began tracking down the books once owned by Melville, some with significant marginalia. Melville’s widow had sold almost 500 of these books to a … Continue reading →

Posted in epic, Experimental poetry, Handwritten script, Media, Nineteenth-century literature, Renaissance literature, Twentieth century literature | Tagged "Letter for Melville 1951", Black Mountain College, Call Me Ishmael, Charles Olson, Cy Twonbley, John Cage, Mayan hieroglyphics, Melville, Queequeg, Robert Duncan, Robert Rauschenberg, Shakespeare, University of Connecticut | 2 Comments

Frank Stella re-mediates Moby-Dick

Posted on December 28, 2011 by wcd2

December 28, 2011 The numbers speak for themselves. Begun in 1985, the Moby-Dick series is still ongoing, with one or more artworks corresponding to each of the 135 chapter titles, over 300 of them at this point. They are mostly … Continue reading →

Posted in abstract expressionism, Chinese art, epic, Japanese art, Near Eastern poetry, Nineteenth-century literature, print medium, Remediation, twentieth century art, world literature | Tagged "Near East Series", Australia, Frank Stella, Herman Melville, Islamic decorative arts, Japan, Moby-Dick, MOMA, Robert K. Wallace, Roberta Smith, world literature | 168 Comments

Collaboration with Chance

Posted on December 21, 2011 by wcd2

December 21 On our Facebook page, Edgar Garcia posted a link to Jackson Mac Low’s Words nd Ends from Ez. Ezra Pound, of course. The two poets used to be friends, but they were no longer close when Mac Low … Continue reading →

Posted in epic, Experimental poetry, Music, Nineteenth-century literature, print medium, Remediation, Rock music, Twentieth century literature | Tagged Add new tag, chance, Experimental poetry, Ezra Pound, Herman Melville, Jackson Mac Low, John Bonham, John Cage, Led Zeppelin, Moby-Dick, Music, randomization, Rock music | 9 Comments

Melville in the Dominican Republic

Posted on December 14, 2011 by wcd2

December 14, 2011 As far I know, he never set foot there. But then a physical journey is not always necessary. Junot Diaz is not shy about naming names — The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is almost … Continue reading →

Posted in epic, Global South, Nineteenth-century literature, Spanglish, Translation, world literature | Tagged Dominican Republic, epic, Junot Diaz, Melville, novel, science fiction, Spanlish, world literature | 11 Comments