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Consummatum est

By on June 14, 2011 in Writing

In his final speech (1889), Jeff Davis told his audience of Southern college students,

Let me beseech you to lay aside all rancor, all bitter sectional feeling, and to take your places in the ranks of those who will bring about a consummation devoutly to be wished–a reunited country.

I find this strange and telling. Continue Reading →

Keats on Sudafed

By on June 9, 2011 in Writing

John Keats was in his early twenties when he wrote the sad, prescient sonnet that begins,

When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has glean’d my teeming brain,
Before high-piled books, in charact’ry,
Hold like rich garners the full-ripen’d grain… Continue Reading →

Prisons of the Imagination

By on June 7, 2011 in Writing

I’ve been working on a story about prisons. As I investigate the history of crime and punishment in Western society, I’m struck by the influence of G.B. Piranesi’s famous renderings: everybody refers to these, cites them, uses them in a frontispiece. Continue Reading →