Jessica Valenti is pissed that a relaunch of the Sweet Valley High series has retconned the twin protagonists from a “perfect size 6″ to a “perfect size 4.” I’m sympathetic to the idea that kids literature probably shouldn’t be compounding young girls’ body image issues by stipulating a “perfect” size, whatever it might be. But [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Language and Literature'
Label Inflation Hits Tween Fiction
March 27th, 2008 · 6 Comments
Tags: Language and Literature · Sociology
Hoover Bleg
March 20th, 2008 · 5 Comments
One thing that’s recently become clear to me is that I really need to read a biography of J. Edgar Hoover. Anyone care to recommend one?
Tags: Language and Literature · Personal · Privacy and Surveillance
We Don’t Read Much, Do We?
March 6th, 2008 · 6 Comments
The latest chapter in the hilarious misadventures of Concerned Woman for America Matt Barber involves blowing a fuse over an Illinois high school’s addition of the Tony- and Pulitzer-award winning play Angels in America to their curriculum. Though Barber avers that it “takes a lot” to shock him, he writes (emphasis mine):
The book is replete [...]
Tags: Academia · Language and Literature · Law · Stupid Shit
Classics of Confusion
March 5th, 2008 · 5 Comments
The Claremont Institute is apparently posting some “classic” essays from its archives, beginning with Harry Jaffa’s “Macbeth and the Moral Universe.” As a prelude to his argument about the Scottish Play, Jaffa offers up a modern point of contrast:
Macbeth is a moral play par excellence. In this, it stands in stark contrast to two more [...]
Tags: Language and Literature · Moral Philosophy
“In the Tank”
February 28th, 2008 · 16 Comments
Tags: Language and Literature
Picking Mitt’s Nits
December 21st, 2007 · 5 Comments
Tags: Language and Literature
Fun With Pedantry
November 8th, 2007 · 6 Comments
Tags: Language and Literature
Requisite Linguistic Kvetch of the Day
November 2nd, 2007 · No Comments
Tags: Language and Literature
Austerism
August 20th, 2007 · 5 Comments
Tags: Language and Literature
Outsight
August 15th, 2007 · 19 Comments
Tags: Language and Literature