The panel that filled an entire 19th-century Episcopal church—pews and gallery, and sitting on the floor in the aisles—at last Sunday's Brooklyn Book Festival was a discussion of monogamy. The panelists were excellent: Eric Klinenberg, sociologist and author of Read More
From Phyllida's Desk
Performance Anxiety
September 17, 2012
I'm lighter by a couple of Facebook friends recently and, what's worse, I'm down one "Like" of my Author page.
As anybody who uses Facebook knows, we live or die by how many "Like"s we get— Read More
As anybody who uses Facebook knows, we live or die by how many "Like"s we get— Read More
Shopping Under the Influence
September 4, 2012
I bought an "Eat, Fuck, Howl" t-shirt at a Queer Lit performance the other night, because I need a daytime outfit for the Jane Austen Society's annual general meeting next month. Read More
A Very Natural Thing
August 6, 2012
I saw this extraordinary movie from 1974 recently on DVD, only because Netflix apparently bought just one copy of the popular new releases, which means I'm facing a "very long wait." This movie more than made up for it.
Read More
Read More
Review of Swamplandia by Karen Russell
July 1, 2012
Swamplandia! by Karen RussellMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
We don't really need another three-star review of Karen Russell's Swamplandia! Most of what I have to say about the book has been said wittily and well by other reviewers. But after mulling over my reaction to this critically acclaimed but, for many ordinary readers, disappointing book, I feel it epitomizes the problem of today's publishing world. Read More
Survivors
June 25, 2012
Most of us, if asked, will probably say we enjoy reading or seeing movies about survivors, not losers. But if presented with genuine survivors, people who struggle so hard at just getting by that all other concerns—love and sex and leisure and pleasure and creativity, must of necessity be pushed aside—we don't like that either. It's too depressing, too…threatening. Read More
Excerpt from "Birth: A Novella"
June 17, 2012
"Lady Amalie's memoirs" is a series of novels and novellas about a family of telepathic aristocrats in the sword-and-sorcery world of Eclipsis. This excerpt is from the fourth story, Birth: A Novella, when the honeymoon is definitely over for Amalie; her bisexual husband, Dominic; and his boyfriend, Stefan.
Read More
Read More
Play recommendation: Muerte Subita
June 14, 2012
"Andres is passionately writing his third novel." That's the deceptively benign situation of Muerte Subita* (Sudden Death), the exhilarating--and frightening--play by noted Mexican playwright Sabina Berman that has just three performances left at the Gershwin Hotel in New York City. If you are a writer, an artist, or anybody who enjoys intimate, perfectly realized theater productions, you won't want to miss Muerte Subita. Read More
Making It Look Easy
May 31, 2012
Men who openly read explicit pornography in public transportation areas are not as severely condemned as women who apply foundation, lipstick, and blush outside their homes. Read More
Falling Off the Face of the Earth
May 13, 2012
Toward the end of last month, my young home computer, barely out of puberty, died unexpectedly. Coincidently, my long-awaited new computer at my day job arrived, requiring IT Dept. set-up and the reinstallation of all my software.
What this meant was that, for a brief period, I was almost completely cut off from that Read More
What this meant was that, for a brief period, I was almost completely cut off from that Read More