Last week — Teaching notes
I. Via L.G. Thos.: George and Weedon Grossmith's The Diary of a Nobody is now online as a blog. (I'll be teaching this book next semester.)
II. Speaking of teaching: Last Tuesday, for my final short story class, I had my students read various short-shorts, including the liner notes to The Best of Leonard Cohen, which is one of my favorite very short collections of very short prose—exquisitely world-weary, self-deprecating, droll, and surprising.
Lady Midnight
This was finished in the Henry Hudson Hotel on 58th Street in New York. Yafa was doing tricks with her silver bangles. I owe her the last verse. It was recorded in Nashville. The voice is uncertain. In those days it took me fifteen minutes to decide whether or not I should wear my cap when I went outside and a half hour whether or not I should take it off when I came back.
Then today I saw that someone at The Millions blog included them on Friday (as part of its year-in-reading series)!
III. Also last week: Jenny D's post on Oscar Wilde's reading habits mentioned W.H. Mallock's book The New Republic. Why did the name "Mallock" ring a bell?
A: Because he is the author of A Human Document, which Tom Phillips transformed into A Humument...topic of my final Friday class!
I was also happy to find that A Human Document is available in its entirety as a Google Book.
Labels: A Humument, Jenny D, Leonard Cohen, Oscar Wilde, The Diary of a Nobody, Tom Phillips, W.H. Mallock
posted by Ed Park @ 1:26 PM
1 Comments:
Did we have a conversation about those Leonard Cohen liner notes at some point? Because I've recently been thinking the same thing, enjoying in particular the notes to "Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye" and "Sisters of Mercy." The songs are all, I think, available on other albums, but the liner notes justify owning this one, too.
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