Tag Archives: social media

The Best Minds Destroyed by Social Media

“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by social media,” write a couple of tweeting satirists, referencing Ginsberg’s “Howl.”

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More People Reading Poetry

According to recent surveys, poetry is more popular than ever. The same, unfortunately, cannot be said of fiction.

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A President Who Hates Books

No president has been so adverse to reading as Donald Trump, whose contempt for books conjures up images of “Fahrenheit 451.”

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The Blue Guitar vs. Facebook

Wallace Stevens asserts that art changes “things as they are.” So does Facebook. We need the first to counteract the second when it is taken over by hostile forces.

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Tolstoy and the Forerunners of Twitter

Before there were people sending tweets about the important developments of the day, there was witty repartee in European salons. We get a taste of such banter from Tolstoy’s “War and Peace.

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Social Media, Our Modern Day Pillory

Social media has become the pillory of the 21st century, shaming people the way Hester Prynne is shamed in “The Scarlet Letter.”

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A Deep Faith in Lit’s Redemptive Powers

In his overlooked classic “Stoner,” John Williams makes a compelling case for art’s redemptive powers. Art is authentic, unlike much of modern culture.

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Social Media Invades the Classics

Imagining literary characters using social media opens up new insights into a work.

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Shakespeare with a Smart Phone

The plays would have been different if Shakespeare’s characters had had access to social media.

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