This post is modified from the original on Peachleaves. When I was teaching an introductory literature course organized around the concepts of comedy and tragedy, one of my toughest sells was that it is possible--desirable, sometimes--to take apart a joke to see what makes it funny. Thinking critically about humor really brought home the overarching… Continue reading Words and Pain: two poems by Miroslav Holub
Author: Sara Davis
11 Things I love about Don’t Trust the B in Apartment 23
On the surface--starting with its inauspicious title--Don't Trust the B in Apartment 23 is a sitcom I should hate. The entire premise is that the titular "B," Chloe, has no respect for boundaries: she attempts to swindle her roommate June, lies to June and everyone else repeatedly, interrupts June's privacy while keeping herself inaccessible, and… Continue reading 11 Things I love about Don’t Trust the B in Apartment 23
How Not To Be: Peer Review
This post is modified from the original, which appeared in 2012 on Peachleaves. Back in my hoop-jumping early years of grad school, I sent an abstract of a seminar paper to three editors of a proposed volume. The road to revision never did run smooth, but the process for this volume was more painful than it… Continue reading How Not To Be: Peer Review
Font Lines
Last Tuesday, my work iMac had a meltdown. I felt like having one too: it's been a stressful month, trying to keep my major seasonal project rolling while filling in the gaps that open in the absence of a departmental assistant. But there is no time for hard drive failure, mine or otherwise, so I… Continue reading Font Lines
Get Excited, and Get Lucky
Hello friends. Have a poem for this hot, hot summer day: Getting Lucky With Jamie by Nicole Steinberg If you want to go a tiny bit hipster, here’s how: Grab a romper and go to town on the all-natural train from Jackson Heights to lower Manhattan; mask any contempt for the matchy-matchy girls under your… Continue reading Get Excited, and Get Lucky
The Flight of the English Major
A recent NYT opinion piece gave some pretty surprising statistics on English majors: "In 1991, 165 students graduated from Yale with a B.A. in English literature. By 2012, that number was 62. In 1991, the top two majors at Yale were history and English. In 2013, they were economics and political science. At Pomona this… Continue reading The Flight of the English Major
Sara Davis 