After an unintentional absence, Test Prep is back. This entry is about the original Friday the 13th (1980). I was surprised to enjoy the film after a recent viewing. Once I hit page nine, I realized I was only about halfway through the argument I was setting out involving Northrop Frye’s commentary on genre and comedy and … Continue reading Test Prepper
I’m reading J.H. Prynne’s The White Stones for the first time and while enjoying it, I often find myself feeling lost. I don’t find that a negative response; I have often felt that way with works that have become favorites. There are themes and images that connect across the poems and I’m just barely getting an overall … Continue reading to be warm and tired/without some impossible flame in the heart
The Bat (1959) Dir. Crane Wilbur By no means even a good film, but for Vincent Price and “old” movie fans, it’s not completely terrible. Though it’s more thriller than the traditional horror films Price is known for, he plays a familiar character here. The Bat, a mysterious criminal and killer, gets one of the … Continue reading Recent Viewing
Too Loud a Solitude Bohumil Hrabal 1976/1989 This was recommended by a friend who went to Czechoslovakia and had this book recommended to him by a bookstore clerk as representative of the nation’s literature. Solitude is just over 100 pages and reads a little like Kafka, and a little like Beckett. The book deals with … Continue reading Recently Read
Since we’ve had threats of snow this week, the kids and I watched The Snowy Day adaptation on Netflix. Ezra Jack Keats’s little book is one of my favorite children’s stories, and, to be expected, gets much altered in an extended animated version. It does capture Keats’s art and the atmosphere of his story, though … Continue reading The First of Possible Weekly Updates That No One Asked For. You’re Welcome and Happy New Year!
Stephen McClurg 