“Actors are so fortunate….

They can choose whether they will appear in tragedy or in comedy, whether they will suffer or make merry, laugh or shed tears.  But in real life it is different.  Most men and women are forced to perform parts for which they have no qualifications.” – Oscar Wilde, “Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime”

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Samuel Johnson Tercentenary

Thursday, September 24, at 4:30 PM in the Henley Reading Room at Leatherby Libraries, Chapman University  Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) was an author, poet, biographer, essayist, editor, reviewer, and the English literary genius of the 18th century.  His Dictionary of the English Language (1755) is considered one of the literary world’s greatest accomplishments. At 4:30 PM today, [...]

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“‘Tis the good reader that makes the good book.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

In his 2002 essay “Mr. Difficult,” Jonathan Franzen recalls “Mrs. M.,” an angry reader who is outraged by Franzen’s sophisticated vocabulary and overall level of difficulty in his fiction.  Presumably, Mrs. M. represents the “average person” who is just looking for a pleasant reading experience, and the purportedly elitist Franzen has failed her and the [...]

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More from Oscar…

So, I’m knee deep in the poems, prose, and essays of Mr. Wilde, who certainly had some strong opinions on, well, just about everything.  I’m referring specifically to “The House Beautiful,” in which he takes a position on every imaginable attribute of a home’s design, construction, and decor. “The revolving stool should be sent to the museum of [...]

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Poetry Reading – Allison Benis White

Tuesday, September 22, at 7:00 PM in the Henley Reading Room at Leatherby Libraries, Chapman University  This event is sponsored by Chapman’s Department of English and supported by Poets & Writers and The James Irvine Foundation.  This is a Tabula Poetica series.  For more information call 714-628-7389 or email leahy@chapman.edu.

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“To be great is to be misunderstood.”

Oscar Wilde, 1885

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So many books, so little time…

Below was the required reading for two MFA classes at Chapman last fall.  With a reading list like this, who has time to write (or sleep)?   Photo by Ruben Guzman, fellow Chapman MFA student

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My thoughts exactly…

“Angry people acted as if she was wresting herself away from them: stealing herself.  They told her to forget the M.A. in creative writing….Her stories, full of love and roads and music, were the only company she sought, more than enough.  She wanted to sustain this for a lifetime….This is what writing demands of writers: [...]

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Oscar Wilde

In honor of tonight’s first class at Chapman University on the life and works of Oscar Wilde, I offer here a few of my favorite quotes from The Picture of Dorian Gray… “There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.” “But beauty, real [...]

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