Author Archives for Marco
Carroll’s Headaches
Migraine aura symptoms gave rise to “Adventures in Wonderland”
Migraine aura may have been the inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s descriptions of ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,’ physicians suggest in a letter published in the April 17th issue of The Lancet.
Coining the term ‘Alice in Wonderland syndrome’ to refer to certain hallucinations specific to migraine, Lippman first [...]
nonsenselit.org is online!
On 12 May 2004, Edward Lear’s birthday, I am at last releasing the new portal for Nonsense literature. The Lear pages do not contain anything new, updating and renewing them is my next project, but you should find lots of interesting material:
A new Peter Newell site containing, among many other things, the first republication of [...]
Sukumar Ray
Literary nonsense of Sukumar Ray once again!
Dungaroo, Flipfloposaurus, Billy-Hawk Calf among other animals paid a peppy visit to a book store here and regaled book lovers!
They are, after all, characters from the nonsensical world created by legendary Bengali writer Sukumar Ray.
The occasion was the launch of ‘Abol Tabol: The Nonsense World of Sukumar Ray’ [...]
The Canon According to Harold Bloom
O Poetry! Let us celebrate month with anthologies of the bad, good
Bloom has assembled an anthology of representative poems by English and American writers. Seen in such a light, this is a fine compendium, particularly valuable for Bloom’s important and insightful introductions to the poets and comments on individual poems.
But many of those poems are [...]
Martha Graham’s The Owl and the Pussy-cat
The Best of Modern Dance
Because [Martha] Graham saw dance as expressive rather than merely decorative, it freed generations of young dancers to explore a range of emotional and psychological themes that weren’t available in traditional ballet.
From April 14 to April 25 at City Center in Manhattan, the company will present twelve performances that include [...]
A Book on Children’s Literature
The kid in me is still alive
“Youth is such a wonderful thing; it’s a shame to waste it on the young!” This aphorism by George Bernard Shaw brilliantly exposes the ludicrous side of the romantic idealization of children, so characteristic of the 19th century.
For generations, religious leaders, educators and parents in the Western world had [...]
The Descent of Dr. Seuss
No Place for Absurdity
By Eric Gibson
J.K. Rowling famously negotiated ironclad agreements with Warner Bros. to make sure that her Harry Potter books made it to the screen in the right way. (What you saw was what you read.) The stewards of Beatrix Potter have kept a watchful eye, too, permitting animated versions of her stories [...]
Dr. Seuss and the British
The lord of misrule
By Nicola Shulman
The British response to Dr Seuss has not, so far, been suitable reading for Ms Dimond-Cates. It may be that we have an embarrassment of excellent children’s writers of our own, whom we may take seriously instead, if we are so inclined; or it may be another aspect of our [...]
The Limerick’s Origins
There once was a wee humble ditty
By Shannon RoeToday being St. Patrick’s Day, the least we can do is doff our derbies to that bit of Irish doggerel called the limerick.
From its name, you might think this five-line verse form originated in the town of Limerick, Ireland. But not necessarily. No one knows for [...]
Seussmania still Raging!
Hundreds attend ‘Seussentenial’ parties
The man who made the Grinch, Sam-I-Am and Bar-ba-loots household names was the inspiration for several local parties last week.
To celebrate the birthday of Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, hundreds of Rolling Meadows residents attended separate parties March 2 and Saturday. A similar party in Palatine drew more [...]
