Posts by author
Michelle Vider
-
Just Wing It
Robert Minto examines selections from Homer’s Iliad to discover why some language and rhetoric misses its mark while other characters’ “winging words” achieve their purpose.
-
Reboot the Arc of Progress
At the Atlantic, Adrienne LaFrance delves into the popular belief that technology naturally bends towards equality and progress to show how rarely that idea actually plays out.
-
Fueling the Future of Fiction
We may have the necessities of life, but that’s never been enough for us as a species. We are forever pushing at the boundaries, never quite convinced that we’ve got what we need to live as we want… But I…
-
It’s Literally Genesis
Tara Isabella Burton revisits historical interpretations of the Bible’s Book of Genesis and the emergence of fundamentalist/literal readings of a text that, for centuries, had been interpreted as allegory.
-
Fact or Fiction?
For the Guardian, Richard Lea investigates the distinction between fiction and nonfiction writing, a distinction that exists most firmly in anglophone cultures and literature. Lea interviews several writers who work with texts in other languages, either as bilingual authors or translators,…
-
Digging Deep into a Jawn
The word “jawn” is unlike any other English word. In fact, according to the experts that I spoke to, it’s unlike any other word in any other language. It is an all-purpose noun, a stand-in for inanimate objects, abstract concepts,…
-
What Country… Should Give You Harbour?
Allison Meier writes at Hyperallergic on a speech, recently digitized by the British Library, that proves to be the only example of Shakespeare’s handwriting other than a few signatures. The excerpt comes from Sir Thomas More, a play written in collaboration,…
-
A Blind Eye to History
At Aeon, Robert Neer discusses the particular absence of military history from American universities. While general history courses cover the overall societal impact of some military campaigns and political science covers the effect of military action on government, Neer notes…
-
Charlotte Bronte’s Letters
Laura June writes for Pictorial at Jezebel on the epistolary life of Charlotte Bronte. June covers Bronte’s later years, showing that the significant portion of what we know about Charlotte Bronte comes from her correspondence with her best friend, Ellen…
-
The Language of Invention
Fantasy author Sofia Samatar (The Winged Histories) speaks to Kati Heng at Weird Sister about world building and invented languages, as well as the often forgotten history of non-white, non-male fantasy writers.
-
The Internet as Place
It seems counterintuitive that technology could facilitate these kinds of humanistic affirmations. That the voices of the oppressed could find not just a home, but an incredibly powerful platform, online. Yet, here we are reaching out, speaking out, and asserting…
-
How to Write Emoji
For Guernica, Elisa Gabbert explores the incorporation of emoji into language and fiction. Gabbert also addresses the idea of diachronic translations, i.e. translating fiction from one historical era to another, and what place hyper-specific contemporary technology like emoji have in…