Gerald R. Lucas
English Professor & Digital Humanist; I teach literature, new media studies, and writing for digital media. http://geraldlucas.me/
Norman MailerGerald R. LucasSep 17, 2014
Mailer’s Adverts & Hipster
Considering some seminal texts in Mailer’s career.
From his “First Advertisement for Myself,” Norman Mailer begins to express what will characterize the rest of his writing career. Right off, he demands the reader’s “finest attention” to present his two theses: “the shits are killing us” and the necessity of personal growth and…
Norman MailerGerald R. LucasAug 28, 2014
Norman’s “Mailer”
Mailer’s multiple personae attempt to get at some sort of truth.
In reading The Armies of the Night, I have the distinct impression of reading…
World LiteratureGerald R. LucasApr 19, 2014
Virginia Woolf and “The Hours”
Do we live in or just tolerate the hours?
’Cause we are born innocent
believe me, Adia, we are still innocent
it’s easy…
Publications edited by Gerald R. Lucas
Literary criticism and theory. Voices and visions that have contributed to human culture, from ancient epics to postmodern parodies.
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Telemachus
Articles about what makes us human: art, culture, literature, music, and all of the creative endeavors that define us, teach us, and give our lives meaning. Write for us; tweet @humxorg
The name “Big Jelly” is taken from a story by Bruce Sterling and Rudy Rucker about big ideas brought about by technoculture. It is unusual collaborations, fusions, and juxtapositions in science fiction, futurism, and posthumanism.
Latest Story
Respect Is BurningWorld LiteratureGerald R. LucasApr 19, 2014
What Place Evolution?
An observation on Jack London’s “To Build a Fire.”
In his short work “To Build a Fire,” Jack London seems to suggest that humanity’s reason…
World LiteratureGerald R. LucasApr 19, 2014
Dante and the Ladder
Plato’s Symposium and Dante’s climbing of the ladder of love through his Divine Comedy.
World LiteratureGerald R. LucasApr 18, 2014
You Can’t Go Home Again
Some notes of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1931 short story “Babylon Revisited.”
I have finished re-reading, again, what is arguably F…
Recommended by Gerald R. Lucas
Do No Harm
When your doctor and your insurance company disagree, guess who gets harmed?
When a system only benefits a few, that system is broken.
World LiteratureGerald R. LucasMar 22, 2014
On Poe’s “Cask of Amontillado”
What is Montressor’s deathbed confession really about?
There’s something just satisfying about reading Edgar Allan Poe. Perhaps…
World LiteratureGerald R. LucasMar 22, 2014
The Cage
The narratorial voice in Capote’s “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.”
While many suppose — and perhaps rightly so — that Holly Golightly is the protagonist of…
World LiteratureGerald R. LucasMar 22, 2014
James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues”
Suffering, the Blues, and our (in)ability to listen.
The narrator of James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues,” like many of us, needs to…