digital emunction » Joel Calahan http://www.digitalemunction.com A website dedicated to literature, politics, life, and anything else worth talking about. Founded in 2006 by Robert P. Baird Tue, 02 Mar 2010 22:41:09 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The Life of Neda Agha-Soltan? Via The Lede, Iran’s state-sponsored Press TV seeks to prove that the iconic death of protester Neda Agha-Soltan happened just like the plot of one of the worst movies of the decade:

The conspiracy theory presented in the documentary suggests that…

]]> http://www.digitalemunction.com/2010/01/07/the-life-of-neda-agha-soltan/ WTF to DFW on SWE I’m a bit late tracking this one, but former David Foster Wallace student Amy McDaniel (and, incidentally, a college classmate of my own) has published a grammar quiz at HTMLGIANT that the late master once presented to students of his creative…

]]> http://www.digitalemunction.com/2009/12/29/wtf-to-dfw-on-swe/ The Country That Roared

A halfway imaginary place? Courtesy of Strange Maps, behold the Leo Belgicus:

The Leo Belgicus symbolised a nation that never was – a Netherlands that also was a Belgium, and covered the territory of both now separate countries. The deepening of the…

]]> http://www.digitalemunction.com/2009/12/06/the-country-that-roared/ Misattribution of the Year From Sarah Palin’s tome on the fugitive lifestyle, a chapter epigram attributed to John Wooden:

Our land is everything to us… I will tell you one of the things we remember on our land. We remember our grandfathers paid for it–with…

]]> http://www.digitalemunction.com/2009/11/30/misattribution-of-the-year/ Guest Post: Ben Tausig on Glossolalia and Music Criticism A guest post by Ben Tausig.

I. The enterprise of writing about music/sound has recently entered an awkward stage, one of those moments when technological developments make us want to retreat to old habits, but when it nevertheless becomes obvious that…

]]> http://www.digitalemunction.com/2009/10/31/guest-post-ben-tausig-on-glossolalia-and-music-criticism/ Pataphorical Protests

First the term “tea bagging” invaded living rooms on the lips of oblivious newscasters, who didn’t know half their audience was tied in fits of giggles. Now, Erick Erickson of Red State exercises more First Amendment rights under the surreal sign…

]]> http://www.digitalemunction.com/2009/10/14/pataphorical-protests/ Little Critic Goes to the Art Institute The art critic Ezra North Calahan (2007-) has been making quite an uproar around the local scene, quickly becoming the center of attention and taste in this writer’s household. Recently, he has become known as quite a vocal food critic,…

]]> http://www.digitalemunction.com/2009/10/11/little-critic-goes-to-the-art-institute/ Weird Vibrations Many of you will recognize Ben Tausig’s work, even if you don’t recall his name. Ben is the editor of the Inkwell, a feature that appears each week in many of the major alt-weeklies in the US, including the Chicago…

]]> http://www.digitalemunction.com/2009/10/07/weird-vibrations/ Mob Literary Criticism Trouble reading difficult poetry? Confused about a poem’s meaning? Cambridge School poets burrowed too deep in the dialectic to hear your calls for clarity?

Ask Yahoo users:

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

He is talking about a glass, anyone that expects anyone to read…
]]> http://www.digitalemunction.com/2009/10/05/mob-literary-criticism/ Translator, Meet Philologist

Readers worldwide are likely to be familiar with the work of Vladimir Mayakovsky—either as Russian Futurism’s answer to Italian Futurism’s F.T. Marinetti or as the writer of this lovely lyric, found on his April 14, 1930 suicide note:

So to say…

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