While watching a movie set in Russia starring anglophone actors, I had the banal but beautiful realization that reading novels has made me imagine the expanse of Russia in a way that cinema would never be able to do. Novels have made me imagine cities and landscapes and times that I have never known, to draw them out mentally so that I can place my imagination within them, and this has to cultivate a major difference between novel-readers and non-novel readers, right? I obviously think we should all be reading more novels. I felt so grateful to love to read in that moment. And maybe loving to read has something to do with my love for movies that no one else seems to like.
Three essay workshops in July and August: personal, reported, and cultural criticism. These will be presentations followed by discussions, and the different months have different reading lists. Each has three essays to read—no food included, a mix of old and new. Choose day or evening sessions. $100 for non-members; $75 for members; $50 for Friends of the Desk; free for Tomato Tomato Patrons (latter two, email me for your codes).
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