Category Archives: Literature

Thoughts on Orsino’s opening speech in Twelfth Night, and on the ending of the play—as occasioned by re-reading the play to attend Pig Iron’s performance in the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival

Re-reading Twelfth Night in preparation for seeing Pig Iron’s interpretation of it in Philly’s Live Arts Fest, I re-lived my delight in this great comedy, which I first discovered when I was twenty.  But somewhat to my embarrassment I found that lots … Continue reading

Posted in Literature | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

16 postcard-length meditations on the Game of Thrones ending

Does this really need a spoiler alert?  OK, spoiler alert.  Don’t have a meltdown. Dany touching the Throne of Swords in the snow in 8.6 completes one of the dream-visions she had in the House of the Undead in the … Continue reading

Posted in Literature, Other (including pop culture of all kinds) | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

download Ecotone and/or Spleen (my 2 new poetry chapbooks)

Ecotone // 14 poems by Peter Schmidt, about wandering through the natural world … A downloadable pdf, from Pixel Press / Swarthmore You may also download SPLEEN (political poems protesting + reimagining the fate of society and nature). =====For either or … Continue reading

Posted in Literature, Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

On Contradictions in Nathaniel Rich’s “Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change.”

Nathaniel Rich’s issue-long essay in this week’s New York Times Magazine receives a title worthy of a play: “Losing Earth: The decade we almost stopped climate change. A tragedy in two acts.” It’s definitely worth an hour or two of … Continue reading

Posted in Literature, Other (including pop culture of all kinds), Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

On Colson Whitehead’s new novel, _The Underground Railroad_

Three chapters of Colson Whitehead’s new novel, The Underground Railroad, were published as a special print supplement to last Sunday’s New York Times (Aug. 7). What’s so extraordinary about the novel’s vision is not that he makes the “underground railroad” … Continue reading

Posted in Literature, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Brief comments on Terry Eagleton’s latest book, Culture (2016)

See Culture by Terry Eagleton My rating: 4 of 5 stars Lucid and concise readings of Burke, Swift, Herder, Austen, Marx, Wilde, and T.S. Eliot, among others. The book is less focused and persuasive when Eagleton traces the long and … Continue reading

Posted in Literature, Other (including pop culture of all kinds), Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Freedom and Fate in Game of Thrones, “The Door”

For Game of Thrones fans, please don’t read this until you’ve seen Season 6, Episode 5 (“The Door”). Normally stories about time travel dramatize the power of human agency, our potential ability to know and intervene in past events and … Continue reading

Posted in Literature, Other (including pop culture of all kinds), Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

On David Bowie’s Bluebird

Re David Bowie’s “Lazarus,” from his brilliant final album, Blackstar, the New York Times has this to say: “The song is a man in total distress, and then finding a way out, in his imagination, so he could still be … Continue reading

Posted in Art, Jazz and other music, Literature, Other (including pop culture of all kinds), Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

On Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle, 1962 and 2015

My recent essay on Philip K. Dick’s 1962 novel, comparing it with Amazon’s 2015 The Man in the High Castle‘s 10 episodes. Summary: Amazon’s adaptation of Dick’s novel is a brilliant transformation of it just right for America’s flirtation with … Continue reading

Posted in Literature, Other (including pop culture of all kinds), Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Some quick thoughts on current debates about higher education

“Everyone Thinks the Current State of Higher Education is Awful. Who is to Blame?” Daniel W. Drezner, The Washington Post, 14 August 2015. This article summarizing some current debates about higher education is worth reading. In the U.S. we’re definitely … Continue reading

Posted in Art, Classical Music, Jazz and other music, Literature, Other (including pop culture of all kinds), Swarthmore; Academia, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment