Author: jts247

Finding Community at… McDonald’s?

I read an interview and an article with photographer Chris Arnade. He's a controversial figure, but here I'm going to give my thoughts on the content of the two aforementioned documents. He was talking about McDonald's as a centre for community. He says that homeless people and others often prefer it to shelters or non-profit … Continue reading Finding Community at… McDonald’s? →

Learning Languages through Poetry: Giuseppe Ungaretti

So here we are again with another exploration of translation. This time I'll be working with two languages, Italian and French. I first heard of Giuseppe Ungaretti in Strasbourg, France. I took a class in modernist poetry and studied him along with Charles Baudelaire and Paul Eluard. I say I studied him, but I never … Continue reading Learning Languages through Poetry: Giuseppe Ungaretti →

The Price of Growth: Childhood and Maturity in Highsmith’s Carol

Today's book is Carol, the second novel by Patricia Highsmith. It was published in 1952 as The Price of Salt by a small press in New York. Harper's published her first novel, the classic thriller Strangers on a Train. They declined to publish The Price of Salt because of its lesbian content. To protect her … Continue reading The Price of Growth: Childhood and Maturity in Highsmith’s Carol →

Adventures in the Romance Languages: Reading Dante

Photograph by Pixabay For some reason, several years ago, I got myself a copy of The Divine Comedy in Italian. I like translating stuff, so I wanted to start with what was, to me, a brand new language. I recently got further than the first page and I'd like to talk about that today. So … Continue reading Adventures in the Romance Languages: Reading Dante →

Design through Erasure: If Found…

This game has a gentle atmosphere overall, but it deals with some emotionally challenging subject matter, involving difficult conversations with family. I discovered the game after it was mentioned by fellow blogger Kel in their recent blog post. Photograph by Karolina Grabowska If Found... is a game by Dublin-based studio dreamfeel. I won't discuss the … Continue reading Design through Erasure: If Found… →

Authority, Canonicity and Franchises: Star Wars

So last week, I outlined my approach to creative decisions that I found lacking. I suggested that the companies who own these franchises appoint authors who bring their ideas to the property, and that consumers are free to accept or reject these ideas to suit their own. Doctor Who was deliberately designed by committee. The … Continue reading Authority, Canonicity and Franchises: Star Wars →

Language and Dreaming in Posy Simmonds’ Gemma Bovery

Gemma Bovery is a comic by English cartoonist Posy Simmonds. Originally serialised in The Guardian, it tells the story of the last years in the life of Gemma, an Englishwoman who moves to the Normandy countryside with her new husband, Charlie Bovery. Simmonds tells her story through beautiful pencil drawings combined with text captions and … Continue reading Language and Dreaming in Posy Simmonds’ Gemma Bovery →

Authority, Canonicity and Franchises: Doctor Who

Here, I'd like to share my thoughts on the relationship between franchises, authority and canonicity. We have situations now where franchises which have been running for decades are assigned an auteur, who often grew up with the franchise, who proceeds to tinker with the specific details created/developed by prior writers, to varying degrees of success. … Continue reading Authority, Canonicity and Franchises: Doctor Who →