Series

The World According to Tao (and Wesley Chu)

In traditional Chinese philosophy, the Tao is the intuitive knowing of “life” that cannot be grasped full-heartedly as just a concept but is known nonetheless through actual living experience of one’s everyday being.* That’s not the Tao I’m talking about. Not really. The Tao I’m referring to is […]

Game of Thrones Prequel Series?

From Screenrant.com: George R. R. Martin is a busy guy. In addition to his role as a producer on HBO’s Game of Thrones, Martin still has to wrap up the novel series – A Song of Ice and Fire – for which the show is based, pump out more prequel […]

Birthdays

On this day, June 11, in 1572, Ben Jonson was born in Westminster, London, England. A towering figure in English (and therefore Western) literature, especially during the Renaissance and Restoration, he is considered second only to William Shakespeare (whom he knew) in his importance to British drama. Indeed, known for his intellect and cultured satire found in both his plays and his poetry, he was more widely known and better received than Shakespeare, and enjoyed the patronage of King James VI and I. The man who has been called the first poet laureate continued to write up until his death in 1637; he was 65.

Birthdays

On this day, December 3, in 1857, Joseph Conrad was born in Berdichev, Imperial Russia (modern
Ukraine, then a part of Poland). While he settled in England and wrote in English, he always considered himself a Pole. Heart of Darkness, one of the most famous of his 20 novels (which explores colonialism and the attitudes regarding what constitutes a barbarian versus civilized society) is considered one of the best English novels of the 20th century, as is his novel Lord Jim, which chronicles a crew’s abandonment of its disabled ship. Conrad died in England in 1924 at age 66.