Claire Bowen's blog

Boldface Dates

September 1, 2010, 2:13 pm

The Great Fire of London in 1666. The Great War. The Blitz. The Second World War. The 20th century itself. Love. The characters and narrator of Hazzard’s The Great Fire (2003) attribute the title...

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New Friends from Old Faithfuls

September 23, 2010, 7:36 pm

Pauline Manford’s schedule is the first thing you need to know about her. Her schedule is her attribute: St. Paul had his sword, Pauline has the 1920s forerunner of iCal. In Edith Wharton’s Twlight...

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Artists in the Library

October 5, 2010, 3:55 pm

The current show at apexart, a non-profit contemporary art gallery in New York, is made for readers. In part because it’s made of readings. The show is small. There are more words in its title—You...

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Shortest Distance... (1 of 2)

October 19, 2010, 4:19 pm

One of the challenges of reading the works of Samuel Beckett, novelist, versus seeing the works of Samuel Beckett, dramatist, is, in fact, seeing. Or envisioning what you’re reading. Bruce Nauman’s...

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... between Two Points (2 of 2)

October 24, 2010, 6:52 am

Nauman walks the walk. Slow Angle Walk (Beckett Walk) (1968) does the work of envisioning Watt’s “way of advancing” for you. I have cast Beckett’s description of Watt’s walk as creating a series of...

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Frank O'Hara Goes off the Syllabus, into the Lunch Room

November 30, 2010, 6:09 pm

Here’s a genre in which I haven't written for some time: the lab report (thank you, biologycorner.com, for the template). read more

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Back to Work

December 13, 2010, 7:28 pm

I have to finish my lab report! In the last week, I’ve come to love this genre. It’s built to describe surprising discoveries, and O’Hara was all about making “a poem a surprise!” (“Today”).read more

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