new essay: A BRIEF INTRODUCTION: PIERRE OR THE AMBIGUITIES BY HERMAN MELVILLE. Is this the beginning of a series? Only time will tell...

uploading some recent essays from the end of 2024

my 21,000-word analysis of DREAM OF THE RED CHAMBER... now available on BALCKWELL ONLINE

wrote a brand new "about" page, and added the bones of a page for my long-form literary criticism, which i will be uploading in the near future

new essay: IS THIS WEBSITE A VALID LITERARY MEDIUM? -- in which i do, in fact, get around to answering the question

I know we've been talking back and forth about this topic for the past year and the half, but seeing your thoughts on it all written down in a single essay was the exact jolt of motivation I needed to get out of bed and continue the neverending battle of sitting with my hands on my keyboard in bewilderment, trying once again to write

thanks beautifully for this essay, i resonate with a lot with your approach to your website. i've also been thinking about the essays in compiled form, yes all together on the website, but also perhaps in one volume (book). just like how an artist or photographer's disparate works gain a different meaning when combined and sequenced in one larger exhibit.

i wonder what you think about "releasing a collection of essays" as it were.

i've definitely thought about publishing a collection, but i know how much work it is to publish a book by one's self, and i don't know if i'd necessarily get enough out of it (creatively) to justify the whole thing. i am much more interested in archival than anything else -- for example, i tend to go for "complete works" rather than "collected works" when i have the opportunity.

when creating my website, i've been thinking a lot about whether i'd like to organize the essays chronologically or by subject matter. setting aside the difficulty of determining the subject matter and/or type of many of my essays, i personally tend to prefer chronological organization, so that i can understand the writer's development over time.

and that's how i tend to think of my essays: each as part as a long journey. and this is how i've always read websites/blogs i like -- starting from the very beginning. so my trouble in curating a collection would be: do i want to publish a BEST OF BALCKWELL? or do i want to publish archival volumes? and one way to solve this dilemma is to do neither.

added most of the essays in the "Best of Personal Essays" section + a "not_found" page because of all the links that don't yet go anywhere!

Behold: You Can (Not) Go Back -- August 18, 2022