Reading for Life

A look at the idea of desire as a function of the human psyche to urge us into a state of deeper belonging to the world around us. Using the concept of the primary imagination and some of the work of Northrop Frye, I try with varying levels of success to stick to Harpman's text and grasp some meaning in the narrator's continued, though stifled, drive to be a part of the world she knows.

Using the mystery of Jaqueline Harpman's novel to think seriously about certain existential and psychological frameworks. Get ready for some Freud, Rilke, Becker, and Oliver. I read two Oliver poems. You can find both of them in Volume 1 of her Selected Poems .

Introducing the concept of a burden as the existential gift the universe gives a human for living up to (or below) their destiny. Setting up a creative and (too?) earnest interpretation of Jaqueline Harpman's I Who have Never Known Men. Ad-libbed explanation of how I got to this interpretive framework.

An introduction to the show and a dive into Dickens' David Copperfield.