Natalie Zemon Davis – the name has a way of sticking with me long after I’ve finished reading about her work on historical events like the French Renaissance and the witch trials. As an English major, I was initially drawn…
I’ve always been fascinated by E.M. Forster’s life, but not in the way you’d expect. I don’t get caught up in his literary successes or the scandal of his relationships – although, I have to admit, those things do pique…
Marguerite Duras. Her name has been lingering in my mind for a while now, like a fragment of a sentence that refuses to be forgotten. I think it started when I stumbled upon her novel “The Lover” in a used…
I still remember stumbling upon Werner Heisenberg’s name while reading about the development of quantum mechanics. At first, I was drawn to the abstract concepts – wave-particle duality, uncertainty principle, and Schrödinger’s cat. But as I delved deeper into his…
I’ve been thinking about Dorothea Lange a lot lately, trying to figure out why her photographs resonate with me on a deep level. It’s not just the way she captured the struggles of migrant workers during the Great Depression –…
I’ll never forget the first time I stumbled upon John Berger’s “Ways of Seeing” – a television series he made in 1972, which was later transcribed into a book. I must have been 18 or 19 at the time, wandering…
I’ve been reading Robert Musil’s “The Man Without Qualities” for weeks now, but I still can’t shake the feeling that he’s speaking directly to me. It’s not just his writing style – which is both lyrical and impenetrable at the…
Susan Howe’s writing has been stuck with me for a while now, like a thread I keep tugging on, trying to understand its texture and how it relates to my own thoughts. I’ve read her books multiple times, yet each…
Max Ernst’s Surrealist landscapes have been etched in my mind since I first stumbled upon his work in an art history class during my senior year of college. At the time, I was struggling to find meaning in my own…
I’ll never forget the first time I read Raymond Carver’s “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love”. It was a collection of short stories that left me feeling both mesmerized and unsettled, like standing at the edge of…
Carson McCullers. Her name has been floating around my mind for a while now, like a buoy on the surface of a stagnant pool. I’ve read her novels, devoured them almost, and yet she remains an enigma to me. Not…
Sigmund Freud’s name pops up whenever I think about the human psyche, and it’s not just because of his famous mustache. I’ve always been fascinated by how he dared to ask the questions that everyone else wanted to avoid. Like,…
I’ve always been drawn to Wassily Kandinsky’s work, but it wasn’t until I stumbled upon his book “Concerning the Spiritual in Art” that I began to grasp why he resonates with me on a deeper level. As an art major,…
Annie Dillard. I’ve been reading her work for years, but only recently did I start to feel a deep connection to her writing. As I delve into her essays and stories, I find myself drawn to the way she navigates…
Ludwig Wittgenstein’s name has been etched on my bookshelves for years, a constant presence that I’ve grown accustomed to. His Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus collected dust alongside other philosophical texts, its yellowed pages whispering secrets to me as I flipped through them…
I’ll be honest, I only stumbled upon Barbara Pym’s work a year ago, browsing through my college library’s fiction section. Her name stood out to me because it seemed… old-fashioned? Not in a bad way, but like she was from…
W.H. Auden’s poetry has been a constant presence in my life, even though I only discovered him during my senior year of college. It’s funny how sometimes it takes stumbling upon something to truly appreciate its value. For me, Auden’s…
Iris Murdoch – the name itself seems to conjure a world of complexity, of intellectual rigor, of moral depth. As I sit down to write about her, I’m struck by the sense that I’m venturing into uncharted territory, that I’m…
I’ve always been drawn to the idea of a “big thinker,” someone who can see beyond the present moment and shape the future with their ideas. John Maynard Keynes is one such figure, and I find myself frequently returning to…
Hannah More’s life has been etched into my mind like the lines on a well-loved book. As I delve into her story, I find myself drawn to the complexities of her character – her contradictions, her convictions, and the societal…
