Author Archives: quicklytothepanopticon

The Return of the Chapbook?

Posted on October 7, 2012 by quicklytothepanopticon

There were two primary  publishing models for the Victorian novel. There was the triple-decker approach that published novels in three parts. This allowed lending libraries like the highly influential (and profitable) Mudie’s to loan out the same book to three … Continue reading →

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Autumn people and autmn thoughts

Posted on October 1, 2012 by quicklytothepanopticon

October has been my favorite time of year as far back as I can remember. I have scores of memories from the fall, ranging from Halloween nights as a child to tromping through Henniker New Hampshire with my aunt and … Continue reading →

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Right in time for Halloween

Posted on September 29, 2012 by quicklytothepanopticon

Benjamin Radford, the deputy editor of Skeptical Inquirer is coming to USF to discuss skepticism and the supernatural. Here’s the college’s press release: TAMPA, Fla. — If you’ve ever wondered about the truth behind claims of the supernatural and paranormal, … Continue reading →

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“Season of Mists”

Posted on September 21, 2012 by quicklytothepanopticon

Tomorrow is the first day of Fall, (the Autumnal Equinox) despite Florida’s humid heat. And I’m teaching John Keats next week. So, in celebration of both facts here is Keats’s lovely poem “To Autumn.” I’m going to read it aloud … Continue reading →

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Revisiting “The Banking Concept of Education”

Posted on September 12, 2012 by quicklytothepanopticon

One of the first pieces of pedagogical theory I ever read was Paolo Freire’s “The Banking Concept of Education” from his 1970 book Pedagogy of the Oppressed. I was a first-year Master’s student preparing to teach my first class, a … Continue reading →

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The Tree of Life, or What It Really Needed was More Dinosaurs

Posted on August 9, 2012 by quicklytothepanopticon

William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, famously, began as an image of a particular moment: It began with a mental picture. I didn’t realize at the time it was symbolical. The picture was of the muddy seat of a … Continue reading →

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“Romantic and Familiar”

Posted on August 7, 2012 by quicklytothepanopticon

I don’t tend to like most Dickens adaptations. Or rather, most Dickens adaptations are fine, they often contain excellent casts of veteran character actors in beautiful costumes, but they always ring a little hollow for me. That is, of course, … Continue reading →

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“He speaks like a drunken man”

Posted on July 25, 2012 by quicklytothepanopticon

The title of this entry comes from Oscar Wilde’s Salome. It is a line spoken by Herodias directed at Iokanaan, or John the Baptist. It is an important line, for it captures the hysteric, maddening quality of utterance in the … Continue reading →

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Radiant Days

Posted on July 23, 2012 by quicklytothepanopticon

Books are astonishing things. I presented a paper on Oscar Wilde at the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts back in March, focusing on fantasy and performance in The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Importance of Being … Continue reading →

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Why I teach and study Victorian literature

Posted on July 17, 2012 by quicklytothepanopticon

My students think they know Victorian literature. They have impressions of it as dull, as overly concerned with decorum, as fantasias of the upper-classes in elegantly appointed drawing rooms drinking tea and eating cucumber sandwiches. Few of my students who … Continue reading →

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