Author Archives: quicklytothepanopticon

Tintern Abbey

I mentioned Wordsworth a fair bit in one of my recent entries. The major touchstone we kept coming back to in the 19th-century survey class I taught last semester was “Tintern Abbey.” More than any of his other poetic work, … Continue reading

Posted in Romanticism | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

“Luminous as an autumn sunset”

I’ve been steadily making my way through my dissertation and I hope to have it in draft by the end of the summer. I’ve got over half of my chapters in approved final form (or as final as they can … Continue reading

Posted in Victorianism | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth

I am an amateur gardener, and by amateur I mean novice. And by novice I mean newbie, and by newbie I mean, well, you get the point. I’ve recently begun working at the Temple Terrace Community Garden and it has … Continue reading

Posted in Nature and Culture | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Audacity of Cities

The T rattled down Beacon Street, that electrical whirr driving into a higher pitch as it accelerated. With a clatter and a dinging of its bell it slowed and then stopped: the lurching progress of the train when it is … Continue reading

Posted in Nature and Culture | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Elementary, my dear Watson

I recently started watching the first the season of the BBC’s Sherlock, a contemporary adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories. It is an interesting, well-directed, and well-acted series. Benedict Cumberbatch goes directly to the quick (near manic) core … Continue reading

Posted in Adaptation | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Summer (Solstice) Reading

Today is the Summer Solstice (in the Northern Hemisphere) the longest day of the year. For some it’s the mid-point of summer, for others it’s the first day of summer. To celebrate this milestone in the year and to honor … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Learning to Listen to the Monster

Last week I went to see a rebroadcast of National Theatre Live’s production of Frankenstein. The play was adapted by from the novel by Nick Dear, and directed by Danny Boyle. It stars Johnny Lee Miller and Benedict Cumberbatch on … Continue reading

Posted in Adaptation | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Queen Victoria in the Digital Age

Recently, the Bodlein Library and the British Royal Archives published digital copies of Queen Victoria’s Journals in their entirety. Some 40,000 journal pages from several different transcribed sources are available to view as high-quality photos. They are in the process … Continue reading

Posted in Victorianism | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Is the plural of Ozymandias “Ozymandiases” or “Ozymandiai”?

Statue of Ramses II photo by Mujtaba Chohan via Wikimedia commons. Continuing the thread I began in my last entry about the British Museum, here is a photo of a statue of Ramses II from one of the Museum’s main … Continue reading

Posted in British Museum | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

It all comes back to the British Museum

When I was an undergraduate I spent a semester at the Florida State University London Study Centre. The Centre is housed in a series of interconnected Georgian style buildings dating back to the 17th century. It is the perfect location, … Continue reading

Posted in British Museum | Tagged , | Leave a comment