 Letters to the editors; written by (wo)men of letters; letters to yourself; letters to anyone who will listen. Projected Letters publishes only the most interesting of this broad genre: from humor to reflections on god. Check out J.P. McConalogue, who defends literary liberty; Barbara Foster, the "Mature Bacchante," who eulogises her sexual liberation; Kenneth Rosen, whose letters span the range of intellectualism and smut; and Shawn Casselle whose wit and edge place him above the normal man of letters.
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Shawn Casselle
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a Week-Long Conversation in a Chat Room
Just cleaned the kitchen floor on my hands and knees (sponge mops are very rare in Berlin, believe it or not; a strange detail rarely mentioned in travel guides), which is how I like to do it. Zen contemplation. |
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J.P. McConalogue
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Remembering Rushdie and the case for freedom of expression
Once again in the United Kingdom, freedom of expression in relation to religious matters has been threatened. This current issue is not merely topical, but fundamental to our understanding of a liberal society. |
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G. David Schwartz
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1. God is just cruel (for letting these things heap up, rather than ending them at every point of energy).
2. If God knows everything that will happen, God must be very bored.
3. Buy a farm and stop complaining about other people's houses. |
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Shawn Casselle
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I wouldn't be writing this if I didn't feel that the situation demands extraordinary measures. If I didn't feel that a life was at stake.
Let me start with a quote from Immanuel Kant (which rhymes with 'bunt').
"Act as if the maxim of your action were to become through your will a general natural law." |
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Fabrizzio Ulivieri
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Driving in Italy is an experience in itself. And surviving the Italian roads could make you particularly good cocktail party conversationalist. Driving in Italy is above all a peculiar getting-used-to |
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Kenneth Rosen
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The October edition of POETRY featured an annoying sequence of petulances entitled, collectively, “Antagonisms,” none more excruciating than earnest Eavan Boland’s cautious, provisional confession of failure to bond with Marianne Moore, who I’m sure she resents and detests. |
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Shawn Casselle
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I'll keep adding to this as I go along. Maybe by the time I finish it, I'll have an address for you (B. says he's working on it; but can I trust him? Were you exaggerating the pass you claimed he made at you the day I left, as he drove you home from the airport?). In any case, I'll be back in Berlin in less than two weeks. This detour through Stockholm is my way of giving you a head-start; I'll shout 'Olly Olly oxen free!' when I arrive at the Zoo Station, okay? |
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Barbara Foster
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I am a proud fifty year old bacchante, brazenly determined to triumph over the negative forces which batter the mature woman. I celebrate Dionysus, whom the ancient Greeks sometimes called the "womanly one" because his entire existence was permeated by love. I live to seduce, enchant and engender a state of ecstasy akin to madness. |
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Shawn Casselle
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We watched The Third Man recently, and I can't get its theme song out of my head. It's even more irritating than the theme for The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, mainly because a zither is more irritating than a whistle. Na nana nanaaa nanaaaa... The movie itself is irritating, as well, despite the reverence with which film buffs invoke it. |
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Kenneth Rosen
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The New York Review of Books with the notice of the Francis Throckmorton Oates ’07 Chair in Poetry at Muggleton College, featured an essay-review of Helen Vendler’s Poets Thinking by the Mt. Holyoke professor Christopher Benfey... |
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Letters