https://slackersmuse.com/tags/essays/ Recent content in essays on Slacker's Muse Hugo -- gohugo.io en-us Mon, 29 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://slackersmuse.com/posts/br_woodyguthriesongsandartwordsandwisdom/ Mon, 29 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://slackersmuse.com/posts/br_woodyguthriesongsandartwordsandwisdom/ A Review: Woody Guthrie: Songs and Art * Words and Wisdom Title of Work: Woody Guthrie: Songs and Art * Words and Wisdom Author: Robert Santelli Format: Published: Started: Finished: 2025-09-29\ Posted: Goodreads Rating: 5/5 Wow… wow wow wow. I’m obsessed with this book – the cartoons and the paintings and the songs and the stories and Woody Guthrie, the man himself. Everything we consume makes us different somehow as it passes through, but it’s usually hard to notice. https://slackersmuse.com/posts/br_thediaryofanasninvol119311934/ Fri, 26 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://slackersmuse.com/posts/br_thediaryofanasninvol119311934/ A Review: The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934 Title of Work: The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934 Author: Anaïs Nin Format: Published: Started: Finished: 2025-09-26\ Posted: Goodreads Rating: 4/5 Nin is a great writer and hung around some interesting, influential artists and innovators in her time. She kept a beautiful, narrative diary through most of her life, starting when she was a young girl. Highly self-aware, reflective, sensitive. https://slackersmuse.com/posts/br_becomewhatyouare/ Mon, 22 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://slackersmuse.com/posts/br_becomewhatyouare/ A Review: Become What You Are Title of Work: Become What You Are Author: Alan W. Watts Format: Published: 1955 Started: Finished: 2025-09-22\ Posted: Goodreads Rating: 3/5 One of those you-are-what-you-aren’t, do-nothing-to-have-everything, become-empty-to-be-full type books which makes it difficult to say one way or the other if it’s recommendable or not. In this everything is its negation way, it is: useless ∴ priceless overly general ∴ hyper-personal obvious ∴ obscure https://slackersmuse.com/posts/br_firstwereadthenwewriteemersononthecreativeprocess/ Sun, 06 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://slackersmuse.com/posts/br_firstwereadthenwewriteemersononthecreativeprocess/ A Review: First We Read, Then We Write: Emerson on the Creative Process Title of Work: First We Read, Then We Write: Emerson on the Creative Process Author: Robert D. Richardson Jr. Format: Published: 2009 Started: Finished: 2025-07-06\ Posted: Goodreads Rating: 2/5 Probably not worth your time. Better off reading the Emerson essays (Nature, The American Scholar, The Poet, etc.) or one of the more substantial Emerson biographies. https://slackersmuse.com/posts/br_personalwritings/ Sun, 19 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://slackersmuse.com/posts/br_personalwritings/ A Review: Personal Writings Title of Work: Personal Writings Author: Albert Camus Format: #essay paperback Published: 2020 Started: 2024-12-01 Finished: 2025-01-19\ Posted: Goodreads Rating: 4/5 A light rain in Sevilla wets cobbled streets and I mourn three artists this morning. I mourn the diffusion of three great lights, local sources burning out but waves of their brilliance expanding, propagating out and out to meet me here. I fold time and bring each into entanglement with my own knotted node on the great net spanning all ways, a moment or a lightyear depending how you lay it out. https://slackersmuse.com/posts/br_mythologies/ Tue, 03 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://slackersmuse.com/posts/br_mythologies/ A Review: Mythologies Title of Work: Mythologies Author: Roland Barthes Format: Published: 1957 Started: Finished: 2024-09-03\ Posted: Goodreads Rating: 4/5 The modern myth, for Barthes’ purposes, seems to fall somewhere between the traditional/folk story (think Greek myths: Icarus, Pandora, Persephone and Hades, etc.) and the more contemporary usage meaning a widely held belief that is, in fact, false (think: goldfish only have a three second memory, MSG is bad for you, Mythbusters in the good ol’ days of Discovery channel). https://slackersmuse.com/posts/br_dumbingusdownthehiddencurriculumofcompulsoryschooling/ Tue, 16 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://slackersmuse.com/posts/br_dumbingusdownthehiddencurriculumofcompulsoryschooling/ A Review: Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling Title of Work: Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling Author: John Taylor Gatto Format: Published: 2002 Started: Finished: 2024-04-16\ Posted: Goodreads Rating: 5/5 Finished on the plane. It’s a skinny book of essays but with big ol’ implications and ideas. Has me feeling all transformed and revolutionary, sheesh. Recommend to any teachers, students, citizens, parents, or folks just feeling like there must be something more, like the life we’ve been given, told is the best way, the only way, sounds a little hollow when you wake up long enough to knock on the shell. https://slackersmuse.com/posts/br_thankgodfortheatombombotheressays/ Sun, 16 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://slackersmuse.com/posts/br_thankgodfortheatombombotheressays/ A Review: Thank God for the Atom Bomb & Other Essays Title of Work: Thank God for the Atom Bomb & Other Essays Author: Paul Fussell Format: Published: 1988 Started: Finished: 2022-10-16\ Posted: Goodreads Rating: 4/5 This was a very high value thrift store find. Took a chance on this one because it only cost me a nickel and the title + cover art were tempting enough. While not all great, there are quite a few excellent essays in this collection and I was happily thorough with my highlighting and annotating once I got going.