Monthly Archives: January 2017

Notes in Three Languages on Immortal for Quite Some Time

Posted on January 31, 2017 by Scott Abbott

Flowerville has written about the book in her usual brilliant fashion, so brilliant, in fact, that I’m left wishing she had written the book. Her blog post HERE And a couple of citations from her thoughts: this is not a … Continue reading →

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Review of Immortal for Quite Some Time

Posted on January 28, 2017 by Scott Abbott

A wild and wooly and passionate and intelligent review of Immortal for Quite Some Time at the Association for Mormon Letters site The reviewer begins with a quotation from Trilling that warms my heart, by implication: “It asks every question … Continue reading →

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Daily Dose of Immortality

Posted on January 26, 2017 by Scott Abbott

John, you left the tradition you must have felt held you captive. Did it feel like you were falling into empty space? You were throwing off the structure Mormonism had provided. The Kiwanis, the chiropractor, the Fraternal Order of Eagles, … Continue reading →

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Come gather ’round people of Amerdica

Posted on January 22, 2017 by Scott Abbott

Friday night, at Ken Sander’s Rare Books in Salt Lake City, there was an event celebrating Bob Dylan’s inauguration as winner of the Nobel Prize for literature. Alex Caldiero opened the performance with his own poem written as a DADA … Continue reading →

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Citizen’s Anxiety at the Inauguration

Posted on January 20, 2017 by Scott Abbott

  “When the kicker starts his run, the goalkeeper unconsciously shows with his body which way he’ll throw himself even before the ball is kicked, and the kicker can simply kick in the other direction,” Bloch said. “The goalie might … Continue reading →

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Daily Dose of Immortality

Posted on January 18, 2017 by Scott Abbott

I trace the ghostly scoliotic curve. The line deviates suggestively from the strictly vertical. I study the dim arcs of ribs that frame her spine, the cunningly articulated vertebrae. I picture Claudia in the next room, naked under the examination … Continue reading →

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Daily Dose of Immortality

Posted on January 16, 2017 by Scott Abbott

It’s snowing steadily outside my office window, partially obscuring the bare-limbed locust tree. A single crow flaps heavily through the fat flakes. Yesterday Joseph, Thomas, and I skied up to a quiet meadow above Hobblecreek Canyon. On the way down … Continue reading →

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Daily Dose of Immortality

Posted on January 15, 2017 by Scott Abbott

A letter today from Hans Schulz, a Marxist colleague at Vanderbilt, in response to a letter I sent him when I learned he is dying of cancer: . . . It’s been more than six weeks since I got your … Continue reading →

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Daily Dose of Immortality

Posted on January 13, 2017 by Scott Abbott

In the afternoon sunshine, John’s death certificate glows bright green on my desk. Never married. Sex: Male. Not a veteran. Autopsy: yes. The sun transforms the books on the north wall into an ordered riot of colors. In a radio … Continue reading →

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Daily Dose of Immortality

Posted on January 11, 2017 by Scott Abbott

“Why can’t I be good?” Lou Reed sings this question in Wim Wenders’s film Far Away, So Close! “Why can’t I act like a man? Why can’t I be good?” Was John good? Am I good? What does good mean? … Continue reading →

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