Cyber Seuss
URL: http://www.afn.org/~afn15301/drseuss.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: Yes
Author: Jon Phillips
Chances are, sometime around age four or five, you begged your mom for a heaping plate of green eggs and ham. You had no idea what turned the eggs green, and you weren¹t too hip to the concept of pork products, but you wanted your green eggs and ham, gosh-darned it, because one Mr. Sam I Am didn¹t want his, and you knew he was missing out on some fancy eats. So your mom fried up some ham, and threw some spinach into some scrambled eggs, and served them to you on an enchanted platter.
And then your mom tried food coloring in the eggs after your spinach sensors went off, and you ran screaming from the breakfast table.
The object lesson behind *Green Eggs and Ham* is just one of many espoused by the late Ted Geisel, Dr. Seuss. Geisel died in 1991 at the age of 87, but his rhyming morality tales continue to influence kids worldwide. Geisel won a Pulitzer prize in 1984, and his 47 books are published in 18 languages. The entire Seussian phenomenon can be found at Cyber-Seuss, a site that offers hoospiferic helpings of Seuphonius triptitude.
The site¹s main draw is its 15 online story books. You¹ll find standards like *How the Grinch Stole Christmas* and *Yertle the Turtle*, as well as more obscure tales like *The King¹s Stilts* and *Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose*. After you envelope yourself in nonsense words and delightful rhyming schemes, you can skip on over to obscure curios like Seuss-oriented ASCII art; a contest asking you to choose your favorite among The Grinch, his indefatigable doggie Max, and little Cindy Loo Who. There¹s also a sound file of the Grinch theme song (³You¹re a foul one, Mr. Grinch²).
The site deals in the type of minutiae one finds only on the Internet; to wit, in 1972, pundit Art Buchwald borrowed from Geisel the following sentiment: ³Richard M. Nixon, will you please go now! The time has come. The time is now. Just go. Go. Go! I don¹t care how. You can go by foot. You can go by cow. Richard M. Nixon, will you please go now!²
Indeed, Geisel was a man of moral and political conviction. Both children and adults will find much to learn from this endearing, whimsical and burgeoning Web site.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 18
Cyber Seuss
URL: http://www.afn.org/~afn15301/drseuss.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: Yes
Author: Jon Phillips
Chances are sometime around the age of four or five, you begged your mom for a heaping plate of green eggs and ham. You had no idea what turned the eggs green, and you weren¹t too hip to the concept of pork products, but you wanted your green eggs and ham, gosh-darned it, because one Mr. Sam I Am didn¹t want his, and you knew he was missing out on some fancy eats. So your mom fried up some ham, and threw some spinach into some scrambled eggs, and served them to you on an enchanted platter.
And then your mom tried food coloring in the eggs after your spinach sensors went off, and you ran screaming from the breakfast table like a child possessed.
The object lesson behind *Green Eggs and Ham* is just one of many espoused by Ted Geisel, or Dr. Seuss. Geisel died in 1991 at the age of 87, but his rhyming morality tales continue to steady the character of international youth. Geisel won a Pulitzer prize in 1984, and his 47 books are published in 18 languages. The entire Seussian phenomenon can be found at Cyber-Seuss, a site that offers hoospiferic helpings of Seuphonius triptitude.
The site¹s main draw is its 15 online story books. You¹ll find standards like *How the Grinch Stole Christmas* and *Yertle the Turtle*, as well as more obscure tales like *The King¹s Stilts* and *Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose*. After you envelope yourself in nonsense words and delightful rhyming schemes, you can skip on over to obscure curios like Seuss-oriented ASCII art; a contest asking you to choose your favorite among The Grinch, his indefatigable doggie Max, and little Cindy Loo Who; and a sound file of the Grinch theme song (³You¹re a foul one, Mr. Grinch²).
From here, the site investigates the type of minutiae one might only find on the Internet. In 1972, pundit Art Buchwald borrowed from Geisel the following sentiment: ³Richard M. Nixon, will you please go now! The time has come. The time is now. Just go. Go. Go! I don¹t care how. You can go by foot. You can go by cow. Richard M. Nixon, will you please go now!²
Indeed, Geisel was a man of moral and political conviction. Both children and adults will find much to learn from this endearing, whimsical and burgeoning Web site.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 18
The Internet Poetry Archive
URL: http://sunsite.unc.edu/dykki/poetry/home.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Wayne Cunningham
This very well-constructed and tastefully designed site features the work of living poets. Living poets are a rare breed, and should probably be on the endangered species list. I¹m sure this is why the site only had three of them (when I visited). Besides the sheer novelty of discovering living poets, visitors to the site can sample audio clips of the poets reading their poems. Somebody realized poetry is meant to come in through the ear, and not the eye. Will wonders never cease?
Overall Rating (out of 18): 18
Haiku for People
URL: http://www.oslonett.no/home/keitoy/haiku.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Shel Kimen
You¹ll find answers to various haiku-related questions, and plenty of haikus by famous and not-so-famous poets. Nothing more. But that¹s OK. The poems are wonderful (for haiku aficionados, at least) and the How and What sections are informative, and should be useful for would-be haiku writers. The site is simple and to-the-point, accomplishing its intended goals. I like that.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 18
Seamus Heaney
URL: http://sunsite.unc.edu/dykki/poetry/heaney/
Category: Literature
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
This site has all the simplicity of Heaney's poetry. A single photo of the smiling Nobel Laureate presides over a table of links. These lead you to poems spanning his entire career from book one to his most recent, *Seeing Things*. Each poem is complimented by a downloadable audio file of Heaney reading it in his resonant brogue. Another page provides an ample biographical sketch along with thoughtful annotations to the archive. The inclusion of the commencement speech Heaney delivered last year at UNC provides an alternative glimpse at the poet's wisdom.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 18
Blue Penny Quarterly
URL: http://ebbs.english.vt.edu/olp/bpq/front-page.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
This handsome page is a great place to start looking for that
elusive literary element on the Internet. Unlike other literary
magazines, Blue Penny Quarterly was not spawned by a hard copy
magazine, and it¹s dedication to new media is evident: they not
only present hypertext fiction and poetry, but run a literary
discussion group at the Blue Kafé site. They also solicit submissions from anyone and everyone. BPQ is also planning a more
high-tech poetry journal called New River. And while they exploit
the current technology, BPQ remains respectful of good old fashioned
writing and storytelling. This is one to bookmark.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 18
Literary Kicks
URL: http://www.charm.net/~brooklyn/LitKicks.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: Yes
Author: Patrick Joseph
Levi Asher, young father of three quit his day job as a C++ programmer on Wall Street and built a web site. Not just any Web site, Literary Kicks is a big, sprawling hypertext biography of The Beat Generation. A tight-knit literary movement after the fashion of The Lost Generation in Paris, The Beats have inspired readers ever since Jack Kerouac published his cross-country reverie, *On the Road* in 1957. For Levi Asher, miserable in the drudgery of his suit-and-tie position at J.P. Morgan, the siren song of The Beats was just too strong to resist.
What is excellent about Literary Kicks and sets it apart from the hordes of online devotionals, is the extent of original material, most links referencing other points within the narrative rather than outside sites of dubious quality. To my mind, the popular mechanism of hyperlinks and cross-references is too often a dud; uneven and disruptive, as dismaying as it is edifying. It¹s put to good use here, however; the impulsive, non-linear quality of the navigation befitting the subject, the consistent voice keeping it fluid. Whatever thread you choose to follow, it¹s a bit like floating a different fork of the same river.
Asher¹s reverence for his subject is apparent throughout his site. He has doubtless invested a lot of time (and a lot of himself) in the project, researching and writing about all the personalities in the beat milieu, as well as the cultural influences which helped shape them. Thankfully, though, his fanaticism is balanced with a healthy measure of criticism. Without being cynical about it, he acknowledges his idols¹ obvious faults, as husbands, as lovers, as fathers. One of the more interesting segments of the project, in fact, is his interview with John Cassady, the son of countercultural hero/paragon, Neal Cassady.
Asher is a writer himself. You¹ll find his own fiction at <http://www.levity.com/brooklyn/Queensboro.html>. Called *The Queensboro Ballads*, it¹s an ³experimental novel in the form of a folk rock album.² I admit I didn¹t get too far along the A-side of the experiment, but one thing was apparent from the outset: This is autobiography beneath a thin veneer of fiction, ala Sal Paradise, a.k.a. Jack Deluoz, a.k.a. Jack Kerouac. It¹s a decent effort, the prose competent but a little flat.
The real attraction is Literary Kicks. Whether you¹ve dabbled in Beat literature, read everything from A to Z, or are looking for a good introduction, the site is a wonderful experience, and one of the few sites I can think of that remains fresh even after return visits.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 18
Simon Says
URL: http://www.simonsays.com/
Category: Literature
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Rachel Saidman
Simon Says is Simon and Schuster's slick new home on the net. Designed by
Razorfish, this site has a sleek, modern look, and is easy to navigate, with
spiffy technological touches (real audio, multimedia product demos, rotating
billboards). The focus of the site is on the reader, though, with lots of
opportunities for interactivity. Reader reviews, bulletin board and chats are
all features that try to attract repeat visitors. Of special note are
the Reading Groups, monthly discussions on general subjects led by
experienced facilitators. Design and content touches like these elevate this
site from the merely corporate to a lively hub for book lovers.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 18
Oxford Book of English Verse
URL: http://www.cc.columbia.edu/acis/bartleby/obev/
Category: Literature
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
You can find it right here, whatever it is. By title, by poet, by date, by first line. Search this word-for-word unabridged on-line version of the Oxford Book of English Verse for the poem you need. The collection is immense, representing five centuries of refinement and expression. There are plenty of surprises to be found, unknown poets languishing in the shadow of Shakespeare, Keats, and Donne, . The indices are impressive, but browsing is the best way to appreciate this site; you just might rediscover your love of poetry and the written word.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 18
Spiritual Cockroach Engenderment Museum
URL: http://www.dca.net/~kmon
Category: Literature
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
You gotta love these fools (and I use that as a term of endearment) who have enough free time to put up the really random Web sites. Without these guys the Web would have no character, none of the quirky, free-wheeling style that brings a smile to your face. Case in point: the Spiritual Cockroach Engenderment Museum, dedicated to the work of the obscure (with a capital O) German surrealist K. Ungeheur. Here¹s a writer made for the new medium: his writings make no sense, you see, but each piece is succinct and funny as hell. The site gives an analysis Numero-linguistics, Ungeheur's technique of transforming sentences into mathematical equations and back again. Using the technique, ³The dog has fleas" becomes "Your head is very little". This page is a trip. And there are plenty of links to more surrealist sites on the Web. Once you've tried it, you'll definitely want more.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 18
The Infinite Goof
URL: http://www.rain.org/~da5e/tom_robbins.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Steve Szyszko
It is a curious phenomena: nearly every existentially-aware, self-reflective female I know adores Tom Robbins. And few, if any, of the similarly-enlightened males I know can stand him. This is a Tom Robbins fan site, but is in no way a typical fan page. Of course there is a bibliography, critical essays, interviews, and related links -- but that¹s just the beginning. This is a fan site with JAVA objects, and a VRML version too! At last, an adoring fan space that is entertaining AND fawning. Bonus points for not using frames! I hope my exclamatory prose conveys my delight with this site!
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17
William Faulkner on the Web
URL: http://www.mcsr.olemiss.edu/~egjbp/faulkner/faulkner.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Wayne Bremser
Yoknapatawpha County comes alive in John B. Padgett's tribute to one of
America's greatest writers. The design is tasteful and clean, the links work, and the content is there lots of it. If you have any interest in Faulkner, this site will make your week. There could still be more text from the books,
but a pretty thorough bibliogrpahy is included, with art to boot.
BLUE LIGHT
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17
Into the Wardrobe The C S Lewis WWW Page
URL: http://www.cache.net/~john/cslewis/index.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Patrick Joseph
For all the folks who cut their teeth on the Narnia Chronicles and just can¹t get enough of C.S. Lewis¹s quasi-Christian fantasy lit, here it is: a site devoted to the Master. There¹s a daily Lewis quote -- updated religiously at 12 AM GMT -- plus downloadable images of Lewis, sound clips of Lewis, and well,...Lewis, Lewis, Lewis, everywhere you look. To paraphrase the creator of the site, this isn¹t just a place for fans, but a repository for all C.S. Lewis scholarship and marginalia. No surprise then that I was able to quickly satisfy my only curiousity; the ³C.S.² is for Clive Staples, nickname, Jack.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17
Welcome to the 19CWWW
URL: http://www.clever.net/19cwww/
Category: Literature
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Patrick Joseph
The nineteenth century online seems kinda oxymoronic -- or should I say anachronistic? Nevertheless, this is what the Victorian Women Writer¹s site shoulda coulda woulda been but ain¹t. Slick of interface and deep of content, this one is more than just an electronic library. It also features art exhibits, graphics and a surprisingly active bulletin board where students of American Studies can post queries and comments. So while I¹m still dubious as to the usefulness of great chunks of text online (I might feel differently if I could search the text easily, via key word or somesuch) others apparently appreciate it and take advantage of it.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17
Mississippi Review Web Edition
URL: http://sushi.st.usm.edu/~barthelm/index.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Patrick Joseph
Sometimes simple is better. Mississippi Review uses shaded rectangular boxes and a few diagonal lines to draw onlookers into its horizontal list of established writers. Set off by year and month of online publication, works consist of poetry, fiction, interviews and essays, just like the print version of the Mississippi Review. But unlike the magazine, which is a biyearly publication, the web site is a monthly. MRW promises to incorporate graphics, sound and video into the format soon. Features authors include Jamaica Kincaid, Dinty Moore, Leon Rooke, and Ian McEwan
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17
Scrivenery Literary Awards
URL: http://www.hti.net/www/hwilliam/awards.htm
Category: Literature
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
Here's one for English Lit. majors and prospective Jeopardy contestants. The Literary Awards section is part of Scrivenery's larger web site, which offers resources for fiction writers. The awards' site lists the winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature, the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the National Book Awards for Fiction, The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Booker Prize. Answer: He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1965. Question: Who is Michail A. Sholokhov, Alex?
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17
SALON
URL: http://www.salon1999.com/
Category: Literature
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Unknown
A dynamic e-zine with headlines like "Bikers for Jesus," "X-rated: Agents Mulder and Scully bare all," and "Montana standoff: Coddling the kooks," SALON features non-fictional and fictional pieces. Aside from its features, SALON has a mailing list and an interactive Table Talk section. It is published every two weeks. SALON is entertaining, graphically pleasing, and informative. Where else could one find neurologist Oliver Sacks, author of "Awakenings," clad in a leather jacket and striking a *GQ* pose?
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17
Toni Morrison
URL: http://www.en.utexas.edu/~mmaynard/Morrison/home.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
Toni Morrison, a visually pleasing web site, focuses largely on *Beloved*, the author's 1988 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. However, there are also links to Morrison's biography, photographs, and short narratives on all of her works. It includes quotes from the author, speaking about her art and should provide a rich experience for both avid Morrison fans and newcomers alike.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17
William Faulkner on the Web
URL: http://www.mcsr.olemiss.edu/~egjbp/faulkner/faulkner.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Wayne Bremser
Yoknapatawpha County comes alive in John B. Padgett's tribute to one of
America's greatest writers. The design is tasteful and clean, the links work, and the content is there lots of it. If you have any interest in Faulkner, this site will make your week. There could still be more text from the books,
but a pretty thorough bibliogrpahy is included, with art to boot.
BLUE LIGHT
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17
Into the Wardrobe The C S Lewis WWW Page
URL: http://www.cache.net/~john/cslewis/index.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Patrick Joseph
For all the folks who cut their teeth on the Narnia Chronicles and just can¹t get enough of C.S. Lewis¹s quasi-Christian fantasy lit, here it is: a site devoted to the Master. There¹s a daily Lewis quote -- updated religiously at 12 AM GMT -- plus downloadable images of Lewis, sound clips of Lewis, and well,...Lewis, Lewis, Lewis, everywhere you look. To paraphrase the creator of the site, this isn¹t just a place for fans, but a repository for all C.S. Lewis scholarship and marginalia. No surprise then that I was able to quickly satisfy my only curiousity; the ³C.S.² is for Clive Staples, nickname, Jack.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17
Welcome to the 19CWWW
URL: http://www.clever.net/19cwww/
Category: Literature
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Patrick Joseph
The nineteenth century online seems kinda oxymoronic -- or should I say anachronistic? Nevertheless, this is what the Victorian Women Writer¹s site shoulda coulda woulda been but ain¹t. Slick of interface and deep of content, this one is more than just an electronic library. It also features art exhibits, graphics and a surprisingly active bulletin board where students of American Studies can post queries and comments. So while I¹m still dubious as to the usefulness of great chunks of text online (I might feel differently if I could search the text easily, via key word or somesuch) others apparently appreciate it and take advantage of it.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17
The Wild Wilde Web Welcome
URL: http://www.clients.anomtec.com/oscarwilde/
Category: Literature
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Wayne Cunningham
³To be natural is such a very difficult pose to keep up.²
Oscar Wilde
A poet in the 19th century could not be successful by holing up in a garret and writing madly. A social dimension was required. Wit was required. A really good poet had to be able to show up at a party and say something, at least one sentence, that would be so very clever as to be repeated by more than one person, thereby assuring the poet¹s reputation. In the 20th century, wit was practiced by Dorothy Parker and the members of the Algonquin Round Table, but in recent times wit seems to have fallen in disfavor.
Oscar Wilde was a master of wit, which is the focus of Michael Tidmus¹ Wild Wilde Web. Originally, Michael was just going to put a page on the Web of Wilde¹s witticisms, but he decided that there had to be some kind of contextualization, so the site expanded to include a biography, a list of Wilde¹s works, other people¹s quotes about Wilde, and links to Wilde-related sites on the web. The material on the Web site was salvaged from an exhibit Mr. Tidmus had taken part in called ³Serious Games: Interactive Images.² He chose to create an interactive piece about Wilde, using the paradigm of a Victorian parlor game. Some time later, he was asked to be ³the participating American artist in ArtAIDS (http://artaids.dcs.qmw.ac.uk:8001) a project of AIDS-related images that went online on World AIDS Day, 1994.² This introduction to HTML gave him the expertise to program the Wilde site.
The graphics on the site are particularly exceptional, which is no wonder, since Mr. Tidmus has been a graphic designer since 1984. He says he ³spent seven years freelancing Apple Computer¹s advertising graphics for BBDO and Chiat-Day.²
One of the most extensive areas on the site, and probably the most useful, is the bibliography section a list of books about or with references to Wilde. The only drawback is that these books should probably have been linked to some other online reference that provides further information about them.
When I asked Mr. Tidmus what Wilde might have thought about the Web (a question I acknowledge is pretty stupid), he kindly replied, ³I think Oscar would have applauded the accessibility of knowledge and deplored the lack of beauty inherent in much Web design.²
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17
The Beat Generation
URL: http://www.charm.net/~brooklyn/topics/BeatGen.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Shel Kimen
As a documentary site, it¹s fine other than a few presumptuous declarations like ³Walt Whitman, The Original Beat,² or, in reference to Columbia University, ³This grand old Ivy League university may not even want to be the birthplace of the Beat Generation.² (Come on, Columbia is as liberal as Ivy gets). This aside, the pages offer biographies and pictures of Beat heroes, presenting an informed and sensible historical perspective. It¹s slightly dry, which is unfortunate, as it unravels such creative writers.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17
The Infinite Goof
URL: http://www.rain.org/~da5e/tom_robbins.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Steve Szyszko
It is a curious phenomena: nearly every existentially-aware, self-reflective female I know adores Tom Robbins. And few, if any, of the similarly-enlightened males I know can stand him. This is a Tom Robbins fan site, but is in no way a typical fan page. Of course there is a bibliography, critical essays, interviews, and related links -- but that¹s just the beginning. This is a fan site with JAVA objects, and a VRML version too! At last, an adoring fan space that is entertaining AND fawning. Bonus points for not using frames! I hope my exclamatory prose conveys my delight with this site!
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17
The Tech Classics Archive
URL: http://the-tech.mit.edu/Classics/index.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: MCM
From Aeschines to Xenophon, this site (maintained The Tech, MIT's student newspaper), offers a searchable archives of almost 400 classical Greek and Roman works. Nothing good on tv? Well why not plug in and peruse the Hippocratic Oath, or print out the entire Iliad and leave it on the coffee table. Browse the index by author, title, date or translator, and share your opinions with other classics-cravers via the commentary section. A real plus: The Tech has taken the big, bulky source files of these works, restyled them to be more readable and broken them down into smaller, downloadable chunks.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17
Unlock The Cypher
URL: http://www.2launch.com/cypher/CYPHER.HTML
Category: Literature
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: MCM
In the introduction, The Cypher is described as an "Interactive
Cybernovel," Readers follow three separate story lines (which take place in 999, 1900 and 1999) to uncover all the twisted, supernatural mysteries of Castle Ravenshim, piecing together the stories from a collection of graphics, sound files and text (they can even trade e-mail with the main characters). Slick, sleek and attractive, The Cypher is a state-of-the-art of online multimedia experience. Unfortunately, the prose is pretty darn pulpy and the characters are as deep as flattened 8-bit GIFs. In other words, this Cybernovel contains more cyber than novel-either a positive or
a negative quality, depending on your priorities.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17
Remote
URL: http://www.randomhouse.com/site/Remote/
Category: Literature
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: MCM
Remote is the electronic emissary for David Shields' novel of the same name (Random House, 1996). Like the book, the site is a collage of lists, essays, letters and other texts that reflect upon the disassociating nature of our hyped-up, high-speed, data-driven electronic society. The byproduct of this megamedia blitz is an ailment Shields calls "information sickness." At the site, you can share your dreams of Kurt Cobain, compose a bumper
sticker, sample passages from the book, or review Shields' extensive literary resume. Dawdle in the data too long, however, and you might wind up with a bit of info sickness yourself.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17
The Libyrinth
URL: http://www.microserve.net/~thequail/libyrinth/libyrinth.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: MCM
The Libyrinth looks at 20th century authors who deal with themes of the library ("symbolic of a multitudinous cross-referencing of resources") and the labyrinth ("symbolic of a prose style that employs many winding paths through a shifting veil of reality"). So far, there are complete sections on only four authors (Jorge Luis Borges, Umberto Eco, James Joyce and Gabriel Garcia Marquez), but they are well-researched, well-linked, and definitely deserving of the high-falutin' postmodernist characterizations quoted above. Look for Libyrinth sites focusing on Franz Kafka, Ken Kesey,
Milorad Pavic, Gene Wolfe, and others in future months.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17
The Complete Shakespeare
URL: http://the-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/works.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
The plays and the poems are all here, unadorned and well-organized. Their conversion to html is thorough. Footnotes, for instance, are replaced by links to a glossary. In addition to the works, there's an effective bulletin board system (Hypernews) which gives devotees a forum in which to query each other. The current debate regarding "the Authority question" is especially lively. There's even a link to Bartlett's familiar Shakespearean quotations. Even though the search engine and the glossary could use some work, these pages remain an essential resource on the Web.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17
Proust Said That
URL: http://www.well.com/user/vision/proust
Category: Literature
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Proust Said That may be the most radical project on the Web, devoted as it is to inspiring interest in a *Remembrance of Things Past*. The Marcel Proust Support Group is a boho San Francisco clan that formed to read the work in toto. P. Segal's loving documentation of their activities has made PST one of the most affecting literary sites around. Its elegant pages contain everything from Proust-inspired recipes and travelogues to the young Marcel's replies to the questionnaire that bears his name today. If you love Proust, you will adore these pages.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17
Oyster Boy Review
URL: http://sunsite.unc.edu/ob/index.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Patrick Joseph
Years back, when I was still too full of vinegar for my own good, I swore off all poetry as toothless and inane. All poets, I thought, were people who had nothing to say but insisted on saying it anyhow, touchy-feely types whose brains had flown South for the Winter and stayed there. As I got a little older, (around sixth grade, I guess), I made allowances for a special few: I read and liked a short list of poets that included Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, and e.e. cummings. These days, I take a more charitable view of the form, stopping short of open-mike night at the corner cafe. I still require some screening.
As such I was happy to discover this literary journal from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, which boasts the work of poets with preposterously southern names, like Jeffrey Joe Nelson and Izzy Gage, not to mention some excellent poems with titles like, ³Songs for the Drunks,² ³Snakes among the Children,² and -- my favorite -- ³A Gorilla on Anti-depressants ain¹t no Good Gorilla at all.²
*--And that Prozac did him wrong--
--That Prozac did him wrong, I¹m saying.*
A lot of the work here has that kind of hard-boiled, mocking refrain to it , not to mention a distinctly southern rhythm. The great, half-strange charcoal illustrations add to that ambience.
I have to admit, though, that what drew me in at first wasn¹t the poems at all, but a sub-page about Harry Crews, an old favorite and author of *A Feast of Snakes* and *All We Need of Hell*. Talk about hard-bitten prose, Crews¹ fiction is a fierce blend of the profound and the perverse, something between pure pulp and high lit, and the Crews page is one of the best author sites I¹ve seen on the Web. There¹s also a tribute page to the late Charles Bukowski, patron saint of gutter drunks and fist-fighting poets -- a carbon copy of the Crews page, really. Bukowski fans should check it out.
But neither of these personalities make the site by themselves. As with most things, a literary journal is only as good as the sum of its parts. And in this case the parts are excellent. As of this review only four issues of the Oyster Boy Review are online, but I, for one, will check in as content increases.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17
The Paris Review
URL: http://www.voyagerco.com/PR/
Category: Literature
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
For five decades, the Paris Review has bee serving up cutting edge
works by the world's most important writers; now it lends its
considerable reputation to an eager online intellectuals. This site includes humor, interviews (many available in audio), poetry, fiction, etc. Many features have been expanded from the print version. You
can also order t-shirts, back issues, and subscriptions for the real
thing. The site is great looking, thanks the esteemed Voyager Company, but this the Paris review after all, so the real star is the writing: check out the opening paragraph fiction teasers and marvel at how precisely and beautifully language can be constructed.
content: 3
aesthetic: 2.5
savvy: 2.5
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17
Internet Poetry Archive
URL: http://sunsite.unc.edu/ipa/
Category: Literature
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
The tendency, sometimes, is to judge a site based on what it
could be, on what it promises to become. The Internet Poetry
Archive is just such a spot. It has much potential to be a great
source of information for all students of the written word. At the
moment three poets are highlighted, including Nobel prize-winner
Czelaw Milosz. What makes the IPA different from other sites is its open embrace of all the technology available. Listen to the poems in their original language and in translation, read a biography of each artist prepared by a
literary scholar, hear what the poet has to say about the meaning of each
piece. Graphics, when appropriate, are used to illuminate the subtle
meanings of complex works, and short bibliographies encourage deeper study. The IPA promises to expand its database, and upgrade its tech to
include video. Though still under construction, it promises to be great.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17
The Next Savage State
URL: http://www.directnet.com/Crash/ScreamsAndWhispers/NewCensorship
Category: Literature
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
The Next Savage State makes much of its claims of irreverence, anarchy, and
total disinterest in the petty sensibilities of the conformist majority; but forget all that, it's just a showcase for great writers. I can say simply that everything I read here was top-notch, funny, and insightful. Andrei Codrescu (of NPR fame) now holds the record for the single longest piece I've ever read off a computer screen. Order a years worth of hard copies for $30. Or read it here for free. Enjoy.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17
The Swagazine Rack
URL: http://mrlinux.durand.com/clark/swagazine/
Category: Literature
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
Santa Barbara-area poets and writers bare their souls online. Swagazine was born from a BBS; back in the good old days, it seems the various contributors shared messages of such considerable talent that they decided to pool their efforts, take on the world, and start an Internet publication. Or so the story goes. Anyway, its nearly three years later, and there are two completed issues to show for it. The collected writings are sometimes entertaining, sometimes exasperating, and generally a lot better than average. Be sure to have a look at The Internet Insult Contest: Funny as hell. Every writer has got a handle dating back to the now defunct BBS and an attitude to match. A new issue should be out in late September or October. It¹s worth checking out.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17
Virtual Emily
URL: http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~emilypg/index1.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
Emily Dickinson, one of the more enigmatic figures in American literature, has her life deconstructed by the curators of Virtual Emily. With ample respect for the poet and the circumstances in which she created her art, V.E. offers any newcomer to Dickinson the background they will need to understand her truly remarkable contribution to modern poetry. The primary offering is chronological biography that divides her life into periods of productivity, depression, hope, and seclusion. The essays for each period are well-written and informative, supplemented by photographs of the poet and her family and even diagrams of her homestead in Amherst. There are also links to the works that made her posthumously famous.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17
F. Scott Fitzgerald Centennial
URL: http://www.sc.edu/fitzgerald/index.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Rachel Saidman
The University of South Carolina clearly has a special relationship with
famed author, F. Scott Fitzgerald, housing the second-largest
collection of his original texts and memorabilia (Princeton, his alma mater, is first). This
site is a loving tribute to the author of *The Great Gatsby,* and
worth a visit to anyone interested in American Literature. Information is
well-organized and accessible, the graphics appropriately muted,
reflecting the glamorous tragedy of Scott and Zelda's short lives. Don't miss
the essay entitled "Princess Daily," which describes Sylvia Plath's margin
scribblings and underlinings of The Great Gatsby.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17
Civil War Love Letters
URL: http://scholar2.lib.vt.edu/spec/cwlove/cwlove.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
Reading these Civil War letters, you get a profound sense of men caught up in something beyond their control, looking for solace in the loved ones they left behind. A man writes to his wife, recounting their courtship with tenderness and nostalgia. Others let their worries spill onto the page; behind the nineteenth century formality of language, there is real anxiety, abandonment, and fear here. One man writes to say that the war has finally shown him that he won¹t live forever, that he should settle down and get married; "if you should meet any agreeable candidate let her know I'll be home soon". This is a great site for pondering history and human frailty.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17
Electronic Beowulf Project
URL: http://portico.bl.uk/access/beowulf/electronic-beowulf.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
The original manuscript for Beowulf, the English masterpiece starring Grendel the monster, was badly damaged in a fire 200 years ago. Taking the remains out of its display case in the British Library for scholarly study is obviously not the best idea. But in a hint at the future of the library, we are given the Electronic Beowulf Project, focused on scanning and analyzing the parchment to create a complete digital version of the document for study. With tons of related research and articles being added constantly, the Electronic Beowulf Project is an example of electronic media¹s power to archive artifacts from the pre-digital era of the written word.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 16
Jack Vance Archive
URL: http://www.hw.nl/~remy/
Category: Literature
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Fans of award-winning Sci Fi and Fantasy author Jack Vance will be in the Web world of their dreams after a visit to this site. The archive¹s comprehensive bibliography of Vance¹s published novels, short stories and collections is a much-needed resource for anyone familiar with the extremely prolific writer. Looking for a first edition of The Languages of Pao? A marketplace for rare Vance artifacts is under construction on the site and will surely be a welcome resource for the dedicated Vance collector, earthbound or otherwise.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 16
Book Lovers Fine Books and Literature
URL: http://www.xs4all.nl/~pwessel/
Category: Literature
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Patrick Joseph
A basic, but comprehensive set of links for the antiquarian book dealer, book collector, avid reader, et al., this site should be bookmarked by all those serious about their literature, arcane or otherwise. Assembled by a bibliophile from the Netherlands, it points to sites in both English and Dutch. As with browsing the shelves at your favorite bookstore, you are likely to while away hours and hours here in that peculiar dream state with the contemplation of all the books you¹ll never find time to read -- not if you live two hundred years. A splendid, if melancholy, pastime, that.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 16
NWHQ
URL: http://www.knosso.com/NWHQ/
Category: Literature
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Patrick Joseph
You have to be a little wary of anything that describes itself as being ³constructed somewhat like a labyrinth,² but my brief foray into this ³web-journal of hypertexted literature² was not so unrewarding as I expected it to be. In fact, most of the writing I encountered was actually pretty good, adventurous with the language and suited ( pace- and lengthwise) to the medium; maybe a little long on angst and short on inspiration, but good nonetheless. And the visuals weren¹t half bad either. And in the end, it¹s not even all that labyrinthine -- navigation back home is easy -- just a good read.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 16
The Master Works of Western Civilization
URL: http://www.eskimo.com/~masonw/gwwc.htm
Category: Literature
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
Are you civilized? Are you sure? Well, for a crash course in the liberal arts without the tuition and fees, visit Mason West's home page. His is the mother of all syllabi! There are 31 printed pages worth of authors and their works here, many of which connect you via hyperlink to the content. Unfortunately, the site could use better organization. The lists, of which there are two, mainly feature ancient Greek, ancient Roman, European, and American works.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 16
Gabriel Garcia Marquez-Macondo
URL: http://www.microserve.net/~thequail/libyrinth/garcia.marquez.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
In 1982, Gabriel Jose Garcia Marquez won the Nobel Prize for literature. A native of Colombia, he now lives in Mexico City and is considered a pioneer of style known as "magical realism." The site provides background information on the history of Colombia and examines how that history has influenced Marquez's fiction. It also includes notes on Marquez, a bibliography of his works, Marquez-related images and links to other Marquez Web sites.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 16
Life is a Joke
URL: http://www.netreach.net/people/bishop/lifejoke.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
It's a large mail-order list of bizarre or comical literature. The title is a bit misleading. It is not a site of one-liners. One can find Your Revenge is in the Mail, a book about making someone's life hell by mail, for $10. Also, there are noted writers like William Vollman, author of *Whores for Gloria*, which is available in hard-cover for six dollars. There are even fan magazines on bouncing caskets and artwork dealing with "black blood," otherwise known as coffee. Nearly all items are under $20, and most items are under $10.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 16
WPA Life Histories
URL: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/wpaintro/wpahome.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
Originally a government-sponsored Folklore Project of the Federal Writers' Project for the U.S. Works Progress (later Work Projects) Administration (WPA) from 1936-40, this web site gives the history of the WPA and provides an excellent search engine to scour the some 2,900 works from that era. In the late '30s, more than 10,000 writers from across the country wrote biographies on Americans, of various ethnic and religious groups, occupations, and regions. The result is a first-hand glimpse of 1930¹s Americana.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 16
Book Lovers Fine Books and Literature
URL: http://www.xs4all.nl/~pwessel/
Category: Literature
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Patrick Joseph
A basic, but comprehensive set of links for the antiquarian book dealer, book collector, avid reader, et al., this site should be bookmarked by all those serious about their literature, arcane or otherwise. Assembled by a bibliophile from the Netherlands, it points to sites in both English and Dutch. As with browsing the shelves at your favorite bookstore, you are likely to while away hours and hours here in that peculiar dream state with the contemplation of all the books you¹ll never find time to read -- not if you live two hundred years. A splendid, if melancholy, pastime, that.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 16
NWHQ
URL: http://www.knosso.com/NWHQ/
Category: Literature
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Patrick Joseph
You have to be a little wary of anything that describes itself as being ³constructed somewhat like a labyrinth,² but my brief foray into this ³web-journal of hypertexted literature² was not so unrewarding as I expected it to be. In fact, most of the writing I encountered was actually pretty good, adventurous with the language and suited ( pace- and lengthwise) to the medium; maybe a little long on angst and short on inspiration, but good nonetheless. And the visuals weren¹t half bad either. And in the end, it¹s not even all that labyrinthine -- navigation back home is easy -- just a good read.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 16
The Spenser Web: The Shepheardes Calender
URL: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~jntolva/shepcal.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Wayne Cunningham
The beauty of this site is that it shows how the Web can really enhance literary studies. Each page of Spenser¹s Shepheardes Calender can be viewed in one of four different versions, including a scanned copy of the original printing. To name the site ³The Spenser Web² is a little bit misleading, however, since it only has the one work. Also, getting through the first couple of pages is a little annoying, since the links are hidden at the very bottom of the pages.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 16
Virtual Henry
URL: http://sec-look.uiowa.edu/henry/preface.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Wayne Cunningham
Ah, the play made from the movie by Kenneth Brannagh, or was it Mel Gibson? Anyway, something like that. The full text of ³Henry V² is here, which should be enough in itself, but we are also demonstrating the powers of HTML. The text is annotated with hyperlinks, which is brilliant, and not only do the annotations have text, they also have pictures, so you can see, for example, what Henry V¹s father looked like.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 16
Electronic Beowulf Project
URL: http://portico.bl.uk/access/beowulf/electronic-beowulf.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
The original manuscript for Beowulf, the English masterpiece starring Grendel the monster, was badly damaged in a fire 200 years ago. Taking the remains out of its display case in the British Library for scholarly study is obviously not the best idea. But in a hint at the future of the library, we are given the Electronic Beowulf Project, focused on scanning and analyzing the parchment to create a complete digital version of the document for study. With tons of related research and articles being added constantly, the Electronic Beowulf Project is an example of electronic media¹s power to archive artifacts from the pre-digital era of the written word.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 16
Jack Vance Archive
URL: http://www.hw.nl/~remy/
Category: Literature
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Fans of award-winning Sci Fi and Fantasy author Jack Vance will be in the Web world of their dreams after a visit to this site. The archive¹s comprehensive bibliography of Vance¹s published novels, short stories and collections is a much-needed resource for anyone familiar with the extremely prolific writer. Looking for a first edition of The Languages of Pao? A marketplace for rare Vance artifacts is under construction on the site and will surely be a welcome resource for the dedicated Vance collector, earthbound or otherwise.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 16
The Scoop Children's Book Reviews Home Page
URL: http://www.friend.ly.net/scoop/
Category: Literature
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: MCM
This site is a must-hit for all teachers and any parents who want their children to read more than just the instructions on the Nintendo box. It features reviews of the latest in children's literature, plus a number of related sections dedicated to educating and entertaining young people: Educator Resource Center, Readers' Top Ten List, Library of Past Issues, Activity Center, and even a even a Scoop Chatroom. While some of these sections (the Activity Center, for instance) could use a content infusion, the overall quality of The Scoop's offerings should be a boon to book-loving families and teachers.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 16
Rats To Cats
URL: http://www.ratstocats.com/
Category: Literature
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: MCM
The Rats to Cats site
Is an HTML
Stack made by people
Who think that cats smell
Each page is a quatrain
Of cruel denigration
Insulting the honor
Of the feline persuasion
They don't like cat hygiene
They don't like cat habits
They find cats lethargic
'Cept when breeding like rabbits
They claim cats are sneaky
And evil and selfish
That they'd gladly trade friendship
For a mouthful of shellfish
Each verse is portrayed
By a well-rendered sketch
To thoroughly illustrate
The anti-cat kvetch
This site will quite surely
Drive cat lovers batty
It's cute and amusing
But a little bit catty.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 16
Zora Neale Hurston
URL: http://pages.prodigy.com/zora
Category: Literature
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Here's a welcome reminder of the literary prowess and charisma of a cultural pioneer. If you've never read anything by Hurston, follow the link to chapter one from *Their Eyes Were Watching God*. You can also browse a gallery of impressive photos or read from a wide-ranging, if uneven, selection of essays on the author. Whether you're a high school student or a Hurston scholar, this site is a good place to enrich yourself. A handy list of links will take you to sites relating to African-American art and culture.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 16
The Universe
URL: http://www.lm.com/~kalin/author.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
This labor of love is dedicated primarily to the French Surrealists. The splash page features a frantic shuffling of images of personalities from Michel Leiris and Robert Desnos to the ubiquitous Andre Breton. They and many others are briefly profiled next to an excerpt of their respective work. The anonymous web author behind these pages is revealed only in his or her admiration for Paul Valery, whose *Island of Xiphos* is rendered as a full-fledged interactive poem which they apparently find interesting enough to explore in depth.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 16
The Page at Pooh Corner
URL: http://www.public.iastate.edu/~jmilne/pooh.html
Category: Literature
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Explore the strange intersections and happenstance that connect diverse characters like the English soldier who purchased an American black bear as a pet in 1914, named it after his hometown of Winnipeg and gave it to the London Zoo, where it became the favorite of author A.A. Milne's son, Christopher Robin. A secret history is anchored in these nicely laid-out pages, with everything from photos of the actual bear to a Milne family history and anecdotes regarding Disney's thwarted attempt to erase the cartoon's English accent. As a bonus, you get to study the lyrics of Kenny Loggins' disarming Pooh tunes.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 16
Epistrophy: Jazz in 20th Century Literature
URL: http://ie.uwindsor.ca/jazz/
Category: Literature
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
The relationship between jazz and the written word has been a creative tension since day one. Jazz, with its improvised, headstrong ambition and its vast emotional palette has pushed authors of poetry and prose to explore new possibilities in their own medium. This site celebrates that artistic edge from all angles: the poetry of Langston Hughes, the scholarly essays from jazz historians, the frenetic prose of Kerouac. Amira Bakira examines the famed days of Minton¹s Playhouse at 134th St. in Harlem. Charles Mingus translates his musical ethos into a prose style all his own in excerpts from his autobiography *Beneath the Underdog*. Still under construction, look for more on the revolutionary free jazz/poetry of the late 1960¹s, and hopefully, more sound.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 16