Author Archives: Brian D. Butler

Harry Potter and The Handmaid’s Tale

Posted on May 3, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

The American Library Association recently released its annual list of the Top 10 Most Challenged Books, included as part of its 2020 State of America’s Libraries report. This report offers an annual summary of library trends, statistics and issues affecting all … Continue reading →

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Literary Conflicts

Posted on May 2, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

 

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High Up and Beyond the Crisis

Posted on May 1, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

Last week,the renowned French street artist Guillaume Legros (aka Saype) created an enormous and emotionally moving work in the Swiss alps above the town of Leysin. Using his innovative technique that is based on spraying naturally derived , biodegradable pigments, … Continue reading →

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Keep a sharp lookout

Posted on April 30, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

“The Peasant and the Cucumbers” by Leo Tolstoy (trans. by Leo Wiener) A peasant once went to the gardener’s, to steal cucumbers. He crept up to the cucumbers, and thought: “I will carry off a bag of cucumbers, which I … Continue reading →

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Adventures in Writing

Posted on April 29, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

 

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NYC: A Day in the Life

Posted on April 28, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

The cover of this week’s New Yorker magazine features a wonderful still life by cartoonist   Chris Ware. He drew several vignettes of New York City arranged in his now iconic grid to accompany this incredible piece about a single day … Continue reading →

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Mid-century Minimalist Monday

Posted on April 27, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

Way back in the days before plague times, I previously featured artist Henning M.Lederer’s animations  and gifs of mid-century minimalist book covers and vintage psychology and philosophy books. He reimagines the abstract geometric patterns frequently used by book and record company designers … Continue reading →

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A Turn of a Phrase

Posted on April 26, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

I am often impressed by the cleverness of artist/illustrator/cartoonist Ella Baron’s work, but this week she out did herself with this brilliant cartoon puzzle published in the TLS. I tried but could not discover all 57 idioms depicted in the … Continue reading →

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Diary of a Bad Year

Posted on April 25, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

“The recent successes of human reason in its long contest with virus thinking should not delude us, for it has held the upper hand a mere instant in evolutionary time. What if the tide turns; and what if the lesson … Continue reading →

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An Unknown Hobbit

Posted on April 24, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

Slovak illustrator Peter Klúcik was commissioned to illustrate a new version of J R R Tolkien’s The Hobbit in 1988. For the project he created 40 illustrations that were rich in detail and quite different from previous works for Tolkien … Continue reading →

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