Book Bytes
stcynic | May 24, 2004A large portion of what Mencken wrote was criticism, particularly of books. He was in fact probably America's most prominent book critic of the 20th century. This caused many to wonder why he chose to be a critic of other men's ideas rather than an expositor of his own, as well as to wonder what ideas he truly believed in himself. He was also a figure of such controversy that many other learned men took to speculate on what his real motivation was for writing. In a 1923 article, he answered these questions with his usual amusement and honesty.
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Ask a professional critic to…
stcynic | April 20, 2004For my second Book Bytes entry, I'm going to continue the male/female theme, but from a more personal level than a political one. This will not be one continuous passage, however, but bits and pieces of various essays that Mencken wrote over many years, and from his 1918 book In Defense of Women. I don't think anyone ever accused Mencken of being a feminist by any stretch of the imagination, but he did have a shrewd eye for human interaction. He observed, for instance, that though it is commonly thought that women were more compassionate and sympathetic than men, they could also be more…
stcynic | April 14, 2004I'm going to start a new category - Book Bytes. I'm one of those people who reads books with a highlighter or pen and I note passages that I find particularly meaningful/moving/well-written/enraging. I'm also one of those people who returns to books over and over, finding some bit of insight in them the 2nd or 3rd time that I missed the first, or reminding myself of a brilliant idea I'd seen the first time and forgotten. Sometimes the book bytes will be just isolated quotes, sometimes longer passages, and they will probably tend to come in groups, as I read or reread a book. Your comments are…