The Bible has shaped the world in such fundamental ways that people are not fully aware of its pervasive influence on their lives. Let’s imagine that you have never even opened the Bible. Does that mean you’re untouched by its influence? Not if you know what a “good Samaritan” is, or what the term “prodigal son” refers to, or who …
Are Millennials the Lost Generation?
By Joseph Bentz Millennials, the much-picked-on generation of young people from about 18 years old to their early 30s, are often referred to as the “Lost Generation.” A Washington Post opinion writer named Catherine Rampell summed up many of the stereotypes about this generation in an article she wrote (with “Lost Generation” in the headline) a couple years ago: “For …
What Happens in College is Real
We recently completed another graduation at Azusa Pacific University, where I teach literature and writing. In the celebratory dinners and receptions with students and their family and friends leading up to the ceremony itself, there is always a lot of talk the students finally finishing college and entering the “real world.” That’s what they call it. Real. That implies, of …
Don’t Let Them Squash Your Creativity
With all the roles that many of us have to fill throughout the day—friend, employee, spouse, parent, consumer, and so on—the creative self can be one of the most fragile. Even though for many of us the creative self is deeply embedded and even essential to our sanity, it is also easily crushed. Many forces stand ready to squash the …
Why the Cell Phone May Save the Novel
I like to watch people’s reading habits when I’m at airports and on airplanes. During several recent flights, which included some lengthy layovers and delays, I noticed that not very many people were reading novels, at least not ones in the form of books made of paper. I didn’t see all that many people reading on tablets, e-readers, or laptop …
OJ Simpson? Never Heard of Him, Or Johnny Carson Either
When I started seeing the headlines and news segments marking the 20th anniversary of the OJ Simpson murder trial, my first thought was that the whole tawdry saga still felt too recent to be wrapped in nostalgia. My next thought was that, as a college professor, I have seen a big shift over those twenty years in how students perceive …
Poetry and Conversation with Katie Manning
Most poets are thrilled when one of their books of poems is published, but Katie Manning, an outstanding poet who also teaches in the English Department at Azusa Pacific University, gets to experience that joy three times this year, as three of her chapbooks are being published by three different publishers. This success did not come easily. She has been …
Why I Took My Students to a Murder Site
The most recent field trip in my Honors California Literature course was to a nearby murder site made famous in an essay called “Some Dreamers of the Golden Dream,” by Joan Didion. On October 7, 1964, Lucille and Gordon Miller were driving home from the Mayfair market after midnight on a sparsely traveled road called Banyan Street in Alta Loma. …
Creating a Perfect Opening for a Novel—Raymond Chandler’s “The Big Sleep”
In the California literature Honors course that I am teaching at Azusa Pacific University this semester, we are studying Raymond Chandler’s novel, The Big Sleep, a classic of hardboiled detective fiction that features private investigator Philip Marlowe solving mysteries in a noir-ish and unforgettable Los Angeles setting. After the students read the book, one of the first ways we studied …
Forty-Seven Different Endings? Some Lessons from Hemingway about Revision
For the past several weeks my students and I have been immersed in the novels of Ernest Hemingway. I have had the pleasure of teaching a course on him and William Faulkner this semester. In most literature courses, we study only the final, published drafts of novels and other works of literature. That gives us the chance to enjoy the …
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