Saturday Arts – what ever happened to essays?

I had reason, during the week, to use a famous line of Ralph Waldo Emerson – the one about a foolish consistency being the hobgoblin of little minds. It was from his essay, ‘On Self-Reliance’ – but as I looked it up, it struck me that I hadn’t read Emerson, or Thoreau, or their ilk since high school…

Weekend Arts: Reading and satisfaction ..

I was reading an article on adults who read “Young Adult” fiction, when the author asserted that the reason so many of us like reading books ostensibly written for teens is that they have “satisfying” ends. I’ll get to that in a moment – but first some background. It could be argued that the “Young…