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My Life in Ruins and Whacky Childhoods: The Highlights Reel
Posted on October 13, 2015 3 Comments
By Yona Harvey 1. Cartoonist Allie Brosh and novelist Steven Millhauser immerse readers in the warped worlds of children. But after that, Brosh’s Hyperbole and a Half and Millhauser’s Edwin Millhouse part ways. At no point does Brosh declare herself a precocious genius or claim to tell a genius tale. Quite the opposite: “I was […]
Embracing Your Tinfoil Hat: On the Levels of Reality in ‘Edwin Mulhouse’
Posted on October 11, 2015 5 Comments
By Dan Bjork It feels good to be back in fiction. Writing about poetry proved to be both easier and harder than I’d expected: it was much easier to find something to say, and then much harder to say it with any clarity. And last week’s non-fiction post was solely inspired by the voice in […]
The Language of Packers Love: On Fandom and ‘Going Clear’
Posted on October 4, 2015 Leave a Comment
By Rob Casper Adam, I think you make a good point in your post about those who commit heinous acts in the name of their religion. Which reminds me of the surprise I felt reading the epilogue of Going Clear. First there was Lawrence Wright’s takedown of Joseph Smith for The Book of Abraham, followed […]
Therapy of the Masses: On Scientology, the National Football League, and ‘Going Clear’
Posted on October 3, 2015 3 Comments
By Ryan Henry Joe 1. Last weekend was fascinating for college football in Arizona. On Saturday, my alma mater UCLA, lead by a true freshman quarterback named Josh Rosen, completely annihilated the University of Arizona, 56-30. [EDIT: Annnnd UCLA just lost in an upset against Arizona State. FML.] The next day however, my other college […]
Nothing’s Shocking: On Lawrence Wright’s ‘Going Clear’and the Lies We Tell Ourselves
Posted on October 1, 2015 1 Comment
By Adam Boretz 1. I have a confession to make: I was laboring under a significant misapprehension when I nominated Lawrence Wright’s Going Clear for Football Book Club. My thinking at the time went something like this: Here’s an interesting book full of wacky/weird/funny/ridiculous stories about Scientology and L. Ron Hubbard. That will be a […]
If Only There Wasn’t Egon: Searching for L. Ron Hubbard’s Charisma in ‘Going Clear’
Posted on September 30, 2015 3 Comments
By Dan Bjork I’d like to open with a huge thanks to the New York Jets. I planned my Sunday workout for kickoff and they did not disappoint me: by the time I finished, it was halftime and the Jets were down by 17. Making it so very easy to instead spend the second half […]
Book 4: Steven Millhauser’s ‘Edwin Mullhouse’
Posted on September 28, 2015 Leave a Comment
This week, Football Book Club will be reading Steven Millhauser’s Edwin Mullhouse: The Life and Death of an American Writer 1943-1954 by Jeffrey Cartwright and talking about Lawrence Wright’s Going Clear — and the sadness of life without the NFL. Pulitzer Prize-winner Millhausuer’s debut novel operates as a biography of the late Mullhouse — the fictional […]
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