Author Archives: Jon

Blogs

Posted on December 4, 2025 by Jon

A central part of this course is the blog posts that you write in response to the readings. You will set up a blog and, every week you will write a post of c. 400-500 words or embed a video … Continue reading →

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AI, The Savage Detectives, and Verbosity

Posted on November 9, 2025 by Jon

My wife, Fiona, is reading The Savage Detectives. In fact, she was given the book, by a friend, some seven or eight years ago, but at the time–perhaps a little intimidated by the novel’s length–she didn’t get much further than … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Long TV, affect, and mortality

Posted on October 29, 2025 by Jon

Some thoughts on long TV from another old Harpers article, this time Adam Wilson’s “Good Bad Bad Good: What was the Golden Age of TV?” (vol. 339, no. 2033 [October 2019]:43–53): One reason that TV shows develop cult followings is … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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The Book as Prison: Edoardo Albinati’s The Catholic School

Posted on October 27, 2025 by Jon

Tim Parks’s review for Harpers (vol. 339, no. 2032 [September 2019]: 84–88) of Edoardo Albinati’s The Catholic School refers frequently to the book’s length. After all, even though it managed to scale “the bestseller lists and [win Italy’s] most prestigious … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Welcome to RMST 495/520!

Posted on October 21, 2025 by Jon

Welcome! This is the website for RMST 495/520, Spring 2026. Please note that we will not be using Canvas. Everything you need to know about this course will be here, on this website. Note also that it is at present … Continue reading →

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