The average publishing date here is 1936 — an improvement — 31. A Room with a View by E.M. Forster (1908) I love this novel for reasons that are not about its literary excellence, even though it’s excellent. At one time, I was the young hero, Mr. Emerson, in love with a woman who was supposed to be engaged, but not happy, and I was that young, dashing, impetuous rebel who…

Changes need to happen in order not to become post-literate — Hey, World Citizens, Welcome Good morning or good evening — if you’re reading this yesterday in Australia. G’day, mates. Walter “Down with” Bowne here, talking about — er — wait — writing about — why independent reading is so vital in school. Here are two statistics: 33% of high school graduates never read another…

Communion with the Past is Tongued with Fire from the Present — Something weird happened. It was on the boat at Harbour North Marina on the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal. This was during a warm night. It was well after midnight. An electric fan was blowing warm air around the cabin. All the screened windows were open to hearing the crickets from…

On Honeymoon #2, we traveled by train (and by foot) to Giverny — Like London, when one gets tired of Paris, one gets tired of life. I’m lifting that from the scion of British Literature — Dr. Johnson. Would Johnson approve of the comparison — with that whole Norman Invasion thing in 1066? For two weeks, my wife Mary Jane and I had…

Discussing the uncanny under the soundtrack of “The Twilight Zone” — Danny: Welcome back! We’re on our second flight — and second debate on Edith Wharton’s novella, Ethan Frome. Walter: This brew is Boom Sauce, a double IPA with a 8% ABV. …

The magic-lantern business that plays on Dante’s Divine Comedy — “Grace” is the next to last story in Dubliners (1914) from James Joyce. Whereas “Ivy Day” was the most political, “Grace” is the most religious. Joyce envisioned the city of Dublin as a person undergoing not what Shakespeare wrote as the “Seven Ages of Man” from As You Like It…

Danny and Walter take on Edith Wharton’s famous novella — During a Writer’s Retreat in February, Danny and Walter drink brews and podcast about Edith Wharton’s novella. The first flight was Uncanny Valley from Burlington Beer Company in Vermont. It’s a super amazing IPA. Hey — it’s Vermont, man. Walter: The novella Ethan Frome is our next book in Books…

Commemorating 50 years of “Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.” — I’m across from my buddy Dan during our writer's boot camp in the Poconos. He’s coffee. I’m strong black tea. This hour’s Crawl Under Barbed Wire Exercise was to write about Bruce Springsteen. He joked I wanted to write this just for The Riff. He’s not wrong (it’s where I…

We are working to update the very bad Art we compose — This essay has been composed through ChatGPT (B12G632V2) in an analysis of a poem that Mary Jane, an Instructional Designer, initiated for her spouse, Walter Bowne for Valentine’s Day. Based on the syntax of Mary Jane’s personal poems and diction from cross-referencing Grammarly and various other apps and Chrome extensions…