All together now:

It’s up there. Hard to top the dialogue at the end of The Ambassadors because of the stakes.

A tale for our polarized times. Gary discusses Auslander’s account of the conflicts between the Schulzians and Pumpkinites in the Peanuts storyworld after the death of Charles Schulz. Come for the metalepsis, stay for the humor and the invitations to allegorize.
podcast.osu.edu/projectnarra...

Only 13 more weeks to go!

And if the whole internet has gotten dumber?

Just learned that the discount code BRIEF40 works for a 40% discount.

Episode #45 of the Project Narrative podcast features Kent Puckett discussing Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." Good stuff on its repetitions with a difference, the Mariner's very weird experience, and his compulsion to tell about it.
podcast.osu.edu/projectnarra...

Awesome. Presumably there’s a sequel: “”Multiple Cases of Involuntary Dancing.”

You’re right of course. I just tried to imagine an AI-generated sentence that AI could point to when actual readers of Austen questioned its sloppiness.

Must be based on this sentence: “Distressed by the conditions at the school, Emma upbraided Mrs. Goddard and resolved never to work for wages again.”

New episode of the Project Narrative Podcast. Kelly Marsh on Caryl Phillips's nonfictional Kunstlerroman, "Growing Pains." The story is a masterclass in the art of brevity. Kelly unpacks its power. podcast.osu.edu/projectnarra...

Exactly.

And, alas, it’s only going to get longer.

Episode 43: Jim Phelan & Stefan Iversen — OpenAI’s “AI, Metafiction, and Grief” Podcast Episode · Project Narrative · 06/12/2025 · 57m

Can AI generate plausible metafiction? Stefan Iversen and I discuss a story that Sam Altman claims to have captured the "vibe of metafiction."
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

Roundtable by The 92nd Street Y, New York — Live, Online Courses Roundtable is live, in-the-moment online courses with respected and passionate experts who give you a place at the table to ask questions, join a discussion, and satisfy your curious mind.

Info about a short on-line course I'm teaching (4 one hour sessions in August and September)
roundtable.org/live-courses...

Intriguing.

Episode 43: Jim Phelan & Stefan Iversen — OpenAI’s “AI, Metafiction, and Grief” Podcast Episode · Project Narrative · 06/12/2025 · 57m

Project Narrative Podcast with Stefan Iversen on an AI generated story in response to the prompt: "Please write a metafictional literary short story about AI and grief." Sam Altman says the story "got the vibe of metafiction right." Stefan and I have doubts. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

Ouch!

roundtable.org/expert/liter...
Mini-course via Zoom. 4 sessions in late August, early September.

Screen shot, which reads, As required by the Administration’s Executive Orders, NEH awards may not be used for the following purposes: promotion of gender ideology; promotion of discriminatory equity ideology; support for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) or diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) initiatives or activities; or environmental justice initiatives or activities.

NEH introduces new prohibited categories to comply with executive orders. This is an infringement of academic freedom plain and simple, and also nonsense: what is “discriminatory equity ideology”

Good morning. May your heart be light.

Good morning! May your day be merry and bright.

But just as a set up for a later “Intro to Foucault,” right?

Project Narrative Education Podcast · 38 Episodes · Updated Monthly

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/p...

Amy Elias and I have a blast trying to unpack Daniel Handler’s satire of popular Christmas narratives.

Since 1965, the National Endowment for the Arts has funded 3700+ writers! A team of @mcgill.ca student researchers and I have compiled a comprehensive database of all of them, a searchable, citable, resource for anyone interested in American Literature! data.post45.org/posts/nea-cr...

A post from user @AnnieForTruth, states: "I live in Sweden. We have social security, affordable healthcare, strict gun laws, 5 weeks paid annual leave and a year maternity leave. A stay at the hospital for one night costs about $10. Prescription drugs have an annual cap of $210. We are not communists. We are socio-democratic, and our freedoms are not inhibited."

We, too, could have nice things if we collectively demanded them.

Another Ohio vote for the better candidate that went for naught this election season,

ME: Practice makes perfect.

SISYPHUS: I beg to differ.