Virtual Virago Posted by Jennifer Garlen on April 24, 2012

Pearl Harbor This week, April 21-29, 2012, is National Park Week, which means it’s a perfect time to reflect on the value of “America’s Best Idea.” My own love affair with the national parks is of fairly recent date, but I have gotten so much out of my visits that...   read more

Virtual Virago Posted by Jennifer Garlen on April 24, 2012

Pearl Harbor This week, April 21-29, 2012, is National Park Week, which means it’s a perfect time to reflect on the value of “America’s Best Idea.” My own love affair with the national parks is of fairly recent date, but I have gotten so much out of my visits that...   read more

Virtual Virago Posted by Jennifer Garlen on April 24, 2012

Pearl Harbor This week, April 21-29, 2012, is National Park Week, which means it’s a perfect time to reflect on the value of “America’s Best Idea.” My own love affair with the national parks is of fairly recent date, but I have gotten so much out of my visits that...   read more

Virtual Virago Posted by Jennifer Garlen on April 21, 2012

Of all Randall Jarrell’s poems, “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” is by far the best known and most frequently anthologized. This short poem has come to represent the atrocities of war for generations of post-World War II high school and college students, many of whom   read more

Virtual Virago Posted by Jennifer Garlen on April 21, 2012

By the time Samuel Langhorne Clemens died in 1910, the world was already witnessing the rise of film as a major medium. The first permanent movie theater in the United States had been built in Los Angeles in 1902; the French science-fiction film, A Trip to the Moon, had also...   read more

Virtual Virago Posted by Jennifer Garlen on April 21, 2012

Of all Randall Jarrell’s poems, “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” is by far the best known and most frequently anthologized. This short poem has come to represent the atrocities of war for generations of post-World War II high school and college students, many of whom   read more

Virtual Virago Posted by Jennifer Garlen on April 21, 2012

By the time Samuel Langhorne Clemens died in 1910, the world was already witnessing the rise of film as a major medium. The first permanent movie theater in the United States had been built in Los Angeles in 1902; the French science-fiction film, A Trip to the Moon, had also...   read more

Virtual Virago Posted by Jennifer Garlen on April 21, 2012

Of all Randall Jarrell’s poems, “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” is by far the best known and most frequently anthologized. This short poem has come to represent the atrocities of war for generations of post-World War II high school and college students, many of whom   read more

Virtual Virago Posted by Jennifer Garlen on April 21, 2012

By the time Samuel Langhorne Clemens died in 1910, the world was already witnessing the rise of film as a major medium. The first permanent movie theater in the United States had been built in Los Angeles in 1902; the French science-fiction film, A Trip to the Moon, had also...   read more

Virtual Virago Posted by Jennifer Garlen on April 20, 2012

With so many representations of the femme fatale in art, music and literature, a man might consider himself duly warned against the seductive charms of the destructive woman, but being forewarned is no assurance that a man will entirely escape the shame and suffering of betrayal from the one he...   read more

Virtual Virago Posted by Jennifer Garlen on April 20, 2012

With so many representations of the femme fatale in art, music and literature, a man might consider himself duly warned against the seductive charms of the destructive woman, but being forewarned is no assurance that a man will entirely escape the shame and suffering of betrayal from the one he...   read more

Virtual Virago Posted by Jennifer Garlen on April 20, 2012

With so many representations of the femme fatale in art, music and literature, a man might consider himself duly warned against the seductive charms of the destructive woman, but being forewarned is no assurance that a man will entirely escape the shame and suffering of betrayal from the one he...   read more

Virtual Virago Posted by Jennifer Garlen on April 5, 2012

Jayne Mansfield's legacy has been a doubtful one, most often noted for its tragic ending and Mansfield's failure to eclipse the fame of fellow blonde bombshell, Marilyn Monroe. That's a shame, too, because she really shines in the 1956 musical comedy, The Girl Can't Help It. Far from being a...   read more

Virtual Virago Posted by Jennifer Garlen on April 5, 2012

Jayne Mansfield's legacy has been a doubtful one, most often noted for its tragic ending and Mansfield's failure to eclipse the fame of fellow blonde bombshell, Marilyn Monroe. That's a shame, too, because she really shines in the 1956 musical comedy, The Girl Can't Help It. Far from being a...   read more

Virtual Virago Posted by Jennifer Garlen on April 5, 2012

Jayne Mansfield's legacy has been a doubtful one, most often noted for its tragic ending and Mansfield's failure to eclipse the fame of fellow blonde bombshell, Marilyn Monroe. That's a shame, too, because she really shines in the 1956 musical comedy, The Girl Can't Help It. Far from being a...   read more

Virtual Virago Posted by Jennifer Garlen on March 29, 2012

People often assume that writing a review of something is a very simple process. You watch/read/attend the subject in question, and then you give your opinion about it, right? There's a lot more to it, though, if you want to do it right. The steps aren't particularly hard to follow,...   read more

Virtual Virago Posted by Jennifer Garlen on March 29, 2012

People often assume that writing a review of something is a very simple process. You watch/read/attend the subject in question, and then you give your opinion about it, right? There's a lot more to it, though, if you want to do it right. The steps aren't particularly hard to follow,...   read more

Virtual Virago Posted by Jennifer Garlen on March 29, 2012

People often assume that writing a review of something is a very simple process. You watch/read/attend the subject in question, and then you give your opinion about it, right? There's a lot more to it, though, if you want to do it right. The steps aren't particularly hard to follow,...   read more

Virtual Virago Posted by Jennifer Garlen on March 6, 2012

Imagine, if you will, the scene of my sophomore survey of American literature. Thirty-some odd students, most of them engineering or nursing majors, filled the room with an absolutely palpable weight of boredom and apathy. I had assigned the introductory material on the Revolutionary Er   read more

Virtual Virago Posted by Jennifer Garlen on March 6, 2012

Imagine, if you will, the scene of my sophomore survey of American literature. Thirty-some odd students, most of them engineering or nursing majors, filled the room with an absolutely palpable weight of boredom and apathy. I had assigned the introductory material on the Revolutionary Er   read more