The Storyteller Is the Story
Why does Beowulf open with 'Hear me'? Because it was never meant to be read — it was meant to be performed. Jimmy explains…
Narration
Nobody Reads Beowulf Anymore (And That’s the Problem)
Beowulf has survived over a thousand years — and most people have never really read it. Jimmy opens a five-part analysis with translations, the…
The Only Witness Who Cannot Lie: Narration in The Piece of String
Maitre Hauchecorne of Breauté picks up a piece of string. He did not steal a wallet. He was not duplicitous in this particular instance.…
Experience Is the Authority
The Wife of Bath opens with one word: experience. Jimmy's analysis unpacks her empiricist philosophy, the rubber band theory of power, and how she…
Why the Translator Matters
Why the translator you choose changes everything you read — and what that tells us about so-called "editing" of classic literature.
Hamlet Is Not About a Man Who Can’t Make Up His Mind — It’s About a Man Who Won’t Act on Unverified Truth
There is a moment in Act Two where Hamlet has everything he needs to act. The ghost has told him the truth. Claudius is…
The Art of War Is Not Written by Sun Tzu — And That’s the Point
This first essay argues that The Art of War is not simply a military manual attributed to a famous general. It is a text…
A&P — The World of A&P: The Middle
In Blog #2, we’ll examine the world of A&P – the middle ground, the center, the balance. Where behavior is structured, expectations are enforced,…
The Narrator Slips — And Why That One Word Matters in A Duel
A Duel: A Reading with Jimmy Series In this three-part blog series, Jimmy examines A Duel not as a patriotic story or a simple…
The Man Who Talks: First-Person Narration and Self-Revelation in Travel Is So Broadening
In this first essay, we examine the voice of Travel Is So Broadening. Before we judge what Mr. Schmaltz thinks, we need to understand…
Macbeth Is Not About Ambition — It’s About Obsession
This first essay argues that Macbeth is not a moral lecture about ambition. It’s a psychological portrait of obsession. Shakespeare shows us a mind…
Unreliable Storytellers Don’t Just Mislead — They Perform in The Hand
When readers talk about unreliability in fiction, they usually mean error. The narrator misunderstands events, exaggerates details, or lacks full knowledge. Unreliability becomes a…
