Whittier College English Department

05/11/2026

Check out this amazing musical by Whittier English grad Daisy Villegas!

Open the invitation to see details and reply.

03/19/2026

😍

11/20/2025

Jane Austen fans interested in attending Jane Austen Now—a [free, remote] Saturday Symposium happening December 6 at the University of Delaware—can register here:

https://udel.libcal.com/event/15550706

11/13/2025

Would that we could travel back in time! So it goes ...

Happy * SLIGHTLY BELATED * birthday to Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007), anti-authoritarian American author and social critic best known for satirical, darkly comedic science fiction novels like Cat's Cradle (1963), Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), and Breakfast of Champions (1973); as well as for myriad essays and plays, and for short stories like Harrison Bergeron (1961) and Welcome to the Monkey House (1968). An unapologetic pacifist, cynic, and humanist extraordinaire (he was in fact honorary president of the American Humanist Association), naturally Vonnegut was a harsh critic of the status quo; indeed, Whittier boosters might recall that in a 2006 interview with Rolling Stone magazine in part about the Iraq War, Vonnegut sighed, "Honestly, I wish Nixon were president. Bush is so ignorant."

Today Vonnegut is considered by readers and critics alike as one of the greatest American writers of the twentieth century. Folks interested in learning more about his life and works (and in buying a Vonnegut-themed merchandise) should check out Vonnegut.com, while those in the author's hometown of Indianapolis, Indiana should make a point of stopping by the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library: http://www.vonnegutlibrary.org/. Meanwhile, the indigent and the sedentary might enjoy "And So It Goes," the first-rate documentary about Vonnegut aired on the BBC's Arena in 1983, and online in its entirety here: http://goo.gl/OxG3TX

11/12/2025

Today we remember that the armistice that concluded World War I—the "war to end all wars"—was signed 107 years ago, at the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month. Among allied nations November 11 became a day of remembrance for the estimated 20 million people who died in the conflict and was known as Armistice Day until after World War II, when its name was changed to Remembrance Day in Britain and to Veterans Day in the U.S.

Though their singularly horrific and tragic experiences in World War I resulted in soldiers on both sides producing a slew of wartime art and literature, perhaps no work is as closely associated with those who fell in the conflict as John McRae's rondeau "In Flanders Fields." A tribute to the war dead that is poignant in its own right, the poem is especially moving in this choral version arranged by Stephen Chatman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0wwAy2c84w

11/05/2025

Remember, remember the Fifth of November -- Gunpowder Treason and Plot!

WHAT'S GOING ON?!

Today we celebrate Guy Fawkes Day, an annual event that commemorates the foiling of the Gunpowder Plot -- the 1605 plan to blow up King James I and Parliament most closely associated with Catholic conspirator Guy Fawkes. Primarily observed in Great Britain, every November 5 Guy Fawkes Day is celebrated with pomp, circumstance, fireworks, and little English kids asking strangers for money (today children will seek "A penny for the old Guy!" in order to fund Fawkes effigies that are set ablaze after sundown). Meanwhile, the traditional Guy Fawkes mask -- popularized by the 1982-89 graphic novel (and 2005 film) V for Vendetta, the Occupy Movement, and the hacker collective Anonymous -- has most recently become associated with collective resistance to oppressive government regimes.

For a brief (i.e., 30-minute) but fun overview of the Gunpowder Plot, Guy Fawkes, and Guy Fawkes Day, watch this 2002 BBC documentary presented by Nick Knowles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMLHau_rBJ8.

10/29/2025

Hi Friends, Just landed, talking on this podcast about banned books, tarot, and more. Enjoy!

THE NAUGHTY LIBRARIAN "TNL" · Episode

08/07/2025

Content warning: Death, war, mass destruction, and injury depiction including body horror.

On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, instantly killing nearly 70,000 people and leveling what had been one of Japan’s most modern cities. Because of the myriad, profound ways in which the bomb and ensuing nuclear age affected history and culture, many critics reckon August 1945 as the starting point of contemporary art and literature.

One of the most affecting and effective artistic renderings of the horror of the event itself is captured in Keiji Nakazawa's Barefoot Gen, a 1973-1985 manga series that was adapted into an anime movie in 1983 (the manga and anime are available at Wardman Library).

As noted above, there are some disturbing images in this clip from the film, so viewer discretion is advised; the detonation occurs at the 2:39 mark: https://youtu.be/FQZtfDQl2TQ

07/14/2025

Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité! Joyeux Le 14 Juillet! Happy Bastille Day!

Because of the profound ways in which it affected philosophy and literature in England (and because it's arguably one of the most important events in modern history), students of literature should have a basic understanding of The French Revolution. We can start with the fact that on this day in history 234 years ago, July 14, 1789, Parisian peasants stormed the Bastille, mainly to take the large quantities of guns and ammunition stored at the medieval fortress-prison. In France, Bastille Day is celebrated in much the same way that we celebrate July 4, 1776.

For a decent and efficient account of the whole boule de cire, check out the History Channel's The French Revolution (2005), online in its 90-minute entirety here: https://youtu.be/d0tafP8HOok

06/24/2025

Happy birthday to Octavia Butler (June 22, 1947 – February 24, 2010), multiple Hugo and Nebula award-winning African American science fiction writer, and the first sci-fi writer to receive a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship.

Shy, awkward, and the victim of bullying, as a child Butler sought refuge at the Pasadena Public Library, where she first discovered fantasy and science fiction and began writing her own stories. Despite the racism and sexism that characterized much of the science fiction literary landscape in the 1960s and 1970s (and of course, which persists), Butler pursued her dream of becoming a writer, working odd jobs and attending writing classes at CSULA and UCLA. While attending the Open Door Workshop of the Screenwriters' Guild of America, Butler impressed sci-fi legend Harlan Ellison, who encouraged her to attend the Clarion Science Fiction Writers Workshop in Clarion, Pennsylvania, where she befriended another sci-fi legend, Samuel Delaney.

Butler herself attained sci-fi legend status in the 1980s, when in 1984 her short story “Speech Sounds” won the Hugo Award, and when in 1985 her novelette Bloodchild won the Hugo Award, the Locus Award, and the Science Fiction Chronicle Reader Award for Best Novelette. During the 1980s and 1990s Butler continued to write short stories as well as novels, including the novels for which, in addition to Kindred (1979), she is best known: Parable of the Sower (1993) and the Nebula Award-winning Parable of the Talents (1998).

For more on Butler, check out this Google Doodle from 2018 (http://time.com/5319643/octavia-butler-google-doodle/), but see also this first-rate summary and assessment of her books by Olivia Wilson: https://theportalist.com/octavia-butler-books