literature « www.tragnark.com

where the wild things are

March 27th, 2009 | Category: literature, movies

Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak was far and away one of my favorite books of all time. What’s better than that is the pairing of the story with one of my favorite directors, Spike Jonze. His visual style always had a nice blend of curiosity and imagination. This movie [...]

chipmunk in charge

March 8th, 2009 | Category: animal kingdom, literature

Ogden Nash said it best in this brief and humorous poem:

The Chipmunk

My friends all know that I am shy,
But the chipmunk is twice and shy and I.
He moves with flickering indecision
Like stripes across the television.
He’s like the shadow of a cloud,
Or Emily Dickinson read aloud.

Doesn’t it bring a tear to ye eye?

james kakalios and the science of ‘the watchmen’

March 6th, 2009 | Category: literature, movies, science

I’m really excited to see The Watchmen this weekend. It’s one of my favorite comic series by far, delving deep into the social and moral underpinnings of a world inhabited by heroes. In many ways it set the bar of character development and comic book writing for generations to come. Although I [...]

human: the science behind what makes us unique

July 8th, 2008 | Category: literature, science

I was listening to an interview with Michael Gazzaniga, the author of the book Human while drawing at work. The discussion first dealt with the uniqueness and similarities between other living creatures, then moved on to how that applies as a logical overlay in bioethics and observational similarities that seem hard-wired into our genome [...]

“if” by rudyard kipling

June 25th, 2008 | Category: literature

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And [...]

the language and symbols of the dogon tribe

June 19th, 2008 | Category: culture, literature, science

I am curious about the controversy surrounding knowledge of ancient cultures such as the Dogon Tribe, some of which is said to measure equal to astrophysics and super string theory. In addition, how did the Dogon have knowledge of far away star systems that we have only discovered recently with our technology? Was it [...]

into the wild: the story of chris mccandless

April 28th, 2008 | Category: literature, movies, talkshows

Just recently I finished watching the movie Into the Wild. Wow. I was thoroughly amazed and inspired by the true-life story of Chris McCandless.

In search for real answers, Chris assumes the identity of Alexander Supertramp and embarks on a great adventure across the country. While facing the elements alone and making good [...]

social experiment as told by John Maxwell

February 3rd, 2008 | Category: literature, science

I’m reading a book right now, “The Total Money Makeover”, written by Dave Ramsey. It’s an extremely good, straight-forward text which gives advice on how to manage yourself financially, more importantly, how to manage your mindset and outlook on reality. We are creatures of habit, and it’s those habits that we’ve conditioned ourselves to [...]

tuesdays with morrie

October 9th, 2007 | Category: literature

My wife is reading this book now called Tuesdays With Morrie. Without getting into much detail in the plot, she explained it to me in one of our many random conversations about life. After doing further research on the book and reading a selected excerpt, I plan on making it my next quick read. Here’s [...]