Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with essay

Essay on fantasy fiction, economics and trade

maudlin — Tue, 07 May 2013 14:26:11 -0800

Many years ago I read an essay that was pretty critical of the way so much fantasy fiction could not build believable societies with plausible economic underpinnings. The author was fairly concise and snarky, arguing that (I'm paraphrasing here) she could suspend disbelief about dragons and magic, but that she couldn't slog her way through a book where not the least bit of thought had been given to how all these characters and their associates could make a living, grow or acquire food, and otherwise acquire money and engage in trade. I think it was an essay by Joanna Russ in Fantasy & Science Fiction in the 70s, when she had a regular book review column there, but I could be conflating like mad.

Help keep a wannabe autodidact on track!

abbagoochie — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 21:53:38 -0800

So, I really like learning new stuff and spend a fair bit of my spare time reading. If I won the euromillions I'd retire and spend the rest of my life at uni. In the real world, I have to keep paying rent/eating, so have been exploring MIT's open courseware - writing essays will give a focus to my reading and structure my repsonses to it more effectively, but it ends there. The feedback on my thoughts and arguments a lecturer would give me, or points to improve on, are still missing. This is what I need help with! Is there anywhere online - forums, etc, where you could put an essay up for review? I realise this may be wishful thinking. Do people pay people to review their work? My areas of interest are literature, linguistics, media, film, cultural studies and gender studies.

Any tips? Even just to laugh in my face and tell me it ain't happening? How do autodidacts check the rigour and worth of their work?

What was this story of the "god-like man?"

phearlez — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 11:49:32 -0800

What was this dimly-remembered short story about a superhero ignoring big world threats in favor of saving kids from escalators? All of this is subject to being poorly recalled by my beer-picked brain, so take it with a grain of salt.

Years ago, as a younger comics reader, I saw a short story that meant to explore the issue with superhero comics - namely that a super-powered individual who just saves kids from speeding cars is obviously neglecting a million more serious issues.

I am pretty sure "god-like man" was used to describe the superhero (a fairly transparent reference to DC's Superman) and it details him ignoring despots, dictators, mass killings, starvation, etc, till finally swooping down and saving a child from an injury on an escalator, or some similarly trivial thing.

I've long thought it was written by Bill Willingham, who then would have been doing Elementals and is now known for Fables. But it could well have been Dave Sim, given the hostility to superbooks.

Proper identification would be great. The text, online, would be better. Or did I write this in my sleep and fail to transcribe it?

Thesis argument about cultural contact zones

marsbar77 — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 13:44:22 -0800

Hi Mefites! So I'm wondering if anyone can help me in finding something to argue in a 5-6 page paper regarding 'cultural contact zones' in Orwell's essay ' A Passage to India'. Specifically, "the concept of a “contact zone” emphasizes how subjects are constituted in and by their relations to each other, usually involving conditions of coercion, inequality, and conflict. It treats the relations among colonizers and colonized not in terms of separateness but in terms of interaction and interlocking understandings and practices, often within radically asymmetrical relations of power." ( this is part of the prompt). Any suggestions? I'm usually a fairly competent writer but am having trouble here. I've managed to come up with several philosophical 'nuggets' to argue, but I doubt these can be the basis of a well-fleshed-out essay
These are
- Imperialism as a battle of masculinities
- The loss of concrete identity and subsequent adoption of an 'identity of ideas'
-The elephant as a symbol for the passionate and untamable mystique of the eastern empire
This is what I have so far. Whatever anyone can chime in with would be amazing!

Tell me about an essay that flows really well.

caoimhe — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 10:21:18 -0800

Hello! I am teaching a writing class, and am now teaching students about flow. I would like to do an exercise where I take an essay (preferably, somewhat academic) and cut it up and give it to them to rearrange to show how well the author transitions between paragraphs. The problem is, I can't find one that works in particular! If anyone has a good example, I'd be grateful.

Name of an essay about Cuba that involves locomotives?

eggman — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 16:47:19 -0800

I read a nonfiction piece awhile back that I can't find via my google-fu. It concerns a guy visiting Cuba who meets with locomotive types in memory of (or for) his father, who was a train buff. The piece was nostalgic and colorful, and focused on the concept of Cuban train engineering effectively being frozen in time. Can anyone help?

Philosophy reading reccomendations on "Notion of freedom and humanity"

Cogentesque — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 03:40:14 -0800

A friend of mine recently quit his job and has found himself with a lot of free time. As a method to explore his mind and world he has set himself a task to write an essay on : - "The Notion of Freedom and Humanity" I am no philosophy veteran but I am sure that there must be some great texts already dealing with this subject. What research and reading material can I recommend my friend for his essay?

My bazaar doesn't need your cathedral

infini — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 03:39:20 -0800

Help me understand the essence of The Cathedral and the Bazaar in order to apply the understanding to an entirely different scenario where there is a struggle between top down and bottom up design. I have no programming knowledge after BASIC on DOS 1.0 I believe there's a valuable message in this essay (and subsequent book) which can be related to other areas where there is an inherent conflict between top down and bottom up design.

However, beyond being able to see and acknowledge this value, especially based on the simplified guidelines in the wikipedia page, I fear I'm getting tangled up in the specificities of programming and its needs and thus unable to extract or wholly understand the key insights or essence of the tale.

tl;dr I can't write about it (as a narrative) relating to a wholly different scenario (say, design for poor farmers for eg) without understanding it well enough. Pointers to other reading on this material or key chapters would also be gratefully appreciated.

help a textbook taught me something relevant and amusing once

NoraReed — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 21:57:16 -0800

I'm looking for an essay I read in a textbook. This would've been in the late 90s and it was a middle school Literature textbook. The essay was about writing. I remember that it included a bit about how you can't ask writers about writing for the same reason you can't ask the sea about itself (it will just gurgle at you). It also had a bit about breaking the rules when writing, talking about how writing guides tell you never to open a story with dialogue but then gave an example of a classic novel that opened with dialogue in French. I believe that the textbook was pretty recent when I read it, but I could be wrong.

Clinical lab paper

marsbar77 — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 08:51:57 -0800

I need to write a paper for my clinical laboratory sciences class, but being that the teacher was unclear in her instructions, I'm not sure what qualifies as a separate laboratory and what doesn't. Something like " the hematology lab" is very broad. Can I focus on JUST histology, for example? Is there such a thing as a histology laboratory, even if it's under anatomical sciences? Or does that refer to a technique. What to do here? How would you structure this paper? Any advice is appreciated. The prompt is as follows: (3-4 pages)
Introduction: tell me about a particular clinical laboratory of interest to you.
Body of Paper: tell what tests are done there, what technology/instruments may be in there,and what possible diseases are being diagnosed or ruled out in that lab.
Sumaary: End with how this laboratory area may monitor certain conditions and diseases as patients are being treated with various therapies. And/Or tell me what new technological advances may be in the near future in that particular lab (heme, micro, chemistry, etc.)
References: Please provide at least 4 references with at least one being from a scientific journal.

How tCan I create a "Tap Essay" app (without programming...too much)

fncll — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 12:50:15 -0800

How can I create a "tap essay" app (such as Robin Sloan's Fish without learning Objective C? I'm a poet, not a programmer! The idea is pretty simple: an app that shows styled text on a page that you tap to go to the next page with the occasional option to tweet the current line, etc.

Looking for a mid-1990s magazine article about end-of-year celebrations in Scotland

usonian — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 09:25:24 -0800

Longshotfilter: Did anyone else in the U.S. see this magazine article about New Years Eve/Hogmanay (or possibly Christmas Eve) in Scotland circa 1996-97? One evening in late 1996/early 1997 I was waiting for takeout in a Thai restaurant in Van Nuys, California. I picked up a magazine and was enchanted by a photo essay about the celebration of Hogmanay in Scotland. (it *might* have been Christmas, but I'm pretty sure it was about New Year's Eve.) I seem to recall that it focused on celebrations away from urban areas - maybe even on an island, and there were cozy photos of people dining, dancing and socializing by candlelight and/or strings of white christmas-type lights.

I did not have time to read the article completely, but those dimly-remembered photos have stuck with me all these years and I would love to track it down and read the whole thing.

Difficulty: I don't remember what the magazine was. I want to say it was something in the Smithsonian/National Geographic spectrum - not a pure travel & leisure magazine, but the sort of magazine that travels, if that makes any sense. On the other hand one nagging but probably unreliable memory says it might have been AAA California's magazine. Given that it was a magazine in a waiting area, it may have been even a bit older than 1996-97.

I've spent a bit of time unsuccessfully searching Google and the archive web sites of possible publications, but I suspect this is going to be one of those things where I need to hope that someone sees this and says "Yes, I totally remember that! It was in [Foo] magazine!" So here's hoping - thanks hive mind!

Vague description filter

theodolite — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 14:35:03 -0800

What was this long essay about World War II that I read on the internet a few years ago? Very long, reflective essay (probably ~50 print pages) by the son (grandson?) of a WW2 veteran about America's selective memory and organized forgetting of what happened during the war. Lots of discussion of the author's (grand?)father not speaking about his experience for decades, and his reluctance when he eventually started talking about it. I'm certain it opened by talking about a particular old tiger sculpture tchochke the author had in his house, although I can't remember how that related to the rest of the piece. I don't think it was from a magazine or blog, but posted on its own on the guy's website.

Find an knowledgeable reader of my essay?

shivohum — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 12:47:25 -0800

I have a manuscript of a roughly philosophical/literary essay, and I'm trying to figure out where I should try to publish it. How can I find someone objective, with solid knowledge of "high-brow" magazines and related publications, to read my piece and tell me where it might best fit and what my chances are of publishing it in various venues?

Help me find an essay?

oinopaponton — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 11:07:08 -0800

Can you help me find this vaguely-remembered creative essay about dating that was published on The Awl (or similar) maybe a year ago? It, or at least the beginning of it, was written in the second person (probably). The essay started off with two people meeting up for a third date after (I think) sleeping together on the second. There was a nice description of the awkward greeting moment, where one person goes in for a kiss on the cheek and the other goes for the lips. And... that's about all I've got.

I'm pretty sure I read it in the summer of last year.

I remember it being on The Awl, but it might have been on some other similar internet place (like The Hairpin or Thought Catalog, although I've checked both with my vague search terms with no success). Come on, MetaFilter, you're good at this!

Essay about ball lightning?

apparently — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 13:18:58 -0800

Help me find this essay about lightning! I remember reading an essay about fear of lightning in my freshman-year literature textbook. I believe it was by either James Thurber, EB White or Robert Benchley (or someone with similar chops from that era). It explicitly described an episode with ball lightning, and was written in the first person.

Ring any bells? My google-fu is failing me.

Stories of abuse

princeoftheair — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 18:04:42 -0800

Looking for good short stories or essays about abusive relationships I'm particularly interested in stories of emotional more than just physical abuse, and not just of men against women either. The point of view can be either from the abuser or the victim, or even third person, but I'm curious what good writing has been done in this area.

Maybe something about curtains? Or fieldstone?

Andrhia — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 17:54:21 -0800

Can you find this essay on what writing is like? Vague memories begin.... now. I am looking for a blog post or essay or article. It was a metaphor for how writing a story (or maybe a book) is like the process of making a doll house (or maybe a gingerbread house? Or a diorama?) The upshot was that you pay attention to all of these careful details, and then set the whole thing on fire, and when your audience looks at it, some of them will think you should have done some things that you tried to do but didn't work out, and you'll quietly hate them; and some people will notice things that you put in, but that you never thought anyone would notice, and you will quietly love them.

It might have been written by Mary Robinette-Kowal? Maybe? Or linked at some point by Making Light, John Scalzi, Elizabeth Bear?

This is going to drive me insane until I find it.

Where can I find long essays?

zamboni — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 07:30:20 -0800

I'm looking for substantive essays focused on US politics and society, preferably published in periodical form. Ideally, I'd like to find the US equivalent of Quarterly Essay, an Australian periodical that publishes long form essays on Australian society and politics, along with responses and rebuttals to previous essays in the series.

What I'm looking for:

Long form: ~25,000 words or so. Shorter than a book, longer than a magazine article.

Contemporary: centered on current affairs and politics.

A periodical that provides a venue for a variety of authors.
A focus on the United States.

Footnotes.

Looking for a great essay on art.

Phlegmco(tm) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 23:07:01 -0800

In 1971 Artforum magazine published an essay, 'After Modernism', by American composer Morton Feldman, about Modernism's endgame and what it meant for contemporary painting. I have repeatedly looked for it online but have had no success. Just curious to see if it is on the intertubes somewhere, thanks.

Who nearly crashed himself & his son & wrote about it?

morganw — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 11:57:45 -0800

Who wrote about a change in perspective due to a near-miss in a private airplane he was piloting? I'm trying to find an article about a life-altering brush with death that caused the author to re-evaluate what he was doing with his life. The author was the pilot & had his young son aboard. The article was published in the 90's or possibly 80's, most likely in the New Yorker, but it could have been The Atlantic or Harpers. It's possible the son was killed.

I remember the author being a famous computer scientist & businessman in the vein of Ray Kurzweil, Danny Hillis or Bill Joy, but I'm not 100% sure.

it's not Woz. He was alone when he crashed

Stylistic successor to William James

shivohum — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 09:29:48 -0800

William James was an astounding prose stylist, but seems to have come from a school of rhetoric long since lost. Does anyone today write in an analogously formally beautiful, dense yet lucid, naturally learned, opinionated, and wry style anymore? (see for just one entrancing example his essay on PhDs in academia)

Oh crap, I forgot how to write essays!

cheerwine — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 10:33:56 -0800

I'm back in school after several years of not thinking about essays. I forgot how to do everything! How do I cite an essay in a textbook in MLA format? I am citing heavily from several essays by different authors in a textbook. The textbook was not compiled by these authors. I have the name of the authors, titles of essays, years printed, but not the page numbers within the original essays. How do I parenthetically cite these quotes within the text of the essay and how do I list the sources in the bibliography?

Reward and Punishment in the US

camylanded — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 17:39:55 -0800

What are some good (current) examples of reward and punishment in the United States? Please give me any websites, magazines or books I might be able to source for an essay. I am taking Ethics in Philosophy this semester and the only challenge of this essay are to discover good examples of reward and punishment in the US. The only thing that really pops into my mind is the Casey Anthony case. Any other suggestions? Please feel free to point me in the way of more recent magazine or newspaper articles, or books on the subject. Obviously they don't have to be philosophy related, but if you have any good sources in that vicinity, please feel free to let me know. Thank you!

sources about Keith Green

kingfishers catch fire — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 20:31:00 -0800

I want to find more primary and secondary sources on Christian music artist Keith Green. Keith Green's wife, Melody, wrote a biography about him after he died in 1982, but I'm having trouble locating any sources that don't come from her or from their Last Days Ministries organization. Did anyone write an article on him before he died?

I'm most interested in finding articles or sources from a secular or mainline Protestant perspective. I've found some from Catholics who were not happy with his anti-Catholic stance, but other than that, I've kind of struck out.