Culture Watch

Two trilogies: Women write about what they wish they had known earlier. These discussions are about how the fact of being female makes the lives of women differ from the lives of men at a deeper level.Our Stieg Larsson reviewer was suspicious and too stubborn to believe that anything so popular could be so good; she finds otherwise. more »

Joan L. Cannon writes: POETRY is a big word, in both denotation and connotation. Hours of classroom time and reams of thesis papers have been wasted in the attempt to analyze, categorize, classify, and define it. Rhyme, rhythm, diction, subject ... since before written language, from nonsense through ritual and history, folk songs, epics, in all languages, the list of schools and variations in form is too long to contemplate. However many attempts are made, full agreement is not likely. more »

Logan Mountstuart's most intense relationships are with a succession of women that he loves, marries, or otherwise gets to know. Read from Chapter One of Louisa Pallant, the Henry James short story from which the program is taken more »

 I became curious about the difference in the dreams of those who recovered from depression on their own and those who did not. This started me on a series of studies of people going through a particular emotional problem — divorce. After studying 150 people over a period of years, I discovered that dreams have a specific function: In the healthy person, dreams regulate mood. In some depressed people, the dreams are self-correcting over time, but other people need additional help. more »