There is something I believe about literature: Nonfiction allows us to learn about stuff, but fiction allows us to learn about us. Reading fiction can help us to become better people. It fosters our senses of empathy and sympathy. If we think about and try to understand the motives of […]
Journal
What Keeps a Fictional World Alive? Exploring the Work of Lewis Carroll
Although Charles Dodgson died over a century ago, his alter ego Lewis Carroll is still very much alive. Alive as the young in heart are forever alive. The longevity of Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass leads us to ask — is there greatness to humour, any […]
Exploring Poetry as Storytelling: The Art of Shared Inquiry
[Editor’s note: We’re so happy to welcome Rosemary Gould back to Toronto Pursuits for the first time since 2019. She’ll be leading The Storytellers, an exploration of narrative, drama, and storytelling in poetry. In this blog post she introduces her approach to discussing poetry. For many years, Rosemary has turned […]
Just the Facts?
Just give me the facts, I can figure it out from there. For a long time, this is how many people have approached the news. Although the history of journalism shows that it’s an ever-changing concept, AI researcher and data scientist Jonathan Stray suggests that “factual reports of current events” […]
The Inner Eye of the Dutch Masters
The portraits, landscapes, interiors and still lifes of the Dutch masters show us a world full of activity: people sailing, trading, studying, working, reading, singing, drinking, and much more. It’s fun to marvel at the rich colours and textures, the dynamic skies, the dramatic Biblical scenes, and the visual jokes […]
Everything You Wanted to Know About Music …
… but were afraid to ask. Hello, I’m Rick Phillips. I am a freelance writer, reviewer, teacher, speaker, broadcaster, podcaster and concert host, all in the field of classical music. I regularly host travel tours to European and US cities to attend classical music festivals and events. For 30 years […]
Classic Left Bank Cafés of the 1950s
Existential angst, jazz cats, cheap hotels, smoke-filled basements … while Paris’s Saint-Germain-des-Prés neighbourhood is now filled with luxury boutiques, in the 1950s it was a different story. As the city emerged from Nazi occupation, Saint-Germain reclaimed its place as a centre of new ideas and daring new works of art, […]
Extraordinary Everyday Souvenirs
I had a lot of fun reading the recent New York Times article on the joy of small, everyday souvenirs: “Want a Vacation Souvenir? Buy Toothpaste.” Like author Joshua Hunt, I love visiting drugstores when travelling abroad. Along with supermarkets, bodegas and corner stores, stationers, and secondhand shops. This is […]
Life Distilled in Japanese Poetry
Tanka are a form of Japanese poetry that date back more than 1,000 years. Meaning “short song” in Japanese, tanka are 31 on long, written on a single line—an on is similar to a syllable. Tanka remain very popular in Japan, and these poems have captured every facet of the […]
Toronto Pursuits 2023: A Week of Discovery, Friendship and Culture
Nearly 80 book, music and culture lovers gathered this past July for our annual “salon in the sun,” Toronto Pursuits. At our longtime oasis, Victoria University in the University of Toronto, we read and looked and listened, ate and drank, laughed and debated, greeted friends old and new. Most of […]