American Writers (One Hundred Pages at a Time)

A short tale by H. P. Lovecraft, "Hypnos" involved an unreliable narrator exploring his dreams with an unknown associate. A nice contrast to some of the more optimistic dreamer stories.

So the second half of Galbraith's book called THE GREAT CRASH is about the impact of the 1929 crash on American life. Overall a good survey of the causes of the crash itself, it not the best on the structural causes of the Depression.

A great short story by H. P. Lovecraft, "The Music of Erich Zann" is one of his first to take seriously the power of art and the tendency of art in the 20th century to move toward the bizarre. Is it a commentary on musical modernism? Or just a good horror tale?

The economist John Kenneth Galbraith wrote this very interesting book about a famous airplane disaster. Here are my thoughts on the first half of this book.

A short story by H. P. Lovecraft, "The Other Gods" explores humanity's hubris at thinking they can understand the universe. These Other Gods will be explored in more depth in THE DREAMQUEST OF UNKNOWN KADATH.

Part two of my review of AMERICAN CAPITALISM by John Kenneth Galbraith. In the second half of this slim book we get into specific examples of counterveiling power through labor unions, cooperatives, government, and other forces.

"The Outsider" is a well-known tale by H. P. Lovecraft, probably due to its psychological dimension. One of his best works of short fiction, to be sure, even if not one of my favorites.

This episode begins a new series looking at the works of John Kenneth Galbraith. We begin with AMERICAN CAPITALISM, a book exploring the concept of "countervailing power" and how the size of firms undermines classical economics.

"The Moon-Bog" by Lovecraft may reminds us of "The Rats in the Wall' with its European setting and castle restoration subplot, but the story has its unique ideas, especially with the relationship between the workers and the castle owner, a relationship to water, and cultists of a sort.

"The Quest of Iranon" is a dreamlands story with (possibly) a dreamer from within the dreamlands themselves. It also works as a nice allegory for modernity, art, and celebrity.