Updates and Notes

16 April 2024

Added “but it did happen”: The Importance of Four Words in the Corner.

This is one of the few times I’ll bring in outside sources for this project. In this case, I’m citing another author’s essay to disagree with it — not (only) because I’m an asshole, but because I think coming to that conclusion is an easy and natural mistake.

20 March 2024

Added “Kiss, Interrupted.”

At this point, I don’t have a clear enough sense of my structure to know whether this will end up in a section about the Gators, in a section devoted to the sexual abuse of Claudia, or somewhere else. I have one or two additional essays on the molestation issue/question, and I’m confident that topic is important enough to be its own thing. We shall see.

9 March 2024

Added “The Unseen Ending: The Death of Jimmy Gator.”

I have a bad habit of starting expansive essays in which I lose my way and can’t find my way home. For pieces in this project, I’m trying to keep my scope limited enough to say what I want in fewer than 1,000 words per essay. This one clocks in at barely over 400 words.

9 March 2024

Added “An Active God, Acts of God: Dixon as an Agent of the Divine.”

This is a good place to say that my reading of Magnolia might be different from that of other people, including its writer/director.

9 March 2024

Added “The Kid in the Hall: An Introduction on a Prologue.”

With my third essay, I hope the forest is starting to take shape. I’ve so far written about a major narrative element in the frogs, one character in Earl, and — with this piece — one bit of minutiae: a seemingly unimportant prologue character.

8 March 2024

Added “Prisoner and Preacher: Earl Partridge.”

In these early days, this project is going to look seriously scattershot. When I stopped working on it four years ago, some essays were approaching finished form, while others were as meager as a few incoherent notes. I’m starting with the low-hanging fruit.

4 March 2024

Added  “Why Are There Frogs Falling from the Sky?” One down, 81 to go.

3 March 2024

The site presently has zero essays published out of a promised 82. However, some basic pages have been published.

February 2024

I launched this site with a promise and no content whatsoever.