I have read critics who referred to Henry James’s syntax as involute and to William Faulkner’s as convolute. I do not know that there is any real distinction to be made between the two descriptions; both styles are arabesque; and…
The Sun Also Rises: An Appreciation by David Massey
An old friend of mine dismissed Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises as a period piece. Let’s examine that a bit. In the first place, all novels are period pieces. The Tale of Genji, Don Quixote de la Mancha, and…
Sappho’s Literary Visuals of the Archaic Period by Mercury-Marvin Sunderland
According to Hurwit’s features of the Archaic style, there are several common themes of this time period — “reliance on schemata,” “impulse for pattern,” “domination of surface and plane,” linearity, ornamentality, and “explicitness and impassivity.” While these are obviously traits…
A Review of George Saunder’s A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by David Massey
Doubtless George Saunders’s A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life has been reviewed to a frazzle by now, but I also believe many of Black Fox’s…
Is this Novel Homeward Bound? By David Massey
I want to say a few words about what to me is a slippery subject: narrative arc. Not so much in the short story: I know what a short story is, and I am able to achieve the single effect…
Black Fox Literary Magazine Issue #20 is Here!
The Winter 2021 issue of Black Fox Literary Magazine is here at last! Thank you to our contributors and loyal readers who stuck by us as we tried to get this issue off the ground. We have a lot in…