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This article examines Rene Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy. It looks at philosophy Descartes used in his first philosophy to develop the concept of the mind that would lead to Cartesian Dualism. The ramification of Descartes meditations and Descartes metaphysics has been significant in the history of philosophy as well as Western Culture in general. This article has pictures, links to other articles on similar topics, and books and ebook readers available as well.

When Kurt Vonnegut published his first novel, "Player Piano," in 1952, he wrote about corporate culture taking over in America. It was the end of WWII and Vonnegut, as a young novelist, wrote about a distant future where the corporate powers that were beginning to dominate the American landscape seized the opportunities presented by the fragile post-war economy. Today, 57 years later, Vonnegut's vision is much closer to reality than anyone browsing the "new fiction" section in 1952 would accept. Vonnegut is a visionary. This article examines the lasting value and effect of Vonnegut's ever-true vision and work.

An examination of the first appropriation in Wester Literature and how it set the tone for the way the rest of us would appropriate. Focuses on Virgl, Homer, and the relationship between the Aeneid and Homer's Epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. This relationship between these texts is important because it laid the groundwork for how and why other writers in the Western Literary Tradition would also appropriate previous works.

Kurt Vonnegut, one of the most prolific if not best American writers of the second half of the twentieth century, first earned a reputation for himself as a science-fictionist with his early works, The Sirens of Titan and Cat's Cradle. This reputation, however much it vastly underestimates and misunderstands Vonnegut's work and its significance to the modern era, has been difficult for Vonnegut to escape. It does, however, provide insight into the aspects of the modern situation that Vonnegut sees as central and meaningful. Bluebeard, which trades a more traditionally Vonnegut mad scientist for a retired, eccentric expressionist painter, the same painter from Breakfast of Champions, tackles the issues which have traditionally blurred Vonnegut's role in the literary and popular fiction traditions. This article explores these issues within Vonnegut's version of the fairytale, Bluebeard.

Open Thread, the non-profit organization that hosted this past weekend's Small Press Festival (SPF) expo at Carnegie Mellon University's Miller Gallery, held a reading which featured three winners of its first-ever Tri-State Chapbook Contest, in partnership with Encyclopedia Destructica.

In Pittsburgh, a city known for balkanization, what with its countless neighborhoods and various parochial idiosyncrasies, the literary scene functions much like a fractal. It is constituted of a culture that encompasses communities of artists, musicians, publishers and writers within communities of artists, musicians, publishers and writers. July 18, 2009, the opening day of the first-ever Pittsburgh Small Press Festival expo at Carnegie Mellon University's Miller Gallery did well to acknowledge the multifaceted nature of the Pittsburgh literary scene while highlighting the unity in diversity that provides a nucleus for an ever-widening cultural circle of artists in the Pittsburgh area.

This article examines one of American Literature's classics, Charlotte Temple by Susanna Rowson. It was one of America's first best sellers and remains a favorite among American literary hardcover classics. The article contains contemporary and original critical reactions. It also has pictures and links as well as electronic versions of the novel and ebook readers as well as other academic resources available.