Greg Correll
@gcorrell.bsky.social
Writer, Artist, Skeptic. CUNY Writers Center Fellow, CAPS board member. Father to three ferocious daughters.
Tackling 5 volume classic of 1700s China, in ways a proto-modernist—Woolf, Proust et al—on pg 96 and i find the infamous 1st third to be lucid, plot driven. perhaps because of the Chinese translations i’ve been reading. So fa? riveting. ps: reading Egan & Pai’s chapter by chapter guide as i progress
December 23, 2025 at 8:34 PM
Tackling 5 volume classic of 1700s China, in ways a proto-modernist—Woolf, Proust et al—on pg 96 and i find the infamous 1st third to be lucid, plot driven. perhaps because of the Chinese translations i’ve been reading. So fa? riveting. ps: reading Egan & Pai’s chapter by chapter guide as i progress
Finished the Dao de Jing, then the slim, ancient Dhammapada; now starting The Way of the Bodhisattva by Shantideva (approx 4th c). Daily immersion into these works is changing me.
December 8, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Finished the Dao de Jing, then the slim, ancient Dhammapada; now starting The Way of the Bodhisattva by Shantideva (approx 4th c). Daily immersion into these works is changing me.
Reading The Other Shore, in tandem with Red Pine’s Three Zen Sutras (Heart, Diamond, Platform). Starting to understand being and no-being. Everything is shifting in me, away from anger and greed
December 3, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Reading The Other Shore, in tandem with Red Pine’s Three Zen Sutras (Heart, Diamond, Platform). Starting to understand being and no-being. Everything is shifting in me, away from anger and greed
From Lankavatara Sutra:
When external realms are not perceived /
Their cessation does not mean nothingness /
Everything is real /
As it is in the realm of sages
(LXII, buddha answers Mahamati; speaks to the reality of cause and effect, despite Buddha’s ‘no cause, no effect’). Everything is real.
When external realms are not perceived /
Their cessation does not mean nothingness /
Everything is real /
As it is in the realm of sages
(LXII, buddha answers Mahamati; speaks to the reality of cause and effect, despite Buddha’s ‘no cause, no effect’). Everything is real.
November 24, 2025 at 5:02 PM
From Lankavatara Sutra:
When external realms are not perceived /
Their cessation does not mean nothingness /
Everything is real /
As it is in the realm of sages
(LXII, buddha answers Mahamati; speaks to the reality of cause and effect, despite Buddha’s ‘no cause, no effect’). Everything is real.
When external realms are not perceived /
Their cessation does not mean nothingness /
Everything is real /
As it is in the realm of sages
(LXII, buddha answers Mahamati; speaks to the reality of cause and effect, despite Buddha’s ‘no cause, no effect’). Everything is real.
My current reading. The most difficult sutra, by reputation. I find it transparent, and strange. But beautiful in its eloquent obscurity. I am teased by my personal attainments in my half-assed Buddhism, how they fit/don’t fit my humaneness and attachments to non-existence/existence
November 22, 2025 at 4:47 PM
My current reading. The most difficult sutra, by reputation. I find it transparent, and strange. But beautiful in its eloquent obscurity. I am teased by my personal attainments in my half-assed Buddhism, how they fit/don’t fit my humaneness and attachments to non-existence/existence
When he takes control for his third term—and he will—he will show his true soul(lessness). It will be brutal. A storm is coming and it will set us back two generations.
November 11, 2025 at 10:19 PM
When he takes control for his third term—and he will—he will show his true soul(lessness). It will be brutal. A storm is coming and it will set us back two generations.
My late in life reading advice-i-wish-i-got-20-years-ago: how much you read is always Great! Embrace that, combine with daily reading? Transformed me, my habits. Next: mess w/ books: underline, add stars. Remember: there is astonishing JOY in literature, tho it usually creeps up on you. Humans! Wow!
October 29, 2025 at 6:24 PM
My late in life reading advice-i-wish-i-got-20-years-ago: how much you read is always Great! Embrace that, combine with daily reading? Transformed me, my habits. Next: mess w/ books: underline, add stars. Remember: there is astonishing JOY in literature, tho it usually creeps up on you. Humans! Wow!
My new reading project: in order to read the 5 vol ‘The Story of the Stone’ (17th c), i am reading a classic, 8th century BCE ‘The Book of Songs, and the immense vol 1 of ‘Sources of Chinese Tradition’, from oracle bones thru the renaissance. The early poetry is sublime.
October 29, 2025 at 5:05 PM
My new reading project: in order to read the 5 vol ‘The Story of the Stone’ (17th c), i am reading a classic, 8th century BCE ‘The Book of Songs, and the immense vol 1 of ‘Sources of Chinese Tradition’, from oracle bones thru the renaissance. The early poetry is sublime.
Anna Karennina, page 768: my heart breaks, i cry again. The most haunting, tragic, best-realized story of self-deception and loss. Staggering writing. I am so sad.
October 27, 2025 at 5:38 PM
Anna Karennina, page 768: my heart breaks, i cry again. The most haunting, tragic, best-realized story of self-deception and loss. Staggering writing. I am so sad.
Finishing the new-ish Pevear/Volokhonsky translation of Anna Karenina, Tolstoy. I have cried three times. The humanity and insight of this towering work stuns my soul. Virginia Woolf is right: few have equalled this work for its deeply felt truths and realism. I will cry again before i finish.
October 25, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Finishing the new-ish Pevear/Volokhonsky translation of Anna Karenina, Tolstoy. I have cried three times. The humanity and insight of this towering work stuns my soul. Virginia Woolf is right: few have equalled this work for its deeply felt truths and realism. I will cry again before i finish.
Just finished this sublime antho/reference work. To writers and poets: try this. The mix of styles—poems, prose poems, prose, essays, novellas, short stories, plays—covers the waterfront and prompts poetry on every page. I dogeared thirty pages. Now i return to Journey to the West, vol 2
September 8, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Just finished this sublime antho/reference work. To writers and poets: try this. The mix of styles—poems, prose poems, prose, essays, novellas, short stories, plays—covers the waterfront and prompts poetry on every page. I dogeared thirty pages. Now i return to Journey to the West, vol 2
Read vol 1 of The Journey to the West; describes the trip to obtain the Buddhist Sutras from India. Hilarious, deeply imaginative. Magical creatures on this mission symbolize the changes one goes thru viz nirvana. Reading Anthology of early Chinese literature before remaining 3 volumes of Journey.
September 5, 2025 at 9:09 PM
Read vol 1 of The Journey to the West; describes the trip to obtain the Buddhist Sutras from India. Hilarious, deeply imaginative. Magical creatures on this mission symbolize the changes one goes thru viz nirvana. Reading Anthology of early Chinese literature before remaining 3 volumes of Journey.
Five of the six books i use to supplement my reading of Edith Grossman’s Don Quixote. Echevarría’s Yale course, top, is my lodestar. The Quixote is the funniest book i’ve read, ever.
August 15, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Five of the six books i use to supplement my reading of Edith Grossman’s Don Quixote. Echevarría’s Yale course, top, is my lodestar. The Quixote is the funniest book i’ve read, ever.
Don Quixote is one of the three funniest books ever written, imho. Grossman’s translation is liquid butter. Why did i wait so long to read this? I veer into tiresome excess in my fulsome love of this insane story. Buy it. Read it.
August 2, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Don Quixote is one of the three funniest books ever written, imho. Grossman’s translation is liquid butter. Why did i wait so long to read this? I veer into tiresome excess in my fulsome love of this insane story. Buy it. Read it.
Having finished (and i am profoundly haunted by) Joyce/Ulysses, i turn to Don Quixote—and Edith’s translation is insanely accessible to modern readers. I am also trying out Yale’s guide to Cervantes, read in tandem. Literature is for the mature; at 69 i find that no work can defeat me.
July 30, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Having finished (and i am profoundly haunted by) Joyce/Ulysses, i turn to Don Quixote—and Edith’s translation is insanely accessible to modern readers. I am also trying out Yale’s guide to Cervantes, read in tandem. Literature is for the mature; at 69 i find that no work can defeat me.
my art—the tragic dynamics of being homeless.
April 29, 2025 at 1:37 PM
my art—the tragic dynamics of being homeless.
Reading Dostoevsky’s 1st collection of stories, Notes From Underground, Wordsworth editions. 3rd story, Another Man’s Wife, is hilarious. Two men hide under the bed in what they mistook for their lover’s flat. The lady & her husband talk on the bed. An entirely fresh story
April 10, 2025 at 5:25 PM
Reading Dostoevsky’s 1st collection of stories, Notes From Underground, Wordsworth editions. 3rd story, Another Man’s Wife, is hilarious. Two men hide under the bed in what they mistook for their lover’s flat. The lady & her husband talk on the bed. An entirely fresh story
Uber-masculine mythos of preening vanity; reality is a wasteland of pain. Storm’s coming.
April 5, 2025 at 3:23 AM
Uber-masculine mythos of preening vanity; reality is a wasteland of pain. Storm’s coming.
There is a storm coming. Evangelicals, Opus Dei, far right thug gangs, Republicans, all will combine this year to push us into confrontations. Blood will be shed, people will die and disappear. It was always coming to us. It's our turn now to defeat fascism. Gird your loins.
March 20, 2025 at 1:36 PM
There is a storm coming. Evangelicals, Opus Dei, far right thug gangs, Republicans, all will combine this year to push us into confrontations. Blood will be shed, people will die and disappear. It was always coming to us. It's our turn now to defeat fascism. Gird your loins.
what it feels like to be trapped in a failing democracy
February 21, 2025 at 3:04 PM
what it feels like to be trapped in a failing democracy
My beloved Emme has her own office chair-bed, next to mine.
January 14, 2025 at 1:02 AM
My beloved Emme has her own office chair-bed, next to mine.
