The Book arrived today. It is, as you might imagine, chockablock with moments of the sublime. "I remember being in high school, sitting on the couch with my girlfriend watching MTV, and the video for "Under The Bridge" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers came on. The video ends with a shirtless Anthony Kiedis running in slow motion, long hair swinging, pecs bouncing, and the room got silent – loud silent. I looked over at…

Joe Manganiello is living proof that the reader-response theory is the truest form of literary criticism. Reader-response theorists share two beliefs: 1) that the role of the reader cannot be omitted from our understanding of literature and 2) that readers do not passively consume the meaning presented to them by an objective literary text; rather they actively make the meaning they find in literature" (154). In this way, reader-response theory shares common ground with…