Hothouse
Literary Journal
Category: Two Cents
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Written by Lindsey Ferris Whether you celebrate Valentine’s day with a box of chocolates or Ben and Jerry’s, the traditional romantic gesture involves words spoken from the heart. We all know the classic “Roses are red;” however, for the people lucky enough to dodge Cupid’s arrow and are exhausted by the cliches oozing off every…
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Written by Ingrid Alberding It was a sunny day on Avenida Copacabana in Rio de Janeiro as a woman with cat-like eyes and vivid red lipstick stared at an empty display of naked mannequins. Her name was Clarice Lispector, an interesting figure now regarded as one of the masters of Brazilian literature. Jose Castello,…
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Written by Kayla Bollers Dear Diary, I’ve been thinking about you a lot lately. It’s been a whole year since I wrote my last diary entry. I don’t remember why I abandoned you, but after reading through the pages I poured myself into throughout the years, I have come to need you again. I see…
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Written by Lindsey Ferris Sometimes life can be mundane, and all we want is a little bit of magic to come and shake it up — a sparkle to the reality of life that makes us appreciate the everyday through a new lens. This is what magical realism does for us, whether in the realms…
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As a student, the end of August seems much more of a beginning than the first of January. When summer’s end is around the bend and September rolls around, I suffer a severe melancholy that can only be cured by the acutely erudite and affecting prose of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History; I’m on my…
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The ethnically—and, often, racially—divided genres we know today were essentially constructed to divide literature and art into white and non-white categories, often done in a misguided attempt to celebrate these works. However, these genres built upon ethnicity hurt the creators of these works.
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Written by Alyssa Jingling In college, I have found that if a book isn’t by a dead white man or hasn’t been critiqued by James Wood, it’s typically not read. Young adult novels on the class syllabus? No way.
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We might be inclined to separate these tragic Victorian heroines from the protagonists of our modern literature, but a closer look at one novel suggests that this social suffocation has simply shifted into a new form — a feline form.
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Not many readers have heard of Gladys Schmitt outside of Pittsburgh. For that matter, not many readers have heard of Gladys Schmitt inside Pittsburgh.
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“All Summer Long” is a story that—on the surface—appears to be nothing more than the tale of summer revelers in Northern Michigan, but the incredibly clever Kid Rock masterfully weaves a darker, more sinister story in the background.
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I spent my winter break surrounded by stories both spoken and concrete. Over the past few months, my grandmother has been sifting through and donating objects around her ranch to make more space. After decluttering cabinets with my mother and unearthing old records with my uncle, she invited me to help her with the bookshelves.…
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One hundred pages of an old man who sits in a little boat in the sea, trying to catch one fish. That’s it, that’s the plot!