New Essay by Liam Callanan

A new essay by faculty member Liam Callanan appears online in Medium:

In Paris, tracing the path of ‘The Red Balloon’

Seconds into my first attempt to play Hangman with my then-young daughter, I suddenly saw the game’s gruesome stakes for what they were: guess wrong, and see your dad draw a man’s neck snapping. So on the fly, I invented the game of Sleeping Man, his gallows now a reading lamp, the whole of him slowly obscured as incorrect guesses led to sheets, a blanket, a pillow, slippers. Years later, my daughter found the real game in an activity book, and then she found me. Dad, she said, eyes wide, our game? He doesn’t sleep—he dies.

Continue reading online.