The Coastal Contrarian
W. W. Matteson a writer who lives in Hope, where he weaves tales about Maine's coast and mountains.
Additional Column Posts (1 - 13 of 13)
Antebellum dreams
By W. W. Matteson - Jun 17My lifelong obsession with narrative fiction goes back at least as far as watching Wishbone on PBS after school. Later, I devoured chapter book ...
Imagine all the money
By W. W. Matteson - May 20It begins with trust. The intrinsic value of money is simply our belief that a dollar represents our credit in the world. You can't eat cash. It ...
A history of Hatchet Mountain
By W. W. Matteson - Apr 22What would it have been like to be here? I often wonder about the experience of occupying the times we think of as history. We grew up thinking of ...
The real ideal
By W.W. Matteson - Mar 25Most of us had to yawn our way through a high school English unit on the transcendentalists. These loosely organized writers and reformers from ...
Rising complexity
By W.W. Matteson - Feb 25A good friend of mine once remarked that he didn't like the novels of Thomas Pynchon because it seemed that Pynchon was always just trying to show ...
Climbing mountains
By W.W. Matteson - Jan 28The highlight of the Presidential Inauguration turned out not to be the peaceful transfer of power, or the barrier-busting Vice President, but a ...
Maine’s deep history
By W.W. Matteson - Dec 31One night last August, while I was working at the Lobster Pound Restaurant on Lincolnville Beach, a few of us where huddled around the bar at the ...
Reading Ribofunk
By W. W. Matteson - Jun 03I love reading science fiction from the 80s and 90s because it is like traveling back in time to visit the future. Ribofunk, a collection of ...
The pleasures of spring
By W. W. Matteson - May 06I've been waiting all winter for spring to return, like a dubious friend. The ice recedes and the days get longer but the misery continues. The ...
Leave the tip on the table
By W. W. Matteson - Apr 08In the spring of my senior year of high school I went on a school trip to Greece. One morning, in the city of Nafplion, my friend Matt and I had ...
Walking away from Mulberry Street
By W.W. Matteson - Mar 11Last week, the estate of the writer and illustrator known as Dr. Seuss announced that they would discontinue six of his books because they ...
Just stop with GameStop
By W.W. Matteson - Feb 11I have been disappointed with the news coverage of recent events surrounding GameStop and their share price. For those of you who were mercifully ...
How thick is thick enough?
By W.W. Matteson - Jan 14A Saturday cruise down Route 17 last weekend revealed a festive sight: dozens of winter recreators scattered across the frozen reaches of Sides ...
