A Korean Dyad
Fiction - “Saying that people need to know the objective truth about what goes on Up There, the objective truth about evil places fueled by imported wine and blank consciences.” 10/13/2020
Fiction - “Saying that people need to know the objective truth about what goes on Up There, the objective truth about evil places fueled by imported wine and blank consciences.” 10/13/2020Self-Determination and Philip K. Dick’s “Ubik”
Criticism - “The ultimate message it proffers—Ubik the substance, Ubik the book—is one of self-determination despite humanity’s manifest lack of control and certainty.” 10/9/2020
Criticism - “The ultimate message it proffers—Ubik the substance, Ubik the book—is one of self-determination despite humanity’s manifest lack of control and certainty.” 10/9/2020“Gone with the Wind” Isn’t Going Anywhere
Criticism - “What is a classic? What is an epic? These two questions loom over any reader of Gone with the Wind (and great literature, more generally).” 9/26/2020
Criticism - “What is a classic? What is an epic? These two questions loom over any reader of Gone with the Wind (and great literature, more generally).” 9/26/2020The Oedipus Complex of a Nation in Flux
Criticism - “Reading it specifically in the context of the current societal struggles and apparently widespread cultural conflicts occurring in the United States today, the myth imbues the reader with a redoubled vigilance.” 9/14/2020
Criticism - “Reading it specifically in the context of the current societal struggles and apparently widespread cultural conflicts occurring in the United States today, the myth imbues the reader with a redoubled vigilance.” 9/14/2020[Give the Man a Name]
Fiction - “On fences and poles were the signs and posters of the age. Men with hard eyes and stiff lips; men with mustaches and military hats; women in dresses, sleeves rolled, forearms flexed. The age the man knew not.” 8/18/2020
Fiction - “On fences and poles were the signs and posters of the age. Men with hard eyes and stiff lips; men with mustaches and military hats; women in dresses, sleeves rolled, forearms flexed. The age the man knew not.” 8/18/2020What “The Merchant of Venice” Has to Say about Justice
Criticism - “Just as it was in Shakespeare’s time, the questions of justice, mercy, and society remain as relevant as ever before, and we have much to learn from the great bard of Anglodom.” 7/19/2020
Criticism - “Just as it was in Shakespeare’s time, the questions of justice, mercy, and society remain as relevant as ever before, and we have much to learn from the great bard of Anglodom.” 7/19/2020Achilles, Priam, and the Redemptive Power of Forgiveness
Criticism - “For all the battle scenes, violent sex, and rage that fills the poem, the most memorable scenes in the poem are moments of love—especially loving moments of embrace.” 4/6/2020
Criticism - “For all the battle scenes, violent sex, and rage that fills the poem, the most memorable scenes in the poem are moments of love—especially loving moments of embrace.” 4/6/2020Maurizio Cattelan and When Art “Ridicules Art Itself”
Criticism - “This is an art which no longer presumes to speak to or for the general public. Such an art “assails all previous art” and even “ridicules art itself.” 2/14/2020
Criticism - “This is an art which no longer presumes to speak to or for the general public. Such an art “assails all previous art” and even “ridicules art itself.” 2/14/2020Can We Read Moby Dick?
Criticism - “But, as I found myself stumbling in my response to my sister, a more elemental question arose: Can we read Moby Dick?” 1/4/2020
Criticism - “But, as I found myself stumbling in my response to my sister, a more elemental question arose: Can we read Moby Dick?” 1/4/2020Aeschylus’ “Prometheus Bound”: Where Is Meaning to be Found?
Criticism - “Aeschylus’ tragedy represents the most elemental aspects of our human condition: all human flourishing comes with a cost.” 11/26/2019
Criticism - “Aeschylus’ tragedy represents the most elemental aspects of our human condition: all human flourishing comes with a cost.” 11/26/2019Aristophanes: The First Poet Critic
Criticism - In the words of German poet Henrich Heine: “There is a God, and his name is Aristophanes.” 9/4/2019
Criticism - In the words of German poet Henrich Heine: “There is a God, and his name is Aristophanes.” 9/4/2019Why Aeschylus Still Matters Today
Criticism - “But Aeschylus’ cosmos goes beyond Homer’s in presenting Reason, Persuasion, as an integral aspect of the cosmos that was otherwise absent in Homer.” 8/15/2019
Criticism - “But Aeschylus’ cosmos goes beyond Homer’s in presenting Reason, Persuasion, as an integral aspect of the cosmos that was otherwise absent in Homer.” 8/15/2019Poetry and Modernity
Criticism - “Any civilization or culture is itself a vast dynamic interpretation or, we could even say, a vast dynamic work of art.” 6/26/2019
Criticism - “Any civilization or culture is itself a vast dynamic interpretation or, we could even say, a vast dynamic work of art.” 6/26/2019