Virgil’s War and Peace
Criticism - “Two millennia later, we are still warring over the meaning of Virgil’s Aeneid.” 4/26/2021
Criticism - “Two millennia later, we are still warring over the meaning of Virgil’s Aeneid.” 4/26/2021Poem: “Epicycle(s)”
Poetry - “Wilderness of whys./Labyrinth of I’s./Foreground, background./Busy, busy eyes.” 4/25/2021
Poetry - “Wilderness of whys./Labyrinth of I’s./Foreground, background./Busy, busy eyes.” 4/25/2021Odysseus: the First Western Man
Criticism - “Odysseus is the first recognizably Western man.” 4/16/2021
Criticism - “Odysseus is the first recognizably Western man.” 4/16/2021In Every Time and Every Place: the Political Nuance of “Legend of Galactic Heroes”
Criticism - “This is not a clear-cut struggle between good and evil, especially when enemies could come from within as well as without. Rather…it is a war between one good and another.” 4/4/2021
Criticism - “This is not a clear-cut struggle between good and evil, especially when enemies could come from within as well as without. Rather…it is a war between one good and another.” 4/4/2021Buried Treasure
Personal Essay - “Dad never searched for buried treasure again. He instead bought lottery tickets, entered contests online, and invested in a million dinar after Iraq fell…” 4/2/2021
Personal Essay - “Dad never searched for buried treasure again. He instead bought lottery tickets, entered contests online, and invested in a million dinar after Iraq fell…” 4/2/2021How “Ms .45” and Zoë Lund Paved Abel Ferrara’s Way
Criticism - “In the end, these are movies about redemption and what it means to be redeemed, whatever the struggle in getting there.” 3/31/2021
Criticism - “In the end, these are movies about redemption and what it means to be redeemed, whatever the struggle in getting there.” 3/31/2021When We’ve Stopped Reading
Personal Essay - “By sheer accident, one man in this stupefied future learns how to read.” 3/26/2021
Personal Essay - “By sheer accident, one man in this stupefied future learns how to read.” 3/26/2021Review: Michael Shnayerson’s “Bugsy Siegel”
Criticism - “It is a short and gripping panorama of life in 1920s-1940s America, that defining epoch of struggle and stardom, hardship and grandeur, fortune and bankruptcy—and Bugsy Siegel experienced it all.” 3/25/2021
Criticism - “It is a short and gripping panorama of life in 1920s-1940s America, that defining epoch of struggle and stardom, hardship and grandeur, fortune and bankruptcy—and Bugsy Siegel experienced it all.” 3/25/2021Poem: “Third Wave”
Poetry - “The statistics were/like our scores—and we wanted/to lead the boards…” 3/21/2021
Poetry - “The statistics were/like our scores—and we wanted/to lead the boards…” 3/21/2021Dawn in Pennsylvania
Fiction - “How to describe it all? My dad and his sweaty armpits and the black garbage bags with the slice of old-time America buried inside. This sadness I’ve become filled with, which doesn’t feel like the kind of sadness the artist intended, but the opposite…his sadness looks like happiness to me.” 3/9/2021
Fiction - “How to describe it all? My dad and his sweaty armpits and the black garbage bags with the slice of old-time America buried inside. This sadness I’ve become filled with, which doesn’t feel like the kind of sadness the artist intended, but the opposite…his sadness looks like happiness to me.” 3/9/2021Why James Bond Is a Positive Role Model for Young Americans
Reflection - “In the meantime, fans have discussed and debated the merits of Bond himself. Is the character a good person? Is he a positive role model for today’s youth?” 3/5/2021
Reflection - “In the meantime, fans have discussed and debated the merits of Bond himself. Is the character a good person? Is he a positive role model for today’s youth?” 3/5/2021Review: Jan Swafford’s “Mozart: The Reign of Love”
Criticism - “The problem is that this story of Mozart that we think we know is not true at all; thankfully, Jan Swafford is here to correct the problem.” 3/3/2021
Criticism - “The problem is that this story of Mozart that we think we know is not true at all; thankfully, Jan Swafford is here to correct the problem.” 3/3/2021Review: “The Klondike Bake-Oven Deaths”
Criticism - “In a novel to be released later this month, Hornblum—perhaps best known for his 1998 non-fiction book Acres of Skin, which centers on different events at Holmesburg Prison—retells the calamitous events of August, 1938.” 2/24/2021
Criticism - “In a novel to be released later this month, Hornblum—perhaps best known for his 1998 non-fiction book Acres of Skin, which centers on different events at Holmesburg Prison—retells the calamitous events of August, 1938.” 2/24/2021What Ortega y Gasset and Orwell Both Foresaw
Criticism - “Both Ortega and Orwell concluded that the Left was in trouble as a result of these developments, and their analyses and diagnoses pointed the way forward to the situation we have today in the West.” 2/23/2021
Criticism - “Both Ortega and Orwell concluded that the Left was in trouble as a result of these developments, and their analyses and diagnoses pointed the way forward to the situation we have today in the West.” 2/23/2021The Moral Philosophy of Plutarch
Criticism - “While not all of his essays are explicitly moral in orientation, nearly all of Plutarch’s essays have moral instruction and guidance baked into them.” 2/18/2021
Criticism - “While not all of his essays are explicitly moral in orientation, nearly all of Plutarch’s essays have moral instruction and guidance baked into them.” 2/18/2021What Latvia Understands That America Doesn’t
Personal Essay - “Having lived in Latvia for over a year…there is a selection of good things, ideas or their manifestations, which seem to pervade Latvia and/or which the United States either lacks or has forgotten.” 2/13/2021
Personal Essay - “Having lived in Latvia for over a year…there is a selection of good things, ideas or their manifestations, which seem to pervade Latvia and/or which the United States either lacks or has forgotten.” 2/13/2021