Review: Louis Menand’s “The Free World”
Criticism - “In many ways, the book also reads as a eulogy to a liberal, liberalizing, and internationalist America.” 6/14/2021
Criticism - “In many ways, the book also reads as a eulogy to a liberal, liberalizing, and internationalist America.” 6/14/2021The Two-faces of Classical Music: Criticism Good, Bad, and Ugly
Criticism - “Why, after all, should it be ‘pro-test,’ and not ‘de-test’? Protest once meant to give testimony in pro of something good, over and against something corrupt.” 6/12/2021
Criticism - “Why, after all, should it be ‘pro-test,’ and not ‘de-test’? Protest once meant to give testimony in pro of something good, over and against something corrupt.” 6/12/2021Sir Roger Scruton’s Wagner
Criticism - “Scruton loved Wagner. The two were a match made in heaven, or hell, depending on your perspective and appreciation of irony.” 5/25/2021
Criticism - “Scruton loved Wagner. The two were a match made in heaven, or hell, depending on your perspective and appreciation of irony.” 5/25/2021
What “Star Wars” Taught Me about War, Liberty, and Human Nature
Personal Essay - “For a young immigrant boy who knew nothing about politics or history, Star Wars had a universal appeal that transcended language, nationality, time, and other superficial social barriers.” 5/1/2021
Personal Essay - “For a young immigrant boy who knew nothing about politics or history, Star Wars had a universal appeal that transcended language, nationality, time, and other superficial social barriers.” 5/1/2021Open Carry in the Time of the Pandemic
Personal Essay - “Channeling Uncle Bill, who died over a decade ago, I invite his ghost to weigh in. But rather than answering, he walks me downstairs in his old Brooklyn house, where we stand together in his paneled den—the perfect skin we’d heard about, now on the floor.” 4/30/2021
Personal Essay - “Channeling Uncle Bill, who died over a decade ago, I invite his ghost to weigh in. But rather than answering, he walks me downstairs in his old Brooklyn house, where we stand together in his paneled den—the perfect skin we’d heard about, now on the floor.” 4/30/2021Virgil’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.” 3/9/2021