The Relevance of Tolkien’s Unfinished Work “The New Shadow” Criticism - “However, in his uncompleted sequel to The Lord of the Rings, The New Shadow, as well as The Silmarillion, Tolkien presented a different vision of human nature, one that is more realistic and more concomitant with his Catholic upbringing.” Sukhayl Niyazov 1/20/2022
The Real Heroism of Odysseus Criticism - “Odysseus has before him the fantastical dream of every man: immortality and sex. He ultimately gives that up for mortality with his family.” Paul Krause 12/10/2021
Warding off Scurvy Poetry - “Because there’s little more to friendship than warding off scurvy or having a catch.” Erich J. Prince 11/14/2021
Is Ovid Still Worth Reading? Criticism - “Such politicized readings of the last 50 years miss the profundity of Ovid’s inclusion of the story in his grander poetic agenda of love being the constant star in the midst of a world of violence and transformation.” Paul Krause 11/11/2021
America “Un-tied” Personal Essay - “But the one fight that never resolved was the one between my Bessarabian grandfather and my American Uncle Izzie, who drove a truck and married into the family long before I was born. And it happened during the late 1970s, during the Carter administration.” Robin Greene 11/6/2021
But Thinking Makes It So Poetry - “Thinking leads to Hell. The way is wide…” Jeffrey Burghauser 10/30/2021
Toward a Politics of Reconciliation: John Sayles’s “Lone Star,” after 25 Years Criticism - “Sayles’s 1996 film, Lone Star, is arguably his greatest work to date. And after 25 years, given the tensions that continue to circle around issues of race and immigration, it certainly has not lost any of its original force and relevance.” Jonathan Salem-Wiseman 10/6/2021
On the Eve of His Comeback, James Bond Resonates for a Reason Criticism - “Young Americans, myself included, need to resist the impulses of the day and keep striving. We may never be Bond types, but the quest for self-improvement is the point. To strive is to live.” Luka Ladan 9/30/2021
Flyover Blues: The Enduring Relevance of F. Scott Fitzgerald  Criticism - “One hundred years after Fitzgerald’s great novels, we are living in the same world as Nick Carraway, Amory Blaine, and Jay Gatsby.” Paul Krause 9/21/2021
she asked me to get her a green card Personal Essay - “Although I would have liked to have taken a photograph, my camera was full, and they’d already walked away towards a shop with a sign advertising Calzones.” Erich J. Prince 9/10/2021
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.” Paul Krause 6/14/2021
The 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.” Justin Hall 6/12/2021
Sir 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.” Paul Krause 5/25/2021
Amor Fati Poetry - “Which is worse—/A hard death/Or a hard birth—” Benjamin L. Pérez 5/20/2021
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.” Aaron Tao 5/1/2021
Open 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.” Robin Greene 4/30/2021