Micah Mattix

Dana Gioia is one of those poets known more for his criticism and service than his own poetry. His essay “Can Poetry Matter?,” published in the Atlantic in 1991, turned more than a few heads for arguing that poetry had wrongly become a coterie art, written for and read by . . . . Continue Reading »

Paul Miller is  taking a year off from the Internet —no browsing, no email, no Facebook, no Twitter. I don’t know about you, but the idea of completely disconnecting is tempting. I sometimes wonder how much stuff I would get done if I weren’t distracted by email and Twitter. . . . . Continue Reading »

As Mark points out , Gary Alan Fine finds the erasure of Paterno’s sporting accomplishments Orwellian, but such a practice is not just the stuff of dystopian fiction. At Reflection and Choice , Steven L. Jones writes: Question:  What do Joe Paterno and the Roman Emperor Nero have in . . . . Continue Reading »

In  The Chronicle of Higher Education , Notre Dame sociologist Christian Smith  defends Mark Regnerus’s research on gay couples and child-rearing  against what Smith calls a progressive “witch hunt”: Whoever said inquisitions and witch hunts were things of the past? . . . . Continue Reading »

Johann Hari wonders if  professional criticism is coming to an end , pushed out by armchair critics empowered by social media. If so, he suggests, we would lose a great deal. Critics do two things according to Hari. They provide “consumer advice,” and they help audiences grasp the . . . . Continue Reading »

It turns out that the more scientifically knowledgeable one is,  the more likely one is to doubt the risks of climate change . To find out what some scientists find of little concern, read William Happer’s  “The Truth about Greenhouse Gases”  in last year’s . . . . Continue Reading »

Alexandra Peers  has a wonderful review  of Michael Findlay’s new book,  The Value of Art , in the  Wall Street Journal : A decade into the 21st century, no clear movement or style has emerged to mark contemporary art. No Impressionism, Modernism, Minimalism—no single . . . . Continue Reading »

What has happened to literary journalism that  something like this  gets published in a national paper? John Donne’s Holy Sonnet 14—a poem on Christ’s violent attack on the self’s evil heart that brings about salvation—tells us, Roz Kaveney writes, . . . . Continue Reading »

Over at  Books & Culture ,  Halee Scott reviews Craig G. Bartholomew’s  Where Mortals Dwell —a book on the importance of place in Christian theology. I won’t rehash all of her points, but this struck me: Bartholomew notes that place has a formative influence on . . . . Continue Reading »

At  Public Discourse , Mark Bauerlein argues that  liberalism’s relativistic individualism has ruined the novel : Apart from the truth or politics of that statement, its consequences for the novel are certain. A good plot needs conflict, an unsettled situation whose outcome we care . . . . Continue Reading »