Equipoise
by Rachel HadasEarly light slants low across the lawn.Cuplike, this little valley brims with sun.Pages fill and empty. In the mistof a still morning, nothing’s out of . . . . Continue Reading »
While We’re At It - Pt. XIX
by David Mills“Imagine Living in a Socialist USA” demands the cover of the latest issue of the Indypendent, a lefty paper published in Brooklyn, and besides the articles on that subject and transgender rock bands is one on the paper’s “all-time NFL non-conformist . . . . Continue Reading »
Nabokov’s Supernatural Secret
by David Bentley HartIn 2009, the remains of Vladimir Nabokov’s unfinished last novel, The Original of Laura, were published, more than three decades after the dying author had asked his son Dmitri to destroy them. In 2012, Nabokov’s first large literary work, a play entitled The Tragedy of Mister Morn, appeared in . . . . Continue Reading »
Incurious Dawkins
by Leah Libresco SargeantRichard Dawkins’ An Appetite for Wonder: The Making of a Scientist invites comparisons with C. S. Lewis’ Surprised by Joy. Both are memoirs by thinkers who seemed a little surprised to end up as apologists, much less as writers whom growing numbers would credit with their conversion or . . . . Continue Reading »
Against Heterosexuality
by Michael W. HannonAlasdair MacIntyre once quipped that “facts, like telescopes and wigs for gentlemen, were a seventeenth-century invention.” Something similar can be said about sexual orientation: Heterosexuals, like typewriters and urinals (also, obviously, for gentlemen), were an invention of the 1860s. . . . . Continue Reading »
A Double Life
by Ted GioiaJudging by the tracks programmed by my local classical music radio station, no composer of merit existed before the Baroque period. DJs with soothing voices regularly serve up Vivaldi, Handel, Scarlatti, and Bach, especially during rush hour. Vivaldi’s Four Seasons ought to be renamed the Four . . . . Continue Reading »
Saving Jesus
by Paul Lake“BrickHouse Security saves Jesus for 8th year in a row, offers free GPS tracking of nativity scenes and holiday displays.” Somehow escaping The sharp eye Of angels, shepherds, And magi, Thieves snatch the infant From the crèche To spirit God off In the flesh. Clearly, it’s . . . . Continue Reading »
How an Ancient Greek Awakened an Undergrad from Dogmatic Slumbers
by Robert P. GeorgeRecently Cornel West and I visited Swarthmore College, where I received my undergraduate education, for a day of conversations on the theme “The Bond of Truth-Seeking.” Following our visit, I was interviewed by Victor Gomes, a student at the college, for the campus newspaper The . . . . Continue Reading »
NPR’s Disturbing Prenatal Testing Story
by J. D. FlynnYesterday NPR’s Morning Edition reported on advances in the development of precise prenatal tests for Down syndrome and other genetic disorders. The report praised new tests that allow women to know more accurately and more quickly whether their children have a genetic disorder. Prenatal . . . . Continue Reading »
Narrative Collapse?
by Peter J. LeithartNarrativity is collapsing, Douglas Rushkoff excitedly reports in his 2012 book Present Shock. We no longer tell traditional stories because we no longer live within ancient Aristotelian narratives with their beginnings, middles, and ends. Technology killed narrative, leaving us in an eternal . . . . Continue Reading »
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