What We’re Reading
Miguel Cervantes, Don Quixote. The first novel, so-called, Don Quixote is a ironic satire on chivalric romance which calls into question the reality of the songs sung…
Year in Review
2024 marked yet another year of growth for VOEGELINVIEW, surpassing in views and readership the levels reached in 2023, which was the best year in site views…
T.S. Eliot on “Tradition and Individual Talent”
Published in 1920 in a literary magazine called The Egoist, “Tradition and the Individual Talent” is one of T. S. Eliot's seminal essays. Eliot was recognized as…
Animal Spirits and Birth Rates
No philosopher thought more deeply about population decline than Montesquieu, the French thinker from the early to mid 1700s. Montesquieu is known mostly for his Spirit of…
A Christmas Carol Reflection
May Christmas be a time of good cheer for you, your family, your loved ones. During this ingathering of family and friends, stories are usually shared about…
Mozart and the Meaning of Christmas
Mozart is one of the greatest composers and musical geniuses who ever lived. This is not controversial. What is, however, is Mozart’s Catholicism. Not that Mozart wasn’t…
Michael Torke’s Violin Concerto
European composers are famous for turning folk music into concert-hall music. Dvorak, for instance, based his ninth symphony and Slavonic Dance cycle on Czech folk songs. Tchaikovsky’s…
St. Brendan the Voyager
Brendan riding the back of a whale, Over the Atlantic sea set sail, Voyaged to the British Isles, Over many long miles, Our Lord Jesus Christ to…
Home and Hearth: A Cautionary Christmas with Washington Irving
In the 1820s, Washington Irving was credited with inspiring the romantic revival of Christmas in America. His Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, Gentleman relayed sentimental tales of the British holiday…
Little Things
You said to me once, “All little things are Happy.” Could we have been looking toward The paddocks and the animals you kept? Or were we watching…
Reading as an Antidote to Technology
Concerning technology, we wonder with some impotence how to uphold human dignity and spirit amid the proliferation of AI and the increasingly intimate connection between people and…
The Labors of W.H. Auden
As a poet, I often spend time deeply reading the work of bygone wordsmiths. Any good apprentice knows that study and imitation of a master is key…