Dumpster Diving for Cicero
Five years ago, an institution of learning in my neighborhood began to throw out perfectly fine books. Works from Shakespeare to Tolkien to Wyndham were tossed from…
Conservatives, Progressives, and Cancellers in The Time of Babel
I read an essay on Voegelinview questioning whether “conservatives” have the capacity to be “progressive.” [1] The essay made me wonder about the words we use in…
A Review of Richard Wright’s Black Boy
There are a number of reasons to read Richard Wright’s Black Boy.[1] One is that it is a fascinating, well written autobiography of an American life. Another…
The Catcher in the Rye and the Problem of Alienation
Political Philosopher Eric Voegelin refers occasionally to the ancient Egyptian poem, “Dispute of a Man Who Contemplates Suicide With His Soul.” The “Dispute” is about a “man…
A Journal of the Plague Year
A Journal of the Plague Year. Daniel Defoe. New York: Penguin Classics, 2003. In light of the COVID 19 virus now spreading around the world, it…
Up In the Air
Many of us live in isolation from one another. We commute alone in our own cars, we entertain ourselves with television and computer screens, and shop for…
True Grit (2010)
A bible verse from Proverbs 28:1 sets the stage for this movie, “The wicked man flees although no one pursues him . . .” The tale of…
The Revenant
From our moral failings to the vulnerability of the body, humankind’s fallen condition is brought out in brutal clarity in The Revenant. The horror of our mortal…