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Showing Up: The Quiet Strength That Shapes Who We Become
- Culture, Featured, Uncategorized, Western Civilization
- April 18, 2025
Is The Lord of the Rings an allegory? It’s a question that continues to divide lovers of Tolkien’s magnum opus. Yes, say some. No, say others. In the face of such an impasse it might be helpful to ask Tolkien himself. Surely he must know. Surely, as the author, he has more authority to answer
READ MORESome writers rejoice in paradox. One thinks perhaps of Oscar Wilde or G. K. Chesterton. And one thinks especially perhaps of Shakespeare. King Lear is almost defined by the paradox of foolish wisdom, and it is Hamlet who says that he must be cruel to be kind. Another person who rejoices in paradox is Jesus.
READ MOREKnow thou this: that men Are as the time is. -Edmund (King Lear, Act V, Scene 3) One of the most rudimentary errors that one can make in reading a literary text is to see the words of a character as being synonymous with those of the author. Take, for example, these lines from
READ MOREIn all normal civilisations the trader existed and must exist. But in all normal civilisations the trader was the exception; certainly he was never the rule; and most certainly he was never the ruler. The predominance which he has gained in the modern world is the cause of all the disasters of the modern world.
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