Literature

Letting Shakespeare Be 1
- Literature
- November 11, 2024
In a recent piece for the New York Times, Drew Lichtenberg, the artistic producer at the Shakespeare Theater Company in Washington, laments the closing of the California Shakespeare Theater and the widespread decline in productions of Shakespeare across the country. The reasons, he suggests, have to do with many things, including the expense of mounting a
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The Therapeutic Power of Stories 2
- Featured, Health, Literature
- November 8, 2024
Stories hold a powerful sway over the human spirit. They reach us on the deepest levels, moving, inspiring, instructing, and even healing us, as modern therapeutic practice has shown. Stories and poems consolidate and interpret random occurrences and emotional and sensory activity—the raw inputs of experience—into a meaningful whole. This allows us to understand reality
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‘Cultural Appropriation’ in Writing: Why Authors Aren’t Restricted to Experience 1
- Culture, Education, Featured, Literature
- November 7, 2024
Going to class rarely makes me feel tense, but this time—sitting in an upper-level writing ethics course—I was scared to speak up. My class was discussing cultural appropriation: whether it was right for majority-race authors to take on minority-race perspectives in their work. My classmates were almost universally against the idea, saying that a person
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Frankenstein and the Responsibility of Fathers 4
- Culture, Family, Featured, Literature
- October 31, 2024
On this All Hallows’ Eve, it’s a good time to reflect on classic works of gothic fiction, such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and the relevant warnings they often contain. In addition to providing us with some delightful shivers, Frankenstein also has some serious philosophical points to make that we would do well to consider. As
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Some Thoughts on Halloween and Ray Bradbury 0
- Culture, Featured, Literature
- October 31, 2024
In 2015, blogger Amanda Russo posted a humorous piece “Why Halloween Is Actually A Pretty Weird Holiday.” As Russo says, on Halloween we encourage our kids to take candy from strangers. We threaten our neighbors with “Trick or Treat.” We spend a chunk of change buying and giving away sugary treats, often to people we
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What is Modern Malaise? Exploring Binx’s Search in ‘The Moviegoer’1
- Culture, Featured, Literature
- October 25, 2024
In Walker Percy’s National Book Award–winning novel The Moviegoer, the protagonist, a restless and dislocated stock broker, Binx Bolling, sets out on a search. It’s the eve of his 30th birthday, and his trips to the movies and flings with his various secretaries have failed to satisfy him. Adrift in a world where tradition is
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