Thought control, part 1: I begin reading the novels of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I was working as a newspaper copy editor and wrote the headline “Soviet exposé published” when the first volume of the Gulag Archipelago was published. I read all three Gulag volumes and most of his writings since then. Solzhenitsyn and others have documented the immense suffering Russia experienced under Soviet rule. Reading his works has led me to be continually amazed at the ongoing drive for collectivization of thought in the United States. Roland Brown at The Critic Magazine says Solzhenitsyn and his intellectual heirs have a warning.
Thought control, part 2: Artist and exile Ai Weiwei is known for his strong stands for human rights and abuses by totalitarian regimes, like in his own home country of China. He was interviewed by Margaret Hoover of PBS recently about his new memoir, and he shocked her when he said the United States was slipping into a similar kind of control of its citizens, through the enforced collectivization of thought.
Fyodor Dostoevsky turned 200 on Nov. 11, and a number of articles have been published to recognize the writer and his contributions to literature. Kevin Birmingham at CrimeReads discusses what Dostoevsky learned about freedom and murder from his fellow convicts in Siberia, and then at Literary Hub he writes about Dostoevsky’s early literary ambitions.
More Good Reads
Life and Culture
An Unfillable Chair: Grieving the Loss of a Special Friendship Formed on My Balcony – Darcy Wiley.
Andrew Lytle and the Order of the Family – Mark Malvasi at The Imaginative Conservative.
Liberal Arts and a Free Republic – Ted McAllister at Real Clear Policy.
Faith
Running Out of Options – Terence Sweeney at Church Life Journal.
Church is Back, But Where Are the People? – Dan DeWitt at Theolatte.
Having Faith in Thrillers – Brian Andrews & Jeffrey Wilson at CrimeReads.
The Gobsmacking Wisdom of the Book of Judges – Chase Padusniak at Church Life Journal.
Poetry
Going underground: English poet Alexander Pope’s hidden grotto to be saved – Maev Kennedy at The Art Newspaper.
Reading Poetry Will Save the World – Auguste Meyrat at Crisis Magazine.
What Does It Mean to Find Your Poetic Voice? – Daniel Brown at Literary Hub.
The Geometry of Daisies – C.L. Fisher at Ekstasis Magazine.
British Stuff
Well-preserved Tudor Wall Paintings Discovered Beneath Plaster at Medieval Manor – David Kindy at Smithsonian Magazine.
Writing and Literature
How Herman Melville's 'Moby-Dick' anticipated modernist writing – Deutsche Welle.
Our Brains Are Wired for Story – Garry Rodgers at Kill Zone Blog.
Break My Heart Again – Finneas
Painting: Man Reading a Book by Lamplight, oil on canvas (1839), attributed to the British School.
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