An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser is 100 years old this year. D.J. Taylor at The Spectator observes the anniversary, noting that the novel is as much a historical artifact as it is a work of fiction.
It’s a long article, but the story it tells is so riveting that you forget how long it is. And it explains something I’ve wondered about for years: what causes bright, intelligent, educated people, many in their 50s and 60s, become as hysterical as 13-year-old teeny boppers on Tik Tok? And how did this craziness get so wild so fast? For Tablet Magazine, David Samuels tells the story. As it turns out, it was crazy, but it wasn’t fast; in fact, it was a deliberate strategy. Read “Rapid Onset Political Enlightenment.”
Years ago, I wrote a post for The High Calling about the power of second chances. It’s the story of how I became a Christian in college. The High Calling disbanded in 2015, and its archive was transferred to the Theology of Work Project. This past week, I received an email on the power of second chances, and the teaser sounded familiar, and, yes, sure enough, there’s my article all over again. It’s minus my byline, but it’s what I wrote for The High Calling.
More Good Reads
Life and Culture
Surviving Disney, Squatty Potty, and Building “The Chosen” – Mike Rowe interviews the Harmon Brothers.
What Happened to Silicon Valley’s Most Infamous Thought Criminal? – Johanna Berkman at The Free Press.
News Media
Why is the NYT Admitting the Covid Lab-Leak Theory Now? – William Briggs at Science Is Not the Answer.
News Media
An Obit for Journalism – Andrey Mir at City Journal.
American Stuff
The Angst of the Well-Endowed – Matt Taibbi at Racket News.
Dusty Bookshelf: Judah P. Benjamin, the Jewish Confederate – Max Longley at Emerging Civil War.
Timeline: The Road to Taking Down the Department of Education – Greg Collard and James Rushmore at Racket News.
Writing and Literature
Sherlock Holmes vs. the French – Olivia Rutigliano at CrimeReads.
Evelyn Waugh’s Decadent Redemption – Henry Oliver at Liberties.
It Is Not Good to Read (Only) Alone – Nadya Williams at Front Porch Republic.
The Joke’s on Woke: Shakespeare & the Pride Problem – Joseph Pearce at The Imaginative Conservative.
Faith
Reaching the West with Wonder – James Wood at Mere Orthodoxy.
Art
The ten most expensive Vincent Van Gogh paintings – Martin Bailey at The Art Newspaper.
British Stuff
Cruikshank’s London Almanack 1835 – Spitalfields Life.
Poetry
Loaves and Fishes – David Whyte.
“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” poem by Robert Frost – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.
For the Fallen, Poem by Laurence Binyon – Performed by Laurence Fox.
Painting: The Reader, oil on canvas (1911) by Lovis Corinth (1858-1925).
No comments:
Post a Comment