Some Wednesday Readings

I really didn’t think politicians were giving substantive speeches of ideas anymore, the kind with thesis statements, the marshaling of evidence, and a compelling call to action. Whether you’re a supporter or not, that’s what Vice President J.D. Vance has been doing. He gave two speeches in Europe that are still ricocheting back and forth across the ocean – one at the AI conference in Paris and one at the security conference in Munich. Weeks later, people are still talking about them. Christian Hacking at The Critic Magazine says Vance was right about free speech in Britain; Madeleine Kearns at The Free Press interviews the grandma arrested by Scotland’s speech police. N.S. Lyons at The Upheaval says Vance’s real message to Europe was give up the information war. And he’s continuing to speak; at a recent National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., he said that “foreign misadventures” have sometimes led to the eradication of historic Christian communities. 

Mad Monks and Alchemists – Paul Kingsnorth at The Abbey of Misrule.

Murders for March – Jeremy Black at The Critic Magazine.

How Movie Theaters Got Their Start in America – Dave Roos at History.

Data and Social Media Effectiveness – Chris Martin at FYI.

Sewing Kit Save: Clement Evans – Phil Greenwalt at Emerging Civil War.

Civil War Era Themes in Mardi Gras Celebrations, 1880-1940 – Neil Chatelain at Emerging Civil War.

The American West – Writing Advice from John Steinbeck – William Groneman at Cowboy State Daily.

Photograph: John Steinbeck.

Some Monday Readings

Britain: This Machete’d Isle – Rod Dreher at Diary. 

On Bram Stoker’s Forgotten Dracula Play – Olivia Rutigliano at Crime Reads.

 

Boiling the British Frog – Sam Bidwell at The Critic Magazine.

 

The Lyrical Tradition in Classical Christian Education – Benjamin Myers at Credo Magazine.

 

Early Bookcases, Cupboards, & Carousels – Suzanne Ellison at Lost Art Press.

 

King’s English: The Making of a Writer – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review on Stephen King.

 

John Steinbeck’s Library: 10 Works that Captured an Artist – Carter Davis Johnson at Dwelling.

 

Ted Vanner, Model Steamboat Pioneer – Spitalfields Life.

 

Like Herding Cats – Terry Whalin at The Writing Life.

 

Solzhenitsyn on the West’s ‘Decline in Courage’ – Douglas Murray at The Free Press. 

 

Photograph: Bram Stoker, author of Dracula.

Forgotten Classics: “The Moon is Down” by John Steinbeck

One of my most vivid memories of middle school was carrying a paperback copy of The Red Pony by John Steinbeck. It was required reading in eighth grade, along with Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea and several others. Our reading teacher also assigned our class to read The Lord of the Flies by William Golding, but parents objected. We did what all good 13-year-old boys would do in such a situation: we read it on our own. 

Steinbeck’s novella was popular. The four connected stories were easy to read, and they were about a boy growing up on a ranch. The teacher encouraged us to read more of Steinbeck on our own, and a few of us did, tackling Tortilla Flat and The Grapes of Wrath (which was not as easy to read as The Red Pony).

 

Steinbeck (1902-1968) published a series of fictional works considered American classics, including Cannery Row, Of Mice and Men, and East of Eden. He’s best remembered for The Grapes of Wrath, which won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction and the National Book Award in 1940.

 

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.