20 11, 2020

Ragnarök in the Norse Myths and the Power of Dystopic Fatalism

By |2021-05-14T18:33:31+00:00November 20th, 2020|Arts & Letters|0 Comments

The Norse myths are singular among mythic narratives for a fascinating reason: the gods lose. They do not just lose a treasure, nor just a battle. They lose everything. Fatalism, the idea that the future has already happened in the sense that it is fixed, feels primitive to the modern mind. Dystopic Fatalism, the belief everything we have known and have experienced will one day be annihilated in a disaster of apocalyptic proportions, seems even more distasteful. And yet, it may be the only thing left with any hope of saving us from ourselves.

31 10, 2020

Recognition by the Father: Montreal’s Favorite Son Leonard Cohen and an Ancient Story of Homecoming

By |2021-05-14T18:32:01+00:00October 31st, 2020|Arts & Letters, Theory|0 Comments

The themes of homecoming and the father-son relationship have received a lot of literary attention recently. Marilynne Robinson just published Jack, the fourth novel in her Gilead series, about the Ames and Boughton families’ complicated stories of homecoming, fatherhood, and sonhood in an American small town beset by racial and religious tension. The tensions between fathers and sons, and the son’s struggle with finding his way back home are timeless and cross-cultural, and trigger some of the deepest issues we have with identity and belonging. Look to any cultural literary tradition, whether of the West, the East, or the Middle East, and you will find tales of fathers, and those sons who attempt to find their way back into their recognition. Songs by the Canadian musician Leonard Cohen, who died four years ago at the age of 82, suggest that he grappled with the father-son relationship, and with the emotional desire for home and homecoming. Cohen might not at first seem to have much in common with an ancient Greek figure, but a comparison yields rich and provocative similarities between Cohen and Odysseus, the hero of Homer’s poem of homecoming, the Odyssey. Odysseus, a fictional warrior with talents, like Cohen, as a language-artist, is better-known for his homecoming as a husband, but he ultimately returns to his broken father as the honored and beloved son. Homer’s and Cohen’s poetry have some surprising parallels on this theme. The fictional character of Homer’s ancient epic and the real-life contemporary poet and musician speak to each other across time and space.

31 10, 2020

A Visit From The Donald

By |2020-11-20T18:17:17+00:00October 31st, 2020|Arts & Letters, News|0 Comments

‘Twas Election Day eve and all through the states, / Strange forces were brewing, motivated by hate; / Guards ordered to precincts in order to scare / The minority voters that might show up there. / The children, who were lying dead tired in bed, / Dreamt of zoom calls and masks and had feelings of dread. / My wife in her shirt, and I in my shorts, / Were viewing the news channel’s latest report, / When over the sound waves there came a long beep… / The news was the latest on a new POTUS tweet.

18 07, 2019

A Search for Meaning: The Hemingway Hero & Fifty-Grand

By |2019-08-08T14:39:49+00:00July 18th, 2019|Arts & Letters|4 Comments

Pinker points to both the origin and function of a code of conduct that became the Western view of masculinity. ... the biological realities of the male species could be best and most productively served through the attainment and development of specific virtues. 

7 03, 2019

The Tradition in Traditional Masculinity

By |2019-04-04T16:52:40+00:00March 7th, 2019|Arts & Letters, Theory|0 Comments

Pinker points to both the origin and function of a code of conduct that became the Western view of masculinity. ... the biological realities of the male species could be best and most productively served through the attainment and development of specific virtues. 

25 01, 2019

Stoicism & the Destruction of Man

By |2019-03-27T17:50:20+00:00January 25th, 2019|Arts & Letters, Theory|2 Comments

Recently, the American Psychological Association (APA) took aim at “traditional masculinity” by, amongst other things, criticizing “stoicism” as one of its problematic characteristics (APA Guidelines 11). But the essence of stoicism, and our understanding of it, stems from a philosophy that is meant to allow the individual to reach their full potential as a human.

21 12, 2017

The Grand Trumpeter

By |2019-03-29T20:24:22+00:00December 21st, 2017|Arts & Letters, Practice|1 Comment

He came to the United States of America at a time quite different than that of the Catholic Crisis which Dostoevsky had observed in Spain. The prevailing perversion of many Americans was, making use of their democracy as a godly tool, purporting to protect their way of life they viewed as threatened by forces both from without and within by demonizing and pre-judging those forces. The forces being Bad Hombres who immigrate illegally to the country bringing with them crime and drug addiction (not to mention infidels from Muslim nations that want to kill all Americans), and loose laws by tolerant administrations that allowed for morally degenerate groups like homosexuals, transsexuals, and others to claim better or near equal footing in business and government relations.

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