The Unpardonable President
By: Dennis Rohatyn Can a President pardon himself? No way. Then why is there even an issue? What’s all the
An Incautious Defense of Optimism
By: Dan Corjescu (Optimistically dedicated to Steven Pinker) In a world suffering from a global pandemic, it would be both
The Hidden Success of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon
For the first time in international law, a credible investigation into a terrorist assassination has been followed by a credible trial proceeding. With its judgment, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon’s (STL) became first ever international proceeding to prosecute a terrorist crime (the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February 2005). Although largely overlooked in the wake of the deadly Beirut port explosion, food shortages, anti-government protests, and pandemic, this is a milestone in Lebanese and judicial history.
Systems of Culture: Redefining the Current Debate
By Glen Paul Hammond “The very idea that cultural practices belong to racial groups misunderstands both race and culture.” —Richard
Ragnarök in the Norse Myths and the Power of Dystopic Fatalism
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.
Recognition by the Father: Montreal’s Favorite Son Leonard Cohen and an Ancient Story of Homecoming
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.
Silence as Speech: Reading Sor Juana’s Primero Sueño in the Light of her Final Silence
Sor Juana’s silence is difficult to “read,” but it is easy to hear. What can it show us about the way the absence of speech can itself be a mode of participation in public discourse?
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