Some poems sound like bells tolling at the turn of an age, and Thomas Hardy’s The Darkling Thrush is one of them. Written on the eve of the twentieth century, it stands like a weathered milestone between centuries — one hand resting on the grave of the Victorian world, the other reaching hesitantly toward the … Continue reading The Darkling Thrush
Category: Literature
When Things of the Spirit Come First
A Meditation on Simone de Beauvoir’s Early Gospel of Disobedience Some books are like sermons and others like confessions; Beauvoir’s When Things of the Spirit Come First manages to be both at once. It’s a book that bows at the altar of virtue only to blow out the candles as it kneels. Before she became … Continue reading When Things of the Spirit Come First
Between Hell and Reason
Sometimes the world goes so mad that only a sane man looks insane. Albert Camus was one of those men. While Europe tore itself to pieces, he stood, cigarette in hand, between hell and reason — and, miraculously, refused to join either. When I first read his wartime essays, I could almost smell the ink … Continue reading Between Hell and Reason
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus
Frankenstein bites, and it gnaws politely. It sinks its teeth into your conscience while pretending to nibble at your imagination — a genteel vampire in paper form. It’s a novel born of storms, both meteorological and moral: thunder crashing over Lake Geneva and lightning striking through the skull of Western hubris. Mary Shelley, barely out … Continue reading Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus
The Devils of Loudun: Possession in the Age of Reasonable Madness
There are two kinds of devilry in this world: the kind that froths and foams in the convent, and the kind that wears a signet ring and drafts policy. Huxley’s The Devils of Loudun is about both — a tale where hysteria kneels before power and calls it holy. I’ve long thought that if Lucifer … Continue reading The Devils of Loudun: Possession in the Age of Reasonable Madness
Wording 