Tag Archives: textual criticism

Book Review: A New Literary History Of America

A New Literary History Of America, edited by Reil Marcus and Werner Sollors Does this book need to exist? This is a weighty question to ask of a weighty book that is about 1050 pages long or so. There is no doubt … Continue reading

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Book Review: Ice Ages

Ice Ages: Thier Social And Natural History, by Allan Mazur This book is not nearly the sort of book that I thought it would be. My hope, in reading this slim volume, was that the author would be able to speak intelligently … Continue reading

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The Hanging Of Judas

[Note: The following is the prepared text to a sermonette given to the Portland congregation of the United Church of God on Sabbath, December 9, 2023.] One of the key biblical rules of biblical interpretation that comes from the Bible … Continue reading

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Book Review: The Dark Fantastic

The Dark Fantastic: Race And The Imagination From Harry Potter To The Hunger Games, by Ebony Elizabeth Thomas This book is at its best when the author lays down the identity ax that she has to grind about the place … Continue reading

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Below Are The Words Of Mine, Not God

One of the unfortunate but inevitable consequences of being a public intellectual, especially in the context of the Church of God, is that one is the occasional recipient of messages from cranks who conflate their own human reasoning with the … Continue reading

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It’s A Vibe: Part Two

When we previously discussed the limitations of viewing songs as vibes and not paying attention to their mention, the phenomenon was viewed largely as a contemporary one. This is not necessarily the case. Indeed, a great many songs which are … Continue reading

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It’s A Vibe: Part One

One of the notable aspects of contemporary music is that songs are either appreciated for being vibes or being bops. To define these terms briefly (for the sake of those who are not familiar with such language in contemporary musical … Continue reading

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Against Vulgarity, After Lionel Trilling

In his seminal essay on Mansfield Park, literary critic Lionel Trilling said the following: “It is beyond human ingenuity to define what we mean by vulgarity, but in Jane Austen’s novels vulgarity has these elements : smallness of mind, insufficiency … Continue reading

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Willoughby And Ferrars: Two Peas In A Pod

One of the more interesting aspects of the way that Jane Austen’s Sense & Sensibility has been portrayed is the different feelings and judgments people make towards two of its male characters. When Marianne falls passionately in love with Willoughby, … Continue reading

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On Reading Critical Literature

Today I received three books in the mail that all happened to be Norton Critical Editions of three of Jane Austen’s novels: Persuasion, Sense & Sensibility, and Mansfield Park. I already had, thanks to a couple of online courses at … Continue reading

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