The bad news: modern neuroscience is eroding the idea of free will, which is trouble for modern philosophy and liberalism as we know it. The good news: the ancients didn’t think about free will, and managed to come up with democracy anyway.
“John Betjeman, like suet pudding and the royal family, is one of those British phenomena whose charms have never really been appreciated on this side of the Atlantic.” (via Books Inq)
An excerpt from My Dear Krauts.
“News flash: There’s plenty of stuff Lee Siegel likes.”
The scariest poet in writing English isn’t Poe, says David Lehman.
Regan update 1, Regan update 2, Regan update 3, and the newest OJ lawsuit.
“It is because God cannot be entirely banished that one is forced to keep on complaining rather than merely finalize one’s elegies.” (via Conversational Reading)
The meaning of mistletoe: just in time for the holidays.
Miss Snark has inspired a follower.
“Publishing you see, as implicitly recognised in its reputation as a suitable profession for a gentleman, has never made any money.”
Snowbooks has an EM Forster story just for you.