November 23, 2016
The (un)rest is history
In the weeks leading up to the election and following the election, I fell silent here on The Kenyon Review blog, and in my life as well, to some extent. In the […]
November 18, 2016
When It’s Not Our World Anymore What Will We Hear: On Empathy
We wait for their approach. We are the silence that multiplies itself in the night. We are the dark with our eyes closed. We are the hard knots pressed against […]
November 11, 2016
“We need to know how to go about reaching the next days of our lives”
Maggie Smith’s “Good Bones” is going around again. W.H. Auden’s “September 1, 1939” is circling through social media, as it did after September 11. Why do we turn to poems […]
November 10, 2016
On the Election, Backlash, and Gloria Steinem
The morning after the election, Gloria Steinem said on NPR that it was a vote against the future, but the future is going to happen anyway. She sums up well […]
November 7, 2016
Trump and Jackboots (Also: Please Vote)
As I write this post, on a Sunday afternoon, a bit of news breaks: the FBI has finished its latest review of Clinton’s emails and recommends no new action. So […]
November 2, 2016
Trump, Meerkats, and Rhyme
With the possible collapse of our democracy within sight, it seems crazy to spend time writing about rhyme. (Really, I should be on a bus to Ohio or Florida.) But […]
November 1, 2016
Utopia 500 Years Later
Now that 500 years have passed since the first publication of Thomas More’s Utopia, and we find ourselves in a season of promises to remake our world again, what might […]
October 31, 2016
The Demon, Interrupted: On The Neon Demon
The Neon Demon isn’t the worst film ever made, but it is terrible because one can see promise squandered. By promise, however, I don’t mean the director, the super-slick Nicolas […]
October 25, 2016
The Mad Realtor’s Song
This is my two hundredth post for this blog, and I had planned to mark that milestone by writing about John Berryman. It’s his birthday today—a birthday we should celebrate. […]
October 24, 2016
“Ultimate Male Nightmares”: on Boxing Helena and Election 2016 (Part 2)
“All of the women on The Apprentice flirted with me—consciously or unconsciously. That’s to be expected.” —Donald Trump I refused to watch the debates this year; unfortunately, given […]
October 21, 2016
Into Trump’s Woods
Once upon a time, I lived alone with my father in a cottage at the edge of the wood. My father forbade me from entering the forest for fear I’d […]
October 20, 2016
Your Hateful Little Trump
The most effective way to speak out against Donald Trump (and what he represents) may be to not speak at all. The candidate’s own words make the best case against […]