“What makes the sketch’s autonomy fantastical is the reciprocal sense in which formalizing and circulating itself as the process of its production reconstitutes its process as a commodity—indeed, as the commodification of the resistance to the commodity’s reification.”

Daniel Fulton Cheung on the “autonomy imperative”

“HBO’s Watchmen ruthlessly unmasks the fantasy that whistleblowers alone will end police corruption.”

J. Laurence Cohen explores genealogies of vigilante justice, from American history to HBO’s Watchmen

“What’s the difference between a masked cop and a vigilante?”

J. Laurence Cohen explores genealogies of vigilante justice, from American history to HBO’s Watchmen

“The opposite of the self-defining subject of the postmodern era is one whose existence is conditioned entirely by realities outside the self. ”

M. G. Scott on the existential comforts of Greek tragedy.

Elie pushes us to reconsider and expand our idea of what counts as religious and/or sacred art, but we should be careful not to collapse the transcendent sphere into the natural world.

Aaron James Weisel reviews Paul Elie’s latest book.

Here in the middle of these muted colors and fantastical plot is an observation straight out of Hannah Arendt.

Elizabeth Stice on philosophy in Wes Anderson

Reddy’s journey through the afterlife implicitly takes on a deeper question: what makes our modern life—and, by extension, our modern afterlife—different from Dante’s?

Flaubert’s classic speaks not only to the social conditions of 19th century France, but also to the consumerist and media-stimulated dissatisfaction we face in the 21st century.

Elizabeth Stice on Flaubert’s enduring warnings

Newman’s model of liberal arts study provides an ideal roadmap for how to create a program that would encourage focused, meaningful interdisciplinary learning.

Gina Elia on the application of Newman’s ideals

To showcase the ongoing relevance of a liberal arts education to students, programs should emphasize the roles of generalists, as opposed to specialists, in a society’s infrastructure.

Gina Elia on the ongoing urgency of John Henry Newman

The popularity of Hacks speaks to our moment, in which adult child estrangement is fairly common.

Elizabeth Stice on modern intergenerational humor

[A]n enlarged sense of self in the universe is in demand.

Elizabeth Stice on eating habits in The Broom of the System

"Yet the human person, standing at the crux of reality, calls the artist to the limit of his creative powers."

Daniel Fitzpatrick on "seeing" as a theological enterprise

Concerns that video game players confuse the game world and the real world, manifesting virtual into real violence, contain echoes of Cervantes’ Don Quixote.

Jacob Martin on video games as time travel

“Our times have fallen out of tune with simplicity.”

Michael Golec on typographical modernity

Murder is a real conundrum for modern humans. Officially, we are against it.

Elizabeth Stice on the violence at the heart of modern life

“I was right not to be afraid of any thief but myself, who will end by leaving me nothing.”

Ayman Hareez Muhammad Adib on the modern subject’s self-theft

On his journey home, Merrill adapts to the conventions of the upper-class in hopes of carving his own place within it.

Ayman Hareez Muhammad Adib on an eight-mile journey through backyard swimming pools

On Virginia Woolf’s thirty-third birthday, she and Leonard Woolf made three significant decisions over tea: they would purchase a house in Richmond, acquire a bulldog named John, and buy a printing press.

Reanna Brooks on The Hogarth Press

For all its parallels to Christ’s passion, The Old Man and the Sea is no allegory but something deeper, a tale which reveals how suffering may be spun into wisdom.

Daniel Fitzpatrick on Paschal elements in Hemingway