Rating: 4/5 A beautifully crafted narrative about the three pivotal events that all converged in the year 1492: the Spanish Inquisition, the defeat of the Spanish Moors, and the voyage of Columbus. The basic premise is that these three events, while portrayed with religious and apocalyptic imagery, were all used as tools of the state... Continue Reading →
On pirates and puppet theaters: Chesterton on Robert Louis Stevenson
Rating: 3/5 G. K. Chesterton's Robert Louis Stevenson is another biography that isn't a biography. It's more of a work of literary criticism for a man Chesterton perhaps didn't always agree with all the time, but certainly held in deep respect. Chesterton finds common ground with Stevenson in what he refers to as the "sharp... Continue Reading →
My mission president changed my life and other obvious musings
I was called to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the Germany Hamburg mission. I can already tell that I am most likely going to overwhelm my readership with Mormon-esque lingo, but I'm going to do my darnedest to explain myself. Young men and women members of the... Continue Reading →
God the skeptic: Chesterton’s prologue to the book of Job
Rating: 5/5 G. K. Chesterton was an Anglican who converted to Catholicism later in life, and also one of the most prolific writers to have ever lived. He also has a running at becoming a Catholic saint here. Chesterton, along with C. S. Lewis, are my two favorite authors, but I'm having to hunt down... Continue Reading →
Fake news before it was cool: Book review of Noam Chomsky’s “Manufacturing Consent”
Rating 3/5 Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent argues that, while America's free press is generally believed to be a constraint on government, keep it honest, and provide opposing viewpoints, the exact opposite it true in practice; America's press becomes an organ of the state sticking to the narrative structure provided by the federal government, and providing justification... Continue Reading →
Book review of “Political Tribes: Group Instinct and the Fate of Nations”
Rating: 5/5 Goodreads blurb: Humans are tribal. We need to belong to groups. In many parts of the world, the group identities that matter most - the ones that people will kill and die for - are ethnic, religious, sectarian, or clan-based. But because America tends to see the world in terms of nation-states engaged... Continue Reading →
The Politics of Cultural Despair
I forget exactly where this book popped up initially-- but I assume it was a Goodreads recommendation based on some of the politically oriented books or German history books I've been into as of late. Here's the Goodreads blurb: This is a study in the pathology of cultural criticism. By analyzing the thought and influence... Continue Reading →
Rationalizing your video game addiction: A mixed bag in “Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter”
I added this book to my shelf for the two oxymorons built into the existence of this book. The first is the juxtaposition of genres: a book...about video games?! (Pardon my rant here) I suppose the Venn diagram of bookworms and video game addicts could have some sort of intersection, and the presence of the... Continue Reading →