Hecuba to Him, He to Hecuba

Bad things are happening today, and I’m chewing on this: at The Philosopher’s Magazine, Jean Kazez has been considering a few chapters of Saul Smilansky’s book 10 Moral Paradoxes.  This week, she looks at Smilansky’s idea that sometimes you should not feel sorry when bad things happen.
As Kazez notes, the ethical ramifications of this idea [...]

Good Writing

… is an act of discovery: Nigel Beale and Frank Wilson on Michel de Montaigne.
… is a way of dealing with change, of internalizing it: Stephen Baxter (and many others) on the uncertain future of fiction about the future.
… is an immediate voicing from deep in the brain; a portable art; a way to investigate [...]

Pleasure Cruise

It’s a scandal!: “into our fallen world the Gods of Great Events have finally come down from on high to intervene …”
“A uniquely affordable indulgence:” Walter Kirn on the hard times that are a-coming, and how we’ll talk our way through them, like citizens, like families.
Oxford compiles a list of the top ten cliches. (“Top [...]

Election, Part III

So the election’s over and we’re in the age of post-partisan politics.  What’s that, you say?  I’m glad that you asked.
For many people, the measure of postpartisanship will be the number of Republicans in the cabinet or the degree to which the minority party will be consulted on policy issues.  If one does these things, [...]

Election, Part II

Now that we’ve made a short work of the McCain campaign’s ineffective decision to promote the candidate’s service, here’s rhetoric lesson number two: one of the pressing issues facing us today is that we need to find a new language to describe politicians such as Barack Obama and Sarah Palin, both of whom represent a [...]

Election, Part I

It’s the only game in town this week: here is the first post in a short series of rhetorical lessons that I have learned from this year’s exciting election cycle.
First off, let’s talk about heroes.
One of the shibboleths of this election cycle has been the belief that it was shrewd of the McCain campaign to [...]