Recent

The Terrifying Reciprocity of the Aesthetic Gaze in Visconti's 'Death in Venice'

Luchino Visconti's oft-misunderstood Death in Venice (Morte a Venezia) tenderly explores how beauty stares back at us and demands that we accept and acknowledge its terrible contradictions.

Film

War's Degradation of the Human in Bergman's 'Shame'

Ingmar Bergman's Shame is one of his few films so blatantly concerned with the impositions of the external world,as opposed to the internal, subjective aspects of life.

Film

Unlike Virgil, De Villiers Has a Sense of Humor About 'Hell and Damnation'

Marq De Villiers' readers will readily discern where -- aside from abysses -- Hell and Damnation: A Sinner's Guide to Eternal Torment is headed: someplace unexpectedly fun.

Books

Open Court's The Handmaid's Tale and Philosophy Emphasizes Caution and Awareness

As far as The Handmaid's Tale and Philosophy is concerned, Trump et al are the exact bastards you're not supposed to let grind you down.

Books

Is There Hope for Knowledge? On Robert Pasnau's 'After Certainty'

In After Certainty, Robert Pasnau constructs a history of knowledge and concludes that most theories of knowledge aren't up to par. But, he says, we can hope.

Books

A Deeper Disney Discourse on Song

We look at Disney songs through the lens of hardcore hermeneutics. Be warned, you may never be able to hear these songs the way you did before!

Music

'Aquinas and the Market' and the Possibility of a "Truly Humane Economic System"

With Aquinas and the Market, economist and theologian Mary L. Hirschfeld begins a necessary conversation between economic and theological sectors, in the academy and, one hopes, outside the ivory towers and seminaries, to calculate our ultimate worth.

Books

The Unhappiest Two: The Impossible Demand in Ingmar Bergman's 'Scenes from a Marriage'

Kierkegaard's existential rumination on our impossible relation to an incommensurable and unknowable God informs much of Bergman's work, and most certainly Scenes from a Marriage.

Film

Chronicling the Non-Event: Anton Chekhov and the Short Story

Chekhov is engaging with an underlying, rumbling, non-event that pervades life and yet is nearly always blithely ignored. His stories move us in their ability to excavate this subterranean, haunting static that informs all experience.

Books

The Dialectic of the Freak: On John Waters' 'Female Trouble'

In John Waters' work, poor taste is a manner of refinement that attains a strange air of considered sophistication and knowing advertency.

Film

'The Anguish of Thought': A Logical Line of Analysis for a Study of Madness

Regarding Evelyne Grossman's The Anguish of Thought, Ph.D. candidates across America should just lay down their pencils now before they embarrass themselves.

Books

Action at a Distance: The Father in Víktor Erice's El Sur

The Father is the wielder of profuse potency but it can only be maintained through distance and the renunciation of understanding, the willingness to embrace the mystery without examining it. But, necessarily, the child must penetrate that veil.

Film

The End of Endings; or, Why Won't Anyone Stay Dead?

What does it mean, ontologically and narratively, when the seeming finality of death disappears from our stories? What does it mean when our stories and our characters, unlike our lives, refuse to come to an end?

Comics

An Appeal for Balance: 'Action Versus Contemplation'

Billions grapple with a frenetic paradigm shift which scuffs lines between a carefree ant's and a diligent grasshopper's domains.

Books

'Jimi Hendrix and Philosophy' Is a Mixed Bag, Man

Jumping into the fire, howling wind, and bombs bursting in air with the uber rock god.

Books

On Nabokov's Experiments with Fragmented Dream Time

Nabokov's work is a fascinating read for all the questions it raises—some of which the world's best minds have been tackling for centuries.

Books

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Jackie Chan's 10 Best Films

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Say It Loud! 100 Great Protest Songs: Part 1 - Beethoven to Janis Ian

The 25 Best Electronic Albums of 2018

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Luchino Visconti's oft-misunderstood Death in Venice (Morte a Venezia) tenderly explores how beauty stares back at us and demands that we accept and acknowledge its terrible contradictions.

Ingmar Bergman's Shame is one of his few films so blatantly concerned with the impositions of the external world,as opposed to the internal, subjective aspects of life.

Marq De Villiers' readers will readily discern where -- aside from abysses -- Hell and Damnation: A Sinner's Guide to Eternal Torment is headed: someplace unexpectedly fun.

As far as The Handmaid's Tale and Philosophy­ is concerned, Trump et al are the exact bastards you're not supposed to let grind you down.

In After Certainty, Robert Pasnau constructs a history of knowledge and concludes that most theories of knowledge aren't up to par. But, he says, we can hope.

We look at Disney songs through the lens of hardcore hermeneutics. Be warned, you may never be able to hear these songs the way you did before!

With Aquinas and the Market, economist and theologian Mary L. Hirschfeld begins a necessary conversation between economic and theological sectors, in the academy and, one hopes, outside the ivory towers and seminaries, to calculate our ultimate worth.

Kierkegaard's existential rumination on our impossible relation to an incommensurable and unknowable God informs much of Bergman's work, and most certainly Scenes from a Marriage.

Chekhov is engaging with an underlying, rumbling, non-event that pervades life and yet is nearly always blithely ignored. His stories move us in their ability to excavate this subterranean, haunting static that informs all experience.

In John Waters' work, poor taste is a manner of refinement that attains a strange air of considered sophistication and knowing advertency.

Regarding Evelyne Grossman's The Anguish of Thought, Ph.D. candidates across America should just lay down their pencils now before they embarrass themselves.

The Father is the wielder of profuse potency but it can only be maintained through distance and the renunciation of understanding, the willingness to embrace the mystery without examining it. But, necessarily, the child must penetrate that veil.

What does it mean, ontologically and narratively, when the seeming finality of death disappears from our stories? What does it mean when our stories and our characters, unlike our lives, refuse to come to an end?

Billions grapple with a frenetic paradigm shift which scuffs lines between a carefree ant's and a diligent grasshopper's domains.

Jumping into the fire, howling wind, and bombs bursting in air with the uber rock god.

Nabokov's work is a fascinating read for all the questions it raises—some of which the world's best minds have been tackling for centuries.

As far as The Handmaid's Tale and Philosophy is concerned, Trump et al are the exact bastards you're not supposed to let grind you down.