art 33
Norman Maclean and the Question of Craft
"Fear and pity are made out of grammar,” he writes, and in this most particular grammatical unit he finds the fabric of tragedy itself.
The Roots of Originality
It is only our own town or neighborhood that is specific enough, and someday knowable enough, to enable a capable writer's imagination to imagine it clear and whole.
Ecce Homo: The Fleeting Treasure of a Mortal Life Within the Light that Envelops
Washington, CT. Puckish ad infinitum, I take it as my heathenish duty during this special time of year to preach at the choir boys and girls of ye Front Porch…
Jacques Maritain on Art and Work
Devon, PA. In the early pages of Jacques Maritain's Art and Scholasticism, he provides a philosophy of art that restores "art," in the sense of the fine arts, to its…
Bourgeois Beauty and Bourgeois Relativism
Devon, PA. For those FPR readers interested in keeping up with my ongoing series, Art and Beauty against the Politicized Aesthetic, the third and fourth parts have appeared on First…
Conservatism as Literary Movement
Devon, PA. Last month, I alerted FPR readers to the appearance of the first part of my essay, "Art and Beauty against the Politicized Aesthetic," in First Principles. The primary…
You’ve Got Mail. But Not For Long.
Claremont, CA. Tomato, the main character in Erika Lopez’s terrifically kooky Flaming Iguanas, loves the post office. She says, to be precise, that she has a “profound love for the…
Art and Beauty against the Politicized Aesthetic
Devon, PA. During the next few months, I shall be writing on the centrality of beauty and art to a flourishing human life in general, to a sound theology, and…
Write Home
BURNED-OVER DISTRICT, NY. Via the University Bookman, herewith my introduction to its recent special issue on Regionalism, which featured contributions from Frank Bryan, Kate Dalton, Jeff Cain, Jeremy Beer, Jesse…
