1. In the second sentence of “Critique of Violence,” Benjamin asserts: “For a cause, however effective, becomes violent, in the precise sense of the word, only when it bears on moral issues.” (277) Ostensibly, Benjamin is pointing to the etymological inheritance carried by the word violent, perhaps a bit clearer in English than in the… Continue reading Rereading Benjamin’s ‘Critique of Violence’
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Review: These Truths
History," writes James Baldwin in August 1965, "as nearly no one seems to know, is not merely something to be read." Rather, history derives its profound force from the fact that "we carry it within us, are unconsciously controlled by it in many ways, and history is literally present in all that we do [...] since it… Continue reading Review: These Truths
Review: The Sport of Kings
Question: What do horse breeding and Southern whiteness have in common? Quite a lot, in fact, as The Sport of Kings demonstrates over the course of 500-plus pages. This majestic, sprawling, daring, achingly beautiful book is ostensibly a literary epic about horse racing. It quickly becomes clear, however, that The Sport of Kings, the second novel by author… Continue reading Review: The Sport of Kings
A Year in Reading: 2018
Despite seeming to last forever, 2018 is now behind us. It was a year bookended by absurdities, beginning with the Tide Pod epidemic, and ending with the partial shutdown of the sclerotic US government (still ongoing, as of this writing). Somewhere in between I found time to read forty-one books, many of which were very… Continue reading A Year in Reading: 2018
Exergue: A (first) post
Over time I have started and abandoned and restarted more than a dozen firsts posts, but finished none. Meanwhile the blog sits vacant; the pixels gather dust. Therefore this is my first post, but it’s not my first first post. When I want to write I reach for a notebook and pen; I write until I grow tired, and… Continue reading Exergue: A (first) post
American Chthonic 