The Quality of Objects
Art and Objects by Graham Harman. Polity, 2019. Hardcover, 240 pages, $70 (Paper, $25). Reviewed by Scott Beauchamp One of the most dreadful afflictions of our time is not being able to tell where things begin or end. Or if they have an autonomous “self” at all. You...
Machine Future
Blade Runner Directed by Ridley Scott. Warner Bros. 1982. Reviewed by Titus Techera The year 2019 is the setting of the movie Blade Runner, and the year of the death of Rutger Hauer, who played its antagonist Roy Batty, offering the noblest vision of mortality in...
Xenophon’s Science of Political Economy
The Shorter Writings by Xenophon, edited by Gregory A. McBrayer. Cornell University Press, 2018. Paperback, 414 pages, $25. Reviewed by Pedro L. Gonzalez The fires of the Social War that brought the imperial power of Athens to its knees had not yet been slaked when...
The Patterns of Living
Cities Alive: Jane Jacobs, Christopher Alexander, and the Roots of the New Urban Renaissance by Michael W. Mehaffy. Sustasis Press, 2017. Paperback, $20. Reviewed by Gene Callahan I first encountered the work of the great urban theorist Jane Jacobs due to the...
The Children Are in Charge
Campusland: A Novel by Scott Johnston. St. Martin’s Press, 2019. Hardcover, 322 pages, $28. Reviewed by Matthew Stewart Would the president of an elite university cave in to the demands of campus militants to the tune of $50 million in order to buy temporary peace? In...
There are metaphorical hills on which I would be willing to die. The Oxford comma is one of them.
So easy to forget that the best way to educate yourself is to read great works of literature and philosophy, then talk about them. Bring back the salon!