Criticism
Apocalypse Then: Armageddon Fever in the 1980’s
Set the dial on the wayback machine to the 1980’s: Reagan was president, Russia was still “the Soviet Union” (which Reagan called “the Evil Empire”), and people lived daily with the fear that the arms race between the U.S. and the Soviets, along with the public-policy known as “M.A.D.” (mutually assured destruction) might one day [...]
Manunkind on “Cyber Monday”
This Monday morning, I spent about 50 minutes trying to convince a group of 12 students, 18-20 year olds, that they should share the moral philosopher Philip Hallie’s outrage about Nazis torturing Jewish and Gypsy children… almost 70 years ago… and that they should enter into his professional concern — his puzzlement — over the [...]
A Note on the “Banality of Evil”
Hannah Arendt’s essay Eichmann in Jerusalem, about the trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, famously coined the phrase “Banality of Evil,” a controversial term which she defends (on pages 287–288 in the Penguin Classics edition) by explaining that she used it merely because it fits the man. His responsibility for evil acts is [...]
Dr. Bloodmoney by Philip K. Dick (1965)
Philip K. Dick’s amazing novel Dr. Bloodmoney rewards the reader with a new share in Dick’s visionary insanity.
Mysterium by Robert Charles Wilson (1994)
I was disappointed by Mysterium. How can an author mess up a stew of gnosticism, quantum cosmology, political and religious satire, and good old fashioned nuclear annihilation? By substituting an empty placeholder (“mystery”) for a substantive insight or theoria, that’s how.
The Watchmen and the Apocalypse
I just finished rereading the Watchmen Graphic Novel last night. The book deserves, in my opinion, every bit of the critical acclaim which has been lavished upon it. But to fully appreciate it, as with all works of literature and art, one must offer first an appraisal in historical-critical terms.
Watchmen was originally [...]