Monthly Archives: November 2015

We’ll Always Have Mars

The title of “The Martian,” a movie that’s been playing in local theaters, is a bit of a joke. The protagonist is not actually a Martian in the sense of a native of our neighboring planet. He’s an Earthling, one of us, but (most likely) as much of a Martian as the Red Planet has […]

November 20, 2015 – 8:58 am | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

“BRIDGE OF SPIES”: COMFORTING BUT CONFUSED.

“Bridge of Spies,” the popular and critically well-received movie that’s been playing locally, is an entertaining true story, comforting in a way we have come to expect of Spielberg. Tom Hanks is always enough to restore your faith in the species. Decency, honor, stubbornness in the service of virtue seem built into his very physiognomy. […]

November 13, 2015 – 1:44 pm | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Schulz on Thoreau: who’s the hermit here?

A recent “New Yorker” carries a hatchet job on, of all iconic Americans, HenryDavid Thoreau. In her contemptuous “What have we been thinking?” attitude toward the last 150 years of treasuring Thoreau, Kathryn Schulz comes across as more of a solipsistic crank than she construes Thoreau to be. Useful literary criticism starts with understanding why […]

November 5, 2015 – 2:22 pm | By Brent | Posted in Posts, Uncategorized | Tagged , | Comments (0)