Creatures of Contact

David Rakoff reads his poetic retelling of the Turtle and the Scorpion.

Christian fiction for the 10th century

Douglas Wilson on how it is possible to see Beowulf as a kind of Christian apologetic:

"Hrothgar does not fight, and he cannot save the people. Beowulf does fight, successfully—and the ultimate point of the poem is (as we will see) that he cannot save the people from this cycle of violence either. Not fighting does no good, but neither does fighting. 

[...] This is where the poem brings us, only to abandon us there. What can be done to save this people from their lost condition? By the end of the poem, it is absolutely certain that there is nothing that the people of this culture can do themselves about their lostness."

Read the complete essay here...

Q178: Past is prologue

"If you hate that it happened, then you hate that you are." 

— Margaret Cutright

(You can hear the whole background that leads up to this quote here.)