First Men and Original Sins
By Book Review Issue 101
We say we come in peace for all mankind, but we are actually warriors, killers, contaminated by something malign and grievous. But still we come.
Read MorePicturing the Passion
By Essay Issue 41
NOW THAT Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ has reached thousands of screens around the world and the frenzy of editorializing, pre- and post-release, has died down, two of the early questions about the film have been answered. Once the film entered the public domain, most of the fears about whether the film was…
Read MoreNothing Happens: Everything Happens
By Essay Issue 68
THEY WILL ALL LEAVE, first my brother-in-law, who is frank about his tastes, and then the others, borne away on several tides of pretext—the bathroom, pots on the stove, the freshening of drinks—from which none return. Now it’s just me watching, lying belly down on the bed where I used to sleep with my wife.…
Read MorePower in the Blood
By Essay Issue 76
Power in the Blood: Hollywood and the Myth of Religious Violence ON OPENING NIGHT of the 2012 South by Southwest Film Festival, I stood at the end of a line that wrapped around a couple blocks of downtown Austin, Texas. I was in town primarily for work, not festival fun, but I had finagled a…
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