Buried Alive!
Being buried alive was one of the most common phobias of the Victorian era. Fear of premature interment in a coffin inspired the creation of the London Association for the…
Subversive, queer and terrifyingly relevant: six reasons why Moby-Dick is the novel for our times
But it is Moby-Dick’s premonitory brilliance that continues to make it relevant. Melville predicts mass extinction and climate breakdown, and foresees a drowned planet from which the whale would “spout…
Russia’s Last Czar, Nicholas II, Had a Massive Dragon Tattoo
In 1891, several years before he became Czar, Nicholas traveled to Japan. It was a difficult trip for the royal, in which he was the victim of a failed assassination…
At My Urban Farm, I’m Growing My Family and Growing Our Sanctuary
“Identity,” he said, “is formed from three components: first, self-identity; second, social identity; and third, legal identity—the most important of which is self-identity, the only facet of identity that involves…
George Orwell Reveals the Role & Responsibility of the Writer “In an Age of State Control”
Well, then what? Do we have to conclude that it is the duty of every writer to “keep out of politics”? Certainly not! In any case, as I have said…
End of the Century, 1984
Death Synthetic winds have blown awayMaterial dust, but this one roomRebukes the constant violet rayAnd dustless sheds a dusty gloom.Wrecked on the outmoded pastLie North and Hillard, Virgil, Horace,Shakespeare’s bones…
Nothing Happened in 1999
this poem makes me think about how every year in the history of the world is a pivotal year and how quickly we forget all the monumental things that happen…
Dulce et Decorum Est
By Wilfred Owen Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs, And towards our…
A Meditation on Forests, Life, and Art: Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Fir Tree”
“The Fir Tree” was originally published in New Fairy Tales, Second Collection (1844) next to another winter tale, The Snow Queen. It was swiftly overshadowed by that other story and…
For the First Time in More Than 20 Years, Copyrighted Works Will Enter the Public Domain
We can blame Mickey Mouse for the long wait. In 1998, Disney was one of the loudest in a choir of corporate voices advocating for longer copyright protections. At the…