Speed Bag Meditation

How David Yarovesky blends past and present through family-friendly horror — It’s no secret that children’s stories have changed over time. From their roots as gruesome cautionary tales centered on didactic instruction, popular tales like Little Red Riding Hood and Rumpelstiltskin have softened over time to the gentler versions we know today. But has this evolution watered down children’s horror or…

The legacy of the 1988 romantic comedy in the America of 2021 — When it released in 1988, John Landis’s Coming to America marked a turning point in Eddie Murphy’s breakout film career. He had proven his chops as a comedy actor and taken a few swings at playing an action star, but this marked another side of his talent with a more…

How Ian Samuels explores new territory in a well-worn trope — The Map of Tiny Perfect Things, the new Amazon Studios film by director Ian Samuels and written by Lev Grossman (The Magicians), expects that you know the premise of Groundhog Day. And Edge of Tomorrow. And have at least a familiarity with Taxi Driver, X-Men, and Time Bandits. If you…

The sacrifice of meaning for mystery — It’s obvious from the start that something is amiss in Amazon’s new sci-fi, romance film from writer/director Mike Cahill (Another Earth). We’re immediately bombarded with a sensory overload of alarms and demands and information that establishes the near-constant state of tension for much of the story. The seeds of suspicion…

How the poet connects America’s past to its future. — Plenty of history was made on January 20, 2021. Plenty of firsts. Plenty of barriers broken. And while it’s easy to get swept up in the currents of politics that dominate our attention, there was another current flowing strong that day. National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman not only became…

How to improve your writing through speaking and listening — We’ve all heard about public speaking’s status as most people’s number-one fear. As an English and creative writing educator for over 10 years, I’ve learned just how many students would rather take a failing grade instead of presenting a project to a class of their peers. But any teacher knows…

Q. Anon Freshman English January 6, 2021 William Shakespeare’s Hamlet and the Deep State William Shakespeare wrote Hamlet around the year 1600, influenced in part by the death of his son, Hamnet. Misspellings matter! The play focuses on prince Hamlet of Denmark fighting corruption and terrorist forces, guided by the ghost of his murdered Patriot father, JFK…

What we mean when we say “fair.” — Ask an average person on the street if they believe that justice is good or bad and you’ll get an overwhelming response that it’s a good idea. Justice is a value of such universal appeal that we regularly incorporate it into children’s narratives and pop culture brands. The most widespread…