J.L. Wall

A great deal has already been written about Rod Dreher’s new book, The Little Way of Ruthie Leming (including William Doino’s  review ). I only have two short comments to add to the discussion. The first grows out of a conversation I had with a bookshop owner several weeks ago. On . . . . Continue Reading »

It’s easy to read, perform, or teach Othello as Shakespeare’s race play—with, I should say, good cause. In this regard, he may well have written a play that speaks more strongly to today’s America than to his own country. This is also the play of jealousy, possession, and . . . . Continue Reading »

A few more thoughts on wonder and contemporary culture, if you’ll bear with me. Wonder as a sought-after object (as opposed to a manner of apprehending what is found) becomes, perhaps, just another way of curing boredom— Walker Percy wasn’t advocating a Russian assault on Greece so . . . . Continue Reading »

My  previous post  on  Star Trek  and wonder caused a reader to ask what I thought of the thematic darkness of  Deep Space Nine , one of the later  Star Trek  series. The show takes up war and crime in the  Star Trek  future to a greater extent than any . . . . Continue Reading »

Saturday evening, burned out and brain-dead after two weeks of grading papers, I plopped down in the living room to take advantage of my weekend by watching the first two Star Trek films. It had been, probably, fifteen years since I watched the 1979 Star Trek , and it was every bit as strange as I . . . . Continue Reading »

In December, Paul Elie caused a small stir by claiming that “the novel of belief” has disappeared. I don’t want to wade into that debate—-for those who missed it, Andrew Sullivan has a good series of round-up posts —-but instead to look at one of the exceptions to . . . . Continue Reading »