While one of the most famous Christmas stories of all time, Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol sometimes comes under criticism for weakly addressing the problem of poverty. The complaint goes like this: Ebenezer Scrooge is but one person who learns an individual lesson, and that lesson is for private individuals to be a bit more charitable. One day a year. Thus, the Dickens classic tosses a breadcrumb to the poor, but doesn’t do a thing to address serious social ills. A sentimental tale, but a moral flop. Continue reading
Category Archives: Books
7 Books You Should Read But Can’t
This summer there are a lot of books out there you should read. But if you’ve already got a full stack, I complied a list of books you really ought to read, but can’t and never will, because they’re fictional. That way, you can sit back, relax, and enjoy the futility of knowing you will never pick up one of these legendary books.
What Clint Smith and Frederick Douglass Taught Me About Critical Race Theory
“Oppression doesn’t disappear just because you decided not to teach us that chapter.”
I decided to write this post reflecting on the first July 4th celebration since the government officially recognized Juneteenth.
I’ve been following Clint Smith for some time now, after his Crash Course video series popped up on my YouTube feed at the same time that I read an article about him in Poets & Writers.
The blog takes a break for vacay
Hi folks. The blog is taking a break this week in honor of vacation. Also Juneteenth, I guess.
While at the beach I read Blackwood by Michael Farris Smith. You should too.
If they make a movie it should star Norman Reedus. That’s all I got to say.
The Circles Around Us by Brad and Kristi Montague vs Circles by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Recently I read Brad and Kristi Montague’s new book Circles.
Then I went and read Ralph Waldo Emerson’s old essay, also called “Circles.”
I decided to review them both by making a compare/contrast chart. I couldn’t figure out how to make it a circle, so it’s going to be a rectangle, okay?
Did you know C.S. Lewis wrote a space trilogy?
Did you happen to know that C.S. Lewis, author of Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, and the Chronicles of Narnia series, wrote an outer space trilogy? Because a lot of people don’t. Continue reading
Who Blocks Bob Tomato on Twitter?
So this happened recently. Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s worst biographer blocked two VeggieTales character on Twitter. It’s hard to get more petty than that.
New Essay Published in Bangalore Review
Hey folks, The Bangalore Review has recently published an essay of mine, “Danse Macabre, 2020.”
Click here to check it out! There’s some other great writing featured in their latest issue as well!
New Poem in the California Quarterly
Greetings readers! I wanted to share with you all that I just had a poem published in the California Quarterly.
The poem is titled “Richness.”
I wish I could tell you that copies are available for purchase, but not quite yet. Hang in there.
Conspiracy Theory: The Office Had a Ghost Writer
I have a new theory about The Office. A literary theory.
I was reading Cormac McCarthy’s famous novel, No Country For Old Men, when I came across a familiar punchline.
That’s right, it’s everyone’s favorite repeating inappropriate joke from The Office. What’s it doing in a crime thriller/postmodern Western written by a literary genius? Continue reading
CALEB COY 