Category Archives: Language

When 2+2=22

Posted by Caleb Coy on

“You may have a reason why two and two should make five, but they will still make but four.” -Samuel Johnson

We all know, if we’ve even so much as heard of Orwell’s 1984, that a totalitarian government can brainwash its citizens into believing that 2+2=5. Well, maybe it could happen. It would actually be very hard to accomplish. The novel is an exercise in imagining the power of language to erase and impose.

And while Orwell’s ’84 does an astounding job at creating a world alien and familiar where the state has coerced us to accepting any lie imaginable, the truth is that it doesn’t have to take an all-powerful oligarchy to do so. Continue reading →

Conspiracy Theory: The Office Had a Ghost Writer

Posted by Caleb Coy on

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.

yK4HS1hkiHYiOiTlnxQCDBbziFUHe3R1ev8RC-cGpwg

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 →

The Year’s Hit Posts in 2017

Posted by Caleb Coy on

A look back on the previous year, and here are some of the top hit posts:

Cormac McCarthy Narrates Minecraft
famed author of No Country For Old Men reviews the game

Why the Civil War Happened
an in-depth analysis

Will the Religious Right Wake Up on the Right Side of the Bed?
an op-ed in the Warblr Continue reading →

On Taking the Bible Literally

Posted by Caleb Coy on

According to a 2011 Gallup survey, 3 in 10 Americans “interpret the Bible literally, saying it is the actual word of God,” while 49% say “the Bible is the inspired word of God but [shouldn’t] be taken literally.”

That’s commonly how the survey is quoted. But if you go to the survey results themselves, a specific and important statement begins the piece: A plurality view Bible as inspired word of God but say not everything in it should be taken literally.”

Continue reading →