Dear Reader, Something I have found unique to each of my semesters at Hillsdale is often how specific themes connect between different classes. I like to think of these themes as if they were threads weaving together pieces of knowledge from each of my classes, but the tapestry to which they are being woven into will not be revealed until the end of the semester. … Continue reading Letter from the Editor | Issue #50
By Andrew Winter Mallery flung the map onto the dashboard, tearing it just at the point where a little dot said San Diego. “Why not just drive off the cliff right here and be done with it?” she said. Nub kept his eyes fixed forward, though he was not as calm as he seemed. “How many fights did we have growing up, and now that … Continue reading Creative Writing Awards: “One-Point-Two Inches from Eighty Feet”
By Elizabeth Hoppel “I am tired—that’s the trouble, yes…just tired,” she thought, sighing deeply as she washed the dirt from beneath her fingernails in a large ceramic sink, filled to the quarter mark with soapy water. In the window’s reflection she saw wrinkles drooping down her face, every line etched like a tally mark, won in thankless labor. She began counting her wrinkles with her … Continue reading Creative Writing Awards: “No Time for Sparrows”
By Campbell Collins The gloomy clouds hang just above the treesBut we, determined, dive, and once againUphold tradition. Rising now, the breezeRipples the lake and warns us of the rain.Yet on we swim, small froggish strokes, and rushUngainly toward the hazy, distant beach.The journeys mark each summer out for us:The year a cousin feared for snakes beneathAnd, wide-eyed, watched the deep for slithering things.The year … Continue reading Creative Writing Awards: “On Caspian, July 2018”
By Henry Ahrabi “…O ye of little faith…” – Matthew 6:30 It all was easy enough to remember: a world of blood in the water, the infestation of small things, and the cloudy shape that none of us have forgotten with folded wings. Cloud and fire, rock and water, heaven’s bread, but the sea closed back, and so did our stony hearts, hardening to distrust, and to action. It all … Continue reading Creative Writing Awards: “Work Out Your Own Salvation”
By Alexandra Comus Look at the sun, it is sinking; the forest revives with the moon’s rise. Crickets begin their long vigil; a crisp, dreamlike air that awakens primeval fey in the twilight; their shapes melting out from the gnarled oak toward shadows dancing, contrasting bark bathed in ambrosial firelight. Nearing the center, a drum-beat quickens its warlike concussions; forms brushing swiftly past bushes, gripped … Continue reading Creative Writing Awards: “Μαινάδες” (Maenads)
By Aidan Jones “Who here knows how to drive stick?” our leader asked as we sped through the Italian countryside. He swayed with the movement of the bus as he scanned our faces, careful to keep his weight off the foot he had recently sprained. Two of us raised our hands in response to his question: myself (at the time, a 21-year-old kid from the … Continue reading The Quest for Reality
By Charlie Cheng I am somewhat confident that this is the first ever Forum article about Chinese prophecies. It’s a bold move, I know, to be both pagan and unscientific at the same time in Hillsdale, but you will still want to find out how the pro-life movement is involved. I am not writing with the presumption that Chinese prophesying is legitimate. It has lasted … Continue reading How Ancient Chinese Fortune-Telling Aligns With the Pro-Life Movement
By Michael Branigan and Rooks Russell “Can’t repeat the past? Why, of course you can!” Gatbsy’s assertion haunts the close of the title track “Into the Past,” from the band Driveways’ 2022 album. Reliving old crimes preoccupies the pop-punk band’s discography, and lead singer Pat Finnegan confronts the question by drawing on symbols from Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ray Bradbury, Ernest Hemingway, Ken Kesey, and F. Scott … Continue reading Into the Past: A Review
By Fred Woodward In the archetypal consciousness of the people of France and in the West broadly considered, there is arguably no building more prominent than Notre-Dame cathedral. A few other buildings may vie with the cathedral’s status, such as St. Peter’s basilica and Westminster abbey, but none can excel its grandeur and national prominence. More than an impressive architectural phenomenon (though this label can … Continue reading What Notre Dame Can Symbolize to America
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