Encountering human beings in their native tongues By Amelia Stieren Spending eight weeks in Germany this summer brought to surface some of the most lonely and painful moments of my life. Being far away from nearly everyone I love and who love me, living with a family whom I had not previously known, and speaking a language I had spent just two years learning was … Continue reading Windows of Foreign Language
By Lara Forsythe “What is the use of a book without pictures?” Alice asks before tumbling into Wonderland with a pocketwatch-carrying rabbit so familiar to generations of readers. As Hillsdale approaches term paper season and we begin seeing more students toting around stacks of literary criticism (among biochemistry textbooks and backbreaking volumes of the Summa), many of us may find ourselves sympathizing with Alice’s lament. … Continue reading Why We Stopped Reading Picture Books
by Timothy Troutner When Stanley Kubrick released his classic film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb in 1964, tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union troubled the world. The Cold War and the possibility of nuclear apocalypse dwelt constantly in public consciousness. America had spent nearly the past two decades building up its weapons, shoring up … Continue reading Movie Review: Dr. Strangelove
by Emily Lehman Dear Wormwood, released on October 15, is the third album in the career of the band The Oh Hellos. The brother-and-sister duo (Tyler and Maggie Heath) skates the thin line between darkness and light in the carefully-crafted album, incorporating playful vocals, ethereal sweeps of synthetic sound, and the down-to-earth twang of mandolin and electric guitar into what, according to Tyler, is a … Continue reading Music Review: The Oh Hellos, Dear Wormwood
The bulldozers are coming. By Noah Weinrich HILLSDALE, MI-Amidst the excitement surrounding both new and upcoming renovation projects on Hillsdale College’s campus, some voices aren’t quite so enthusiastic about the changes. Between the renovation of the Simpson and McIntyre dormitories, the tearing down of several houses to make room for tennis courts and parking lots, and the general improvement in the quality of buildings and … Continue reading Satire: Gentrification
As summer’s reality falls down dead around us, it seems appropriate to reflect on disillusionment and to seek the integrity that can disarm it. The distance that opens up between a soul and the world when something like a season’s end strikes it is a rich space, if risky. Each in its own way, the essays and features in this issue ask sharp questions, force … Continue reading Letter From the Editors, November 2015
By Timothy Troutner The recent pair of Collegian editorials on the ten-dollar bill controversy [Oct. 22], while interesting, failed to consider the history of United States currency. History suggests that the history of our currency, particularly in relation to women, is far more complicated than seniors Micah Meadowcroft and Josiah Lippincott’s arguments suggest. Depictions of the feminine used to be commonplace, while the cult of … Continue reading The Ten-Dollar Bill Controversy Ignores History
By Chandler Ryd He drives a two-seater into the motor court of a sprawling Victorian estate. He steps out of the car and enters the house, looking darkly into the distance. She descends a curving staircase to welcome her guest. This is the first thirty seconds of Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” music video, but a similar scene plays out every day in bars, coffee shops, … Continue reading Blank Spaces
By Dr. Dwight Lindley To answer this question, we will have to ask first what “literature” itself is, and second, what “reality” itself is, for my opening suggestion is that we have trouble with this question because we are unclear about its terms. First, then, what is literature? While there have been many answers to this question, I think we can isolate three strands of … Continue reading What Has Literature to Do With Reality?
By Madeline Johnson Sentences are like pagodas: airy little meeting places for human communion that reveal their creators’ inner characters and shape the shared environment in unrepeatably particular ways. And like pagodas, they’re better when they’re colorful. I’ve heard my generation described as “aggressively inarticulate”, and while I count myself the awestruck friend of many strikingly articulate young folks, I myself readily subscribe to the … Continue reading Common Nouns and Action Verbs
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