Tag Archives: social criticism

The Unsettling of America, audio edition

Posted on January 23, 2025 by smellincoffee

It was twelve years ago that I met a man named Jayber Crow, and met too, his author — Wendell Berry. Berry is one of my very favorite living authors, and would probably still make the list of favorite authors … Continue reading →

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Troubled

Posted on March 4, 2024 by smellincoffee

Selected Quotations Imagine that your first memory is that of being three years old and seeing your mother, a drug addict who ties you to chairs to get high without interruption, being arrested. Imagine being bounced around ten different foster … Continue reading →

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The Reactionary Mind

Posted on December 31, 2023 by smellincoffee

Arise, you consumers, from your slumber –  arise, ye impoverished of purpose!    Michael Penn Warren   here picks up his pen in defense of medieval civilization,  self-reliance,  Luddism,  and letter-writing.   He bids the reader smash his cellphone and … Continue reading →

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Farming for xp and fields

Posted on June 16, 2023 by smellincoffee

More short rounds today, bringing together a lite SF title and a collection of Wendell Berry’s farming essays. First up is Craig Anderson’s Level Up, a title in the relatively new field of ‘litrpg’ in which video game elements are … Continue reading →

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Brave New World Revisited

Posted on July 24, 2018 by smellincoffee

Brave New World Revisited© 1958 Aldhous Huxley144 pages Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1931)  transported readers to a deeply creepy nightmare-vision of the future, in which man had disappeared as an independent being, instead becoming the raw materials for a new, … Continue reading →

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Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination Of Your Child

Posted on August 18, 2017 by smellincoffee

Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination Of Your Child © 2010 Anthony Esolen 256 pages In the spirit of The Screwtape Letters comes this, Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination Of Your Child.  Anthony Esolen opens by observing that the … Continue reading →

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Affluenza

Posted on February 13, 2017 by smellincoffee

Affluenza: the All-Consuming Epidemic© 2001, 2004, 2014  John de Graaf, David Wann, Thomas Naylor288 pages In getting and spending, we lay waste to all our powers — so sayeth the poet. Originally published in 2001, Affluenza is a critique of consumerism, … Continue reading →

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Out of the Ashes

Posted on February 9, 2017 by smellincoffee

Out of the Ashes: Rebuilding American Culture © 2017 Anthony Esolen 256 pages Some things, like a Roman bridge, can last for millennia through the virtue of their design, the simplicity of their use, and the inherent strength of their … Continue reading →

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Seeing like a State

Posted on October 9, 2014 by smellincoffee

Seeing like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition have Failed© 1999 James Scott464 pages             Seeing like a State scrutinizes the organizational approach of state governments and other large institutions from the … Continue reading →

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The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer

Posted on October 3, 2014 by smellincoffee

The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer© 2010 Joel Salatin300 pages Joel Salatin is crazy and glad to be so;  in print and in media like Food, Inc and Fresh, he gleefully rejects what the late 20th century produced as conventional … Continue reading →

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