Perhaps it isn’t coincidental that this kind of longform writing is having trouble at the same time that the online news cycle gets ever more ephemeral.
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In literature, one of the most famous books of the 20th century and beyond focuses on vision: 1984, with Big Brother always watching you.
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Many people on social media pushed back against the claim that Atwood’s famous, bestselling book has in any way been “banned.”
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Reading great books might not immediately come to mind, but according to professor Shilo Brooks, it just might be a part of the answer.
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The book may not present neat answers to our problems, but it presents a vital picture of what it looks like to cherish life and hold onto to the inherent value of human life.
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Whatever one’s opinions regarding solutions for declining literacy rates, people can always start to brew change in their own lives and communities.
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If materialism is false, if there is at least something at work beyond the material realm, then stories just got interesting again.
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Humans write the only books worth reading, and, as we’ve now seen, they’re still the only ones who can come up with an actual list of readable books.
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A nihilist who believes there is no ultimate purpose or meaning to life can only ever write one book, according to Koontz.
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A new study shows that people are struggling more than ever to read, concentrate, and solve problems. The research comes just a few months after Oxford’s indicative decision to make “Brain Rot” its 2024 “Word of the Year.” Common experience itself lends itself to the conclusion that we are struggling to focus, that our attention is fragmented, and that simply thinking about one issue for more than a few seconds is difficult. The Financial Times reported that intelligence and reasoning capacities have declined since the early 2010s. While the COVID-19 pandemic is commonly blamed for the plummet and is indeed responsible for much of the cognitive decline, the downward trend preceded the crisis according to the study. John Burn-Murdoch reports: Read More ›
While there might not be a culture-wide renewal of faith yet, some significant voices are heralding a new way forward.
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The novel is one of those traditional mediums that struggles in our screen-heavy society.
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Consider the great literary tradition, which still calls out with its timeless voice, reminding us that it’s still there for the taking for those who eyes to see and ears to hear.
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The Rings of Power, the most expensive cinematic product ever concocted, continues to see a drop in viewership.
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We should let ourselves take pleasure in story first before jumping back on our phones to make comments on Booktok or Goodreads.
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August has been a big month for Tolkien fans. Season 2 of Amazon’s The Rings of Power is slated to premiere on Thursday, August 29th, two years after the first season (with its billion-dollar budget) dropped and garnered mixed reviews. You can read my own two cents on The Rings of Power here and here. The question a lots of Tolkien fans are probably asking now is whether the show can recover from a slow start, some poor character development and cliche dialogue, and some basic plot issues that made many of us wish more time was invested on the story than the stratospheric budget. We’ll see. Here’s the trailer for Season 2: The Rings of Power isn’t the only Read More ›
While stylistically, the prose AI “created” for Karan’s novel might be “flawless,” it lacks credibility because it lacks the human voice.
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Reading isn’t instantly gratifying the way these dopamine-inducing technologies are, but the rewards are worth it.
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Ancient philosophy can be extremely useful, and entertaining, even when contrary to modern science! See it in the movies!
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Dr. Jeffrey Bilbro, professor of English at Grove City College and an editor at The Front Porch Republic, wrote an article for Plough on what he regards as the primary weakness of Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT. Bilbro comes to the issue from a literary background, which means he values the human element in language as a mode of communication. Literature is a “conversation,” requiring sentient minds. He sees ChatGPT as a soulless mechanism that will atrophy our ability to write and diminish our appreciation for good writing. Bilbro writes, LLMs are a technology suited to a decadent culture, one that chases easy profits rather than tackles the real challenges we face. It’s easier to make money rearranging words Read More ›