Eric Scheske

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Zero Hedge: Decent Prose?

Zero Hedge: Decent Prose?

Robert Kiyosaki supposedly once counseled a new "creator" about the perils of good writing: "It's 'bestselling author,' not 'best-written author.'" His point: If you want to be successful online, you need to write for sales, not art. He's

The John's Penance

The John's Penance

One thing from Chapter 11 of Tom Holland's excellent Dominion: A clerical disciple of Abelard argued that, when determining the severity of penance for patronizing a prostitute, the woman's hotness should be taken into account.

Traveling with Your Left Hemisphere

Traveling with Your Left Hemisphere

In The Art of Travel, Alain de Botton describes traveling to an island paradise. The first morning, he sat on the beach, coconut trees leaning toward the sea, jungle-covered hills behind him. He then began to think about a sore throat I had developed during the flight, worry over not

Introducing the Non-Story

Introducing the Non-Story

I've been noticing a new type of Internet article: Sites making podcast episodes into news stories. The gimmick's approach: A flashy "news-like" headline, followed by a story about the podcast's content, sprinkled with quotes, which give it the feel of a journalist

Hemisphere Video

Hemisphere Video

You don't want to read the 500-page Master and his Emissary? You don't want to read the 1,500 pages that flush it all out? Try The Divided Brain. You can rent it for $1.99. In just 80 minutes, you'll understand the Hemisphere

Everlasting GKC for Advent

Everlasting GKC for Advent

Lynyrd Skynyrd wrote "Sweet Home Alabama" as a rejoinder to Neil Young's smug "Southern Man. Likewise, GKC wrote The Everlasting Man as a rejoinder to H.G. Wells' Outline of History. In both cases, the rejoinders won. The Everlasting Man explains history as part

Personal Computer and Personal Choice

Personal Computer and Personal Choice

In 1968, Carver Mead, professor at California Institute of Technology, began to demonstrate the possibilities of placing an entire computer on one chip at a cost of just a few dollars. He also began to preach the possibilities of the innovation, asserting it would end the burdensome and expensive computer

Has the Rabble Breached Another Wall in the Castle of High Culture?

Has the Rabble Breached Another Wall in the Castle of High Culture?

The New Criterion properly considers itself an urbane journal of the arts. With this, comes a commitment to first-rate style, without regard to the Idiocracy that is overwhelming our culture. But I saw something interesting (or disturbing, depending on whether one cheers this cultural secular bear market or condemns it)

Picture Books for Adults

Picture Books for Adults

This is a delightful piece from Public Books. I especially liked this observation about how medieval monks would read: This form of reading, de Hamel says, is one reason why so many medieval manuscripts have richly decorated pages. The decorations “helped impress a page visually in the reader’s memory,

Gothic Realism: Right Hemispheric?

Gothic Realism: Right Hemispheric?

The macabre might, in part, be a rejection of the Enlightenment and yet another route to re-energize the right hemisphere and its embrace of the trans-rational, much as the occult is a rejection of rationalism and its left hemispheric overlord. The Gothic genre is particularly suited to depicting these elements.