Author: PGR

  • Battleground

  • Lincoln

  • Viral hit

    I get earworms quite regularly, but never so reliably, nor so unshakably, nor inexplicably, as when I get ill. Sometimes no amount of attempts to read something rich in images and language will make a difference, and my fever-dreams end up spooling out a full night’s worth of mangled loops and iterations of songs I’ve…

  • Event horizon

    The modern world, cultural theorists tell us, has been characterized by the disenchantment of the natural world. In fact, this disenchantment was accompanied by a Romantic enchantment of the social word. Mimesis gave way to poiesis. We can see this more readily when we recognize, following Charles Taylor for example, that enchantment is a matter of meaning as much as it…

  • The glamour of futurity

    … there are always three elements that create that sensation: one is a promise of escape and transformation. A different, better life in different, better circumstances. The other is there is a sense of grace, effortlessness, all the flaws and difficulties are hidden. And the third is mystery. Mystery both draws you in and enhances…