Steveawiggins

LATEST ARTICLES ( 4563 )

• Opinion Piece

  

  There comes a time, I hope, when the opinion of someone with over four-and-a-half decades of intensive reading experience, might matter. Read more

  Posted on 29 September 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• The Daily Show

  

  Long ago—over a dozen years now—I decided this blog would receive daily updates.  Some of the more successful blogs out there receive multiple daily updates, bu... Read more

  Posted on 28 September 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Hiding What?

  

  Who are we? Do we really show ourselves to others, or do we wear masks? That question applies to horror films as well as to everyday life. Read more

  Posted on 27 September 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• O Viy

  

  Viy is a most unusual movie. I’m talking about the 1967 version, of course. Filmed and produced in the USSR, it was, by many counts, the first Soviet horror... Read more

  Posted on 26 September 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Tuning Up

  

  Climate change is marked by its erratic behavior.  I can relate.  Nevertheless, one of my favorite things in the whole wide world is the slow transition of... Read more

  Posted on 25 September 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Ode to Auld Reekie

  

  Edinburgh is a sizable city, although not large like New York, more like Boston, but smaller.  Like Boston, it has had an outsized influence globally, even apar... Read more

  Posted on 24 September 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Fictional Truth

  

  In honor of Banned Book Week I read Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Funny and poignant, it tells the story of Arnold Spirit... Read more

  Posted on 23 September 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• All Things Being

  

  “Equal” and “night,” in their Latin forms, give us the word “equinox.”  Today we enter the darker half of the year.  Interestingly, of the so-called “quarter... Read more

  Posted on 22 September 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Express Yourself

  

  Do you ever get excited by an idea only to be let down when it comes to the execution?  I suspect that’s a standard human experience.  For me it often happens... Read more

  Posted on 21 September 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Novelization

  

  It must be both difficult and easy writing the novelization of a movie. I suppose it depends on the movie as well. Sleepy Hollow is a film based on a story... Read more

  Posted on 20 September 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Who’s Calling?

  

  The first twenty minutes are impossibly scary. I didn’t see When A Stranger Calls back in 1979, when it came out. I prefer my monsters in non-human form, thank... Read more

  Posted on 19 September 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Banning Together

  

  Banned Book Week starts today.  As the political situation in this country continues to deteriorate into a Republican fascination with fascism, we find books... Read more

  Posted on 18 September 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Whence Dawn?

  

  It’s rare, but that’s often what makes things so special.  Because of the way my mind works, I can’t have background music on when I work.  My concentration... Read more

  Posted on 17 September 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Scary Holidays

  

  One of the real wonder of books is that they can spawn ideas outside their specific topics. While revised dissertations can be somewhat difficult to read,... Read more

  Posted on 16 September 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Misremembered

  

  There may be a name for it, but if there is I don’t know it.  Like the more well-known Mandela Effect, it’s a strange memory issue, only it affects the... Read more

  Posted on 15 September 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Footnote Lament

  

  I listened to a presentation on a famous novelist the other day.  It was noted that this writer was a master researcher, having read a lot for each book he... Read more

  Posted on 14 September 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Immature

  

  I’m not immature, but I have to admit to having done a double-take every time I saw the name of the school.  While living in Edinburgh my wife worked for a shor... Read more

  Posted on 13 September 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Saints and Freedom

  

  There’s a saying that all elections are local.  I suspect that’s true.  Location is important.  There are famous Americans not recognized in other parts of the... Read more

  Posted on 12 September 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Double Feature

  

  Creature features were a regular part of my youth, and, I suspect, where my appreciation of horror films began.  Nobody was really afraid of Godzilla or other... Read more

  Posted on 11 September 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• First Choice

  

  One of the first things I do when I finish a book, unless I know about the author already, is ecosia (google) her or him. I want to know who it is that wrote... Read more

  Posted on 10 September 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY