Singing into the Darkness: How The Sound of Music Teaches Us to Rebuke Fear
How The Sound of Music can prepare us for Christmas.
Out of Apathy: The Transcendence of Morality in The Mandalorian
Stories that follow patterns like this show us that no one is really nonessential—they give us a sense that although the world is big, every person is important, no matter their birth, status, role, or function.
Droids, Docents, and Advent: Cultural Storytelling as Remembrance
Through stories and storytelling, we ask and examine the most basic questions about our humanity—about our loves, history, religion, philosophies, and more.
The Definable and Indefinable Nature of Art
All these struggles to define what art is really boil down to fear—a fear that elitism will strangle joy out of what it is we all enjoy consuming.
From Signs to A Quiet Place: Perspective in Apocalyptic Horror
The claustrophobic feeling of the not-knowing forces us inside ourselves to examine our own reactions to the scenarios presented in the stories and—in the case of movies—on the screen.
Memeing the Classics: How SparkNotes on Twitter Enters into a Great Work
Memeing the classics can be a way to plant seeds of interest, sparks that make seemingly dull, intimidating, or difficult pieces of literature come alive with possibility.
A Perfect Movie: The Enduring Legacy of The Princess Bride
When the grandfather reads the story to his grandson, he invites us all to sit at his knee and listen. He invites us to be children again.
Dancing with Milton’s Satan: The Joker and a Fascination with Evil
Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight, Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker, and John Milton’s Satan invite us to view them as the heroes of stories that were never intended to be about them.
‘Bigger on the Inside’: How Gateway Fantasy Gives Space to Our Longings
No one who journeys through a magic portal or gateway or liminal space in such a story believes the world or worlds on the other side will be smaller.
The Monster at the End of this Book, Arrival, and How Nonlinear Stories Help Us Think
If you know there is a monster at the end of the story, it takes great bravery to turn those pages.
Time in the Telling: How Stories of Time Help Us Grapple with a Fallen World
All of time itself is but a dream from which the people of Narnia—and, let the reader understand, all of us—will someday wake.
Spider-Man: Far From Home and the Power of Personal Narratives
The benign neglect of Tony Stark and Peter Parker.
Disney’s Retellings, Aladdin, and Our Cultural Imagination
Some remakes of classic tales may reflect changed cultural mores, but it is a fallacy to believe we are morally evolving with each passing decade.
Fosse/Verdon Recap, “Providence” (Series Finale)
This series has poignantly shown us that it was longing that defined the lives of Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon.
Don’t Disparage Fiction
Fictional stories can help us see more clearly truths and falsehoods that seem complex in the real world.
Fosse/Verdon Recap, “Nowadays” (Episode 7)
Their relationship has become a sad reminder that you can have it all and still have nothing.
