Acton Institute Powerblog Archives

Post Tagged 'fiction'

July 22, 2013

Work and the Political Economy of the Zombie Apocalypse

One of the more curious cultural movements in recent years has been the increasing interest in zombies, and in particular the dystopian visions of a world following the zombie apocalypse. Part of the fascination has to do, I think, with the value of thought experiments in speculation about such futures, however improbable. Continue Reading...
June 26, 2013

Man of Steel, Man of Sorrows

Last time the Superman franchise was rebooted, I reacted pretty negatively to the messiah-lite qualities of Clark Kent’s alter ego. In this fine piece over at Big Think, Peter Lawler analyzes the nature of this tension in the context of the new film quite aptly: The film also has all kinds of Christian New-Agey imagery that you can grab onto if you’re not much of a reader. Continue Reading...
April 01, 2013

No Man Is An Island

In the current Acton Commentary, I take a look at what I call a “modern-day Robinson Crusoe,” the survivalist Richard Proenneke of “Alone in the Wilderness” fame. But as I also note in the piece, there are some other instances of this classic shipwrecked literary device, including the TV show Lost. Continue Reading...
June 24, 2011

‘Narrative Matters’

Ben Shapiro was at the Heritage Foundation recently to talk about his new book, Primetime Propaganda: The True Hollywood Story of How the Left Took Over Your TV. Publisher HarperCollins describes the book as “the inside story of how the most powerful medium of mass communication in human history has become a propaganda tool for the Left.” Continue Reading...
December 29, 2008

Christmas and the Cross

Two of Eric Shansberg’s recent PowerBlog posts got me thinking of some other things I had run across in the last couple weeks during the run-up to Christmas Day. The first item, “Santa and the ultimate Fairy Tale,” quotes Tony Woodlief to the effect that “fairy tales and Santa Claus do prepare us to embrace the ultimate Fairy Tale.” Continue Reading...