E.J. Hutchinson

May 31, 2024 | theimaginativeconservative.org | E.J. Hutchinson

Some familiarity with the ancient world really does enliven one’s appreciation of the arts and literature of the European tradition and its geographical and cultural penumbra. I was reminded of this recently in an apparently trivial—but, for all that, rather delightful—way. Are there any “benefits of a classical education,” as Hans Gruber puts it in Die Hard?

Mar 14, 2024 | theimaginativeconservative.org | E.J. Hutchinson

In his last moments, Brutus voiced a sentiment about the ultimate tragedy of the virtuous life in those evil days, in which the good was punished and the evil rewarded. This does not make virtue worthless for the individual; it just may place him on the losing side.

Oct 20, 2023 | adfontesjournal.com | E.J. Hutchinson

It is a melancholy and sobering truth, but a truth all the same, that most of us will be quickly and easily forgotten when we are gone. Most people don’t remember their own families beyond two, or at most three, generations. And if our descendants won’t remember us—well, who will? I was reminded of this the other day. I had recently finished reading Walter Van Tilburg Clark’s wonderful novel The Ox-Bow Incident, which he wrote while teaching high school English in a small town in New York.

Jul 17, 2023 | adfontesjournal.com | E.J. Hutchinson

I just finished reading contemporary poet A.M. Juster’s Wonder & Wrath (Paul Dry Books, 2020). The delightful collection ends with some translations (from Oromo, French, Middle Welsh, Latin, and Chinese) and two parodies, one of Billy Collins and the other of Bob Dylan. The Dylan parody spoofs “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” just as “Weird Al” Yankovic did in “Bob” on 2003’s Poodle Hat.

Jun 13, 2023 | adfontesjournal.com | E.J. Hutchinson |Eric Hutchinson |into January

Folk Music: A Biography of Bob Dylan in Seven Songs by Greil Marcus. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2022. 288 pp. Hardback. $27.50. The Philosophy of Modern Song by Bob Dylan. London: Simon & Schuster, 2022. 352 pp. Hardback. $22.50. “I just tried to disguise myself the best I could.”“I mean, I’m still the same person. You know, like Hank Williams would say, my hair’s still curly, my eyes are still blue.