Over the years, I have thought about the reasons why individuals continue to cling tightly to their beliefs, beliefs based in fear that spawn hatred. I’ve struggled to come to grips with this aspect of humanity and to untangle its roots. What I have come to realize is that change and growth cannot occur until one decides to come face to face with themselves. … Read More Confronting Ourselves and The Fear of Action
As I read and taught P. Djèlí Clark’s Ring Shout, a lot of things stood out, specifically when thinking about the Gothic and the EthnoGothic. The sheer amount of themes that Clark packs into the novella is, at times, overwhelming, but it all adds to the rich and layered narrative that weaves its way throughout Ring Shout. While I could focus on any number … Read More The Monsters Within in P. Djèlí Clark’s “Ring Shout”
While so many aspects of Nate Powell’s Save It For Later stand out and make me stop to think, the one theme that resonates with me the most has to be the ways that our children view the world. “Their bullshit dectors,” as Powell puts in near the end of “Wingnut,” “are much better than ours.” This assertion is what drives me, partly, when … Read More Detecting Bullshit in Nate Powell’s “Save It For Later”
I never thought I’d become an educator, in any sense of the word. When I was an undergraduate, I wanted to be a marine biologist, not an educator. Well, chemistry really did a number on me, so I changed majors, moving from biology to secondary education with a focus on biology and minor in English. I am, for the most part, an introvert, and … Read More Why Do I Teach?
Like all of the bands I’ve written about in this series, Zao came out of the “Christian” music scene of the 1990s and 2000s, a scene spearheaded in many ways by Tooth and Nail Records and Solidstate (the harder branch of Tooth and Nail). However, the bands I’ve discussed have dropped that “Christian” label, pointing out the problematic nature with such a label, specifically … Read More Politics in “Christian” Songs IV
Interminable Rambling 