The characters in ‘20th Century Women’ find themselves torn between embracing the new and retreating into the familiar.
Arts & Culture
Posted inArts & Culture, Ideas
From the Black Madonna to Our Lady of Lourdes, we see Mary in our own image
Whether in the Middle Ages or a modern Marian renaissance, how Mary looks can reflect and affirm the people she appears to.
Posted inArts & Culture, Theater
‘Cabaret’ returns to Broadway: Facing the Nazis’ most diabolical crime on stage
The complicity of ordinary Germans in the Holocaust is the central subject of two shows now running in New York City.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Poet, feminist and nun: Sister Madeleva Wolff’s ideal of the ‘well-rounded woman’
A poet and a woman religious whose work often appeared in America, M. Madeleva Wolff, C.S.C., is known for much more than her verse. She was also a pioneer in Catholic education in the United States.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Movie Club
‘Juno’ is neither a pro-life or a pro-choice movie
It would be an exaggeration to call “Juno” pro-life, but it is encouraging to see a popular film diverge from the familiar culture war battle lines.
Posted inArts & Culture, Television
‘Shogun’ is a complex tale of religion and colonialism—with Jesuits as villains
“Shogun” is a dire portrait of the Catholic Church’s role in colonial history, but the Japanese are not mere victims in this story.
Posted inArts & Culture, Music
Kendrick Lamar is (lyrically) beating up on Drake in ways hip-hop has never seen before. Why are we eating it up?
A beef between two of the biggest rappers in the world, Kendrick Lamar and Drake, has birthed unforgettable songs for both of these artists.
Posted inArts & Culture, Ideas
Eugenics was everywhere 100 years ago. We still live with its legacy today.
Of the many things that the history of eugenics should teach modern society, two stand out. First, not all questions are good questions. Second, statistics can be warped to tell you pretty much anything you want.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: America’s two-front dilemma in World War II
Books about World War II are ubiquitous in the nonfiction section, but “Hitler’s American Gamble” is the rare recent work with a genuinely new contribution to make, not just to our understanding of the past but also to our understanding of the present.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: A heroine’s journey
Lauren Groff’s new novel inverts Defoe’s “Robinson Crusoe” by casting a girl—and only briefly, much later on in the novel, the woman—as its heroine.