Finkelstein’s Gaza
I just received Norman Finkelstein’s latest book, Gaza: An Inquest into Its Martyrdom. I noticed this blurb by Alice Walker: “This is the voice I listen for, when I want to learn the deepest reality…
Author: Mark J. Chmiel
When Simone Met Simone
Most interesting among [Alain’s disciples] was Simone Weil, the future author of Gravity and Grace, who was taking the same classes as the future author of The Second Sex. Simone Weil dressed oddly and always…
“True Happiness and Joy”
Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1988. He was the author of 40 novels, 350 short stories, and five plays. When I was in Palestine in 2003, I would read…
Should This Be Added to Gene Sharp’s List of 198 Nonviolent Actions?
Today Spielberg’s The Post opens It’s true! — a film about the Pentagon Papers I texted Max if he’d like to go and he responded in a couple of minutes: “I took a quick look…
Waiting in Line To Order an Espresso
I overheard Sylvie Smith ask Emma Wong “What’s up, haven’t seen you on Snapchat?” “Yeah, I haven’t looked at Snapchat In three weeks” Sylvie looked horrified “THREE WEEKS?!!! What’s going on with you?” “Just into…
Three Hours in the Morning
In Talking with Sartre, U.S. professor John Gerassi explores a fascinating range of subjects with the French intellectual, writer, and activist. At the book’s conclusion, Gerassi writes, “What we must do instead, he said, is…
The Struggle Is One
In the 1970s Orbis Books was the U.S. cutting-edge publisher of books coming out of Latin America that heralded the phenomenon of liberation theology. Gustavo Gutiérrez, Leonardo Boff, and Jon Sobrino were among the…
December 10 Sunday Share the Wealth with Andrew Wimmer: Reckoning with Torture
In November 2005, Stop Torture Now, a project of the Center for Theology and Social Analysis in St. Louis, delivered a Peoples’ Indictment against Aero Contractors and the commissioners of the Johnston County airport in…
In Praise of Sentimental Slop
Back in the late 90s, when the spring semester ended, and the grades had been turned in, I’d treat myself with another reading of Dostoevsky’s magisterial The Brothers Karamazov. I’ve lost track of how many…
On “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry” by Carly Hofstetter
Carly is taking my Humanities class at Maryville and shared the following with me, and I am happy to share with you. After watching this documentary I realized I know little to nothing about China,…