Though the approach to the mountain Weathertop is only one scene in “The Lord of the Rings,” it is a telling one. Through romance, imagery of light and color, the voluptuousness of his landscapes, and the holiness of song and poetry, J.R.R. Tolkien brilliantly reveals himself as a master of the English language and, especially, [...]
Metaphor should not be approached as some “thing,” but as a transformative power, the invisible process by which “things” come into being. Using metaphor, even very simple language and very common-place images can be brought into new, unique constellations. Contrary to the sundry definitions of metaphor proffered by many school teachers and dictionaries, metaphor is [...]
The essayist’s head is always in the clouds, his feet are never on the ground. What keeps me going is cultivating an inner joy. A sort of contemplative trance is for me the most blessed state in which to find oneself. Sometimes it even leads to prayer, the highest form of reflection and communion. As [...]
Like prayer and meditation, writing helps make sense of things, to cut through the clutter of life, to find mental clarity and order—both for the writer himself and in turn for the readers. The act of writing helps the writer to know himself and the reader in turn to know himself, to know that he [...]
The letters of the alphabet, strung together in cogent meaning, might be best thought of, not as means to an end, but as an end in and of themselves—a living, incarnated creativity that encourages relationship. And I like to consider speech, in all its forms, as love letters. My youngest child, just nearing his seventh [...]
Once mastered, cursive enables us to write rapidly without lifting the pen from the paper—a skill that has major advantages over printing. Cursive now stumps many college students today. Whether it can ever make a comeback seems to be an issue. At about 10 o’clock the other night, my wife called me out of my [...]
Evelyn Waugh understands that if a writer is to develop, he “must concern himself more and more with Style.” By approaching words with the attention and craft of a tailor, the literary artist not only communicates but also gives pleasure to others. “What do you think you’re doing?” It’s a question I occasionally get from [...]
Joseph Epstein’s life and writing exemplify the ideal essay writer’s tendency to be a humane generalist rather than an academic specialist. Aiming at well-roundedness, the essayist also becomes freed from vogue words and jargon, a bad influence against which Mr. Epstein campaigns vigorously and wittily in “Gallimaufry: A Collection of Essays, Reviews, Bits.” Gallimaufry: A [...]
There are certain tools that can help in the writing process. Think of a keyboard, for example, as the equivalent of a rock musician’s guitar. Just as a musician would only want to perform before an audience with a quality guitar, a professional or serious writer will definitely want to invest in a good keyboard. [...]
The poet’s power is a power to disclose, extol, and communicate the sanctity of experience, protecting it from the ordinary disorientation of the quotidian. The poet calls attention to the ordinary patterns of human life, and is a call to contentment, that rarest of achievements. To attribute to poetry such power is to ascribe to [...]
One of the most encouraging trends among conservatives in recent years has been the increased amount of recognition and discussion they have given to the importance of culture and the arts. There is, on the right, a growing sensitivity to the ways that many of the political and social ills we commonly bemoan have their [...]
Our college, like most others, has adopted the new mode of “distance learning” during the current crisis. What if our students begin to learn a new kind of engagement with the written word precisely because of this momentary break from the habits of life at school and of absence from each other? I can’t help [...]
The Imaginative Conservative’s Senior Contributor Joseph Pearce recently answered questions from students at Benedictine College about his career as a writer and scholar. […]
I did not become an English professor because of my early public education—but despite it. The standards advocated in the public schools pose a danger to our English-speaking world, and losing our language, or our ability to remake it, is indistinguishable from the diminishment of our Western civilization. Like most American children who attended public [...]