Mark Edmundson is University Professor in the Department of English at the University of Virginia. His books include Why Football Matters: My Education in the Game, Why Teach?, and Self and Soul: A Defense of Ideals.
A hangover is about being poisoned, no doubt. The toxins linger in the body and must be expelled, or waited out. We’re sick with a mini-flu and need to get better. But isn’t a hangover about more than physical toxins, at least some of the time?
Does the body still exist if we do not have souls?
We have become a nation and a people that simply cannot abide risks.
How does a contemporary humanities professor abet the pursuit of enjoyment?
The culture at large has overrated Smart.
By affirming one side and suppressing the other, we make ourselves into half men and half women.
When someone so much as touches a state vehicle, the wheels of justice begin to turn, and that’s that.
Once upon a time there was a publication that was doing all it could to tell a straight story and to listen to all sides.
A trick that only the most gifted demagogues can bring off.
A human spirit of community and kindness can be learned. But it can also be forgotten.
Dear friends: The man bounced a rubber ball for a living.
What’s up with us humans, us American humans, that we’re committing ourselves more and more to unbending postures?