Athwart Newsletter #7

I want to again thank On Deck for sponsoring this newsletter, helping us to continue publishing interesting and emerging writers. If you would like to support Athwart as well, check out the Support Us page to keep our project survive and thrive! We've published a lot of great work recently and are working on providing you with some of the best things we read from other outlets, so I'll keep this brief and encourage you to check it all of our excellent recent work!

Thanks for your support,

Bradley Davis

N.B., if you want to write for Athwart, contact us and let's chat!

Essays

• "Jordan Peterson Sermonizes Again: A Review of Beyond Order" by Ben Sixsmith
• "Tears in Rain and Whirlwinds" by John Ehrett
• "Enjoying the Cage: A Review of Lauren Oyler's Fake Accounts" by Peter Kranitz
• "Songs of Virtue & Vice" by Emma Mutch

Musings

• "Tragedy of the Common Good" by Joseph M. Keegin

Interviews

• Interview with Steven Smith: Strauss, Skepticism, and Patriotism with the Alfred Cowles Professor of Political Science at Yale University

Phronesis Podcast

• Episode 12: Leo Strauss, "Religion and the Commonweal in the Tradition of Political Philosophy" with special guest Samuel Goldman
• Episode 11: Walter Benjamin, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" with special guest Max Nussenbaum
• Episode 10: Dorothy Sayers, "The Lost Tools of Learning" with special guest Micah Meadowcroft

Friends & Foes

• "Private Schools are Indefensible" by Caitlin Flanagan in The Atlantic
  • Discussion, investiation, and criticism of American elites has been growing across the political spectrum, but Flanagan's essay is perhaps the best writing on the topic so far.
• "It’s Lit: Youth Culture and the Possible Resurrection of Savonarola" by Chris Morgan in Jacobite
  • Chris Morgan on “youth culture” seen through the historical homology of punk rock moral seriousness and religious fanaticism: “In 1517, Martin Luther’s actions sparked the Protestant reformation. 490 years later, Fugazi, however willfully or not, assumed its mantle and perpetuated it in their own image, an act with far-reaching implications.”
• "'Demons' at 150" by Jacob Howland in The New Criterion
  • Jacob Howland on the unsettling prescience of Dostoyevsky’s “Demons”: “Dostoevsky grasped what is painfully obvious today: as authority collapses, institutions implode, and intellectual and moral anarchy predominates, the liberal elite is apt to combine with revolutionary ideologues to unleash destructive forces that neither group can control.”
• "The Church Forests of Ethiopia" by Jeremy Seifert and Fred Bahnson in Emergence Magazine
  • "Nearly all of Ethiopia’s original trees have disappeared, but small pockets of old-growth forest still surround Ethiopia’s churches, living arks of biodiversity amongst the brown grazing fields. In this film and essay, Jeremy Seifert and Fred Bahnson travel to Ethiopia to gain a deeper understanding of how our fate is tied with the fate of trees."
• "The Fallout from the 20th Century Quarrel Over the Subject" by Angela Franks in Church Life Journal

Music from Max

• The Old Band by Harrison Lemke
  • Lemke’s new album FOREVER ONLY IDAHO dropped 3/19, annd this single gives us a taste of the whole album. Listen for melancholy, some great synths, and a particularly tragic line about Pavement.
• "Nashville Blues" by Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
  • Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, one of the longest-lasting country-rock ensembles out there, was highly influential. “Nashville Blues” is a great bluegrass joint off their seminal 1972 album Will the Circle Be Unbroken, which is worth a listen in its entirety.
• "Kingdom Come" by Red Velvet
  • Athwart has fulminated against K-Pop in the past (here and here) but there’s no denying the sultry vocals or the powerful R&B beats from one of South Korea’s most popular girl groups.

Note from our Sponsor On Deck

On Deck Catalyst is a ten-week remote program for young leaders who want to solve the world’s most pressing problems and take an unconventional path to building their career. The curriculum includes:

• Deep dives on how startups work: what core positions look like day-to-day and why that role is important to the business.
• Learning the ins and outs of founding and investing in companies alongside the best in the industry.
• Speaker sessions from Keith Rabois, Aileen Lee, and Jack Altman, and others as part of the Leaders and Protégés track, an in-depth look into mentor and mentee relationships, and a launchpad for eventual success.
• How to create your own opportunities—make roles that previously didn’t exist at any startup you join, launch a startup from scratch, or break into the world of venture capital.

Their next cohort kicks off on June 5. You can apply here before May 4th. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.