read these
Dec. 19th, 2025 09:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calimac1. My colleague Michael D.C. Drout on why The Lord of the Rings endures with readers. (If you don't have access to the NY Times, this link might get you there.) The essay takes a startling personal turn that may surprise readers who don't know Mike, but in the process it also reveals some of why Tolkien is such a moving and effective author. (And some of it is based on the lexomic analysis in the article Mike co-authored in the latest issue of Tolkien Studies.) It's a sad and beautiful article, like Tolkien's work itself.
2. What has become of NASA? Joel Achenbach's deep dive into the recent history and current state of the agency that's been mooting return flights to the Moon and also to Mars, and why it's not likely to happen, told with a clarity not always granted to such articles.
3. The angriest and hence best response to the thing that took to the airwaves to yell at America.
2. What has become of NASA? Joel Achenbach's deep dive into the recent history and current state of the agency that's been mooting return flights to the Moon and also to Mars, and why it's not likely to happen, told with a clarity not always granted to such articles.
3. The angriest and hence best response to the thing that took to the airwaves to yell at America.
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Date: 2025-12-20 09:53 pm (UTC)