by Steve Chisnell | 7 February 2010 | ChizBlog, Culture Criticism, Literary Criticism, Mythology
No matter how many layers of language and manners we paint over our selves, at our centers, implies Joseph Conrad, is a desperate selfish hunger, a need to account for ourselves by defining the “I” against the “Other,” to lash out in violence.... 
by Steve Chisnell | 10 December 2008 | ChizBlog, Culture Criticism, Mythology
You don’t pump anti-lock brakes. I’m still not used to that. As my car skidded a bit across the December ice, I remembered to turn into the spin and bring it around straight again. Not so the driver behind me who began to fishtail before he remembered and... 
by Steve Chisnell | 16 November 2008 | ChizBlog, Culture Criticism, Mythology
Recently I mentioned in some of my classes that, psychologically, we are the stars of our own movies. By this I meant that we first of all see ourselves as the protagonists of a story, the main characters, the ones we imagine must win or succeed in the end. This is... 
by Steve Chisnell | 5 October 2008 | ChizBlog, Literary Criticism, Mythology, Politics and Ethics
In ancient Greek legend, the cave-dwelling Cumaean Sibyl, a famous prophetess, wrote the future on a series of oak leaves. However, every time supplicants came to ask of their fortunes, they would open the door to the cave and the West Wind would blow in, scattering... 
by Steve Chisnell | 20 April 2008 | ChizBlog, Mythology
Eris, the Goddess of Discord, throws the apple into the hall of the gods, labeled kalliste, “to the fairest.” And so begin the arguments of Helen’s fidelity, Achilles’ hubris, and Odysseus’ loss. All of Western literature is beset first by discord, by imbalance, and... 
Steve Chisnell (um, on the right) is a teacher at Royal Oak (MI) High School.
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