On Conservative Antiheroes
In Defense of the Flawed Protagonist
By Scott Seward Smith
In her Political Writing 101 column here on the Liberty Island website, Jamie K. Wilson argues that conservative writers “need to unashamedly embrace the epic hero”. “I get tired of antiheroes.” she writes. “They are the damaged and suffering heroes that SJWs wish they could be.”
I thought of this advice in light of my own forthcoming novel from Liberty Island, Red Line Blues: The Ballad of Owen Cassel, due out in November. My hero is clearly not an epic hero. He is much closer to the “damaged and suffering” heroes that Jamie disdains. I sat down to write my novel with a particular purpose: to challenge the prevailing sense in mainstream culture that someone with conservative views cannot be complex, let alone cultured. Conservatives are always corrupt, ignorant, and bigoted. If they have some redeeming features to them, they become liberals in the end (like Scott, in Woody Allen’s “Everybody Says I Love You”, whose conservatism turned out to be the result of a brain tumor). Thus was born Owen Cassell—an alcoholic, divorced, disillusioned lapsed Catholic and failed professor, who is nonetheless highly intelligent, charming, well-traveled, and sensitive. His problem is that he falls in love with a younger woman who is liberal.
The Incredibles 2: How To Waste A Good Premise
The Importance of Theme Revealed by Comparing the Original to the New Sequel…
By Oren Litwin
I recently saw The Incredibles and The Incredibles 2 back to back. The Incredibles is a brilliant film: a master-class in storytelling and a lot of fun. The Incredibles 2 is a good film: enjoyable with exciting action sequences and several hilarious bits about parenting. However, in my judgment it does not approach the brilliance of its predecessor. And a big part of the difference, I think, is in the two films’ treatment of theme. [Spoilers ahead!]
The Growing Hidden Market for Information Appliances
By Tamara Wilhite
Bringing in information appliances like Alexa and Siri costs you your privacy. They’ll monitor and record everything you say, parsing it for key terms to be used in advertising. However, I can’t say they aren’t for everyone. I’m going to ignore those who want to live in a networked home because it feels like the future has arrived and focus on those that are the best (or worst) case scenario.
Political Writing 101: Creating Compelling Epic Heroes
Part 4 In a New Weekly Column With Advice for Conservative Creative Writers
By Jamie K. Wilson
Welcome to this series on how to write fiction from a conservative point of view. These posts can simply be read, or you are invited to join a guided writer’s workshop to practice and critique with other writers. To join the workshop, please email me, Jamie, at kywrite at gmail.com and request an invitation.
Book Review: ‘To Be Men’
By Tamara Wilhite
The short story collection “To Be Men” was written to embody traditional values of courage, heroism, self-sacrifice and a father’s love that are too often derided in our society. The result of the editor’s work is an eclectic mix of stories by a number of authors.
Editor’s Note: This review is cross-posted from HubPages. If you would like to submit cultural posts from your blog for cross-posting or new, unpublished articles please email submissions [at] LibertyIslandMag.com
The Blessed Mother’s Odyssey Through Science Fiction and Fantasy, Part 1
By Alec Ott
About a year and a half ago, I wrote the article The Logos: A Perfect Man’s Odyssey Through Science Fiction and Fantasy, in which I compared the character of Jesus Christ with popular characters in fantasy and science fiction, such as Star Trek, Star Wars, select superheroes and The Lord of the Rings. My conclusion was that if he was considered merely as a literary figure, even in that limited sense, Jesus is a singular character in all of history, one that beats all other heroes at their own game. That is because he is portrayed as the Logos himself, a being incapable of making mistakes—but even more so—the model of perfection itself with unlimited, infinite power. No other figure comes even close—because, as I posited, it’s hard for mere humans to even grasp the existence of someone like that.
I now return with another comparable character, and one who is considered to be the greatest creature of all of God’s creation. Only the Logos, who is God and not a creature, is greater. And he is her son.
“Last Best Hope of Earth,” or Mass Graves and the Gulag?
Some Thoughts on Griff’s Cultural Dispatches from the Alamo…
By David Churchill Barrow
I make it a point to read Griff’s “Cultural Dispatches from the Alamo” as soon as I see them pop up on Liberty Island. (But “from the Alamo,” Griff? Are things that bad? Fannon has been massacred at Goliad, no one is coming, and Santa Anna’s band is striking up El Deguello every day?)
Griff repeatedly and accurately traces the roots of so-called “Progressivism” and its attendant cultural paroxysms back to Marxism, but the divergence of classical liberalism (modern American conservatism) from the left actually took place almost a century before Das Kapital and The Communist Manifesto came out. It is found in the vast differences between the American shopkeepers and farmers who stood at Lexington and Concord to “fire the shot heard round the world” and the peasants who stormed the Bastille – their respective causes and their leadership.
“Penguins don’t come from next door… They come from the Antarctic!”
By David Churchill Barrow
*Submit your photographs of nature and the outdoor life to [email protected] to participate in this weekly feature exploring the natural world.*
10 Badass Heavy Metal & Alternative Tracks to Fuel Your Wicked Writing
Put these songs on when you want to slip into the zone
By David M. Swindle
For this list, we’re going heavy — these are the metal and alternative tracks to help you get focused and creative while writing. Presented in no particular order, save for my pride for my brother’s debut album…
Photos of 2 Liberty Island Authors at Barnes & Noble Signing Events
By David M. Swindle
Before you go on summer vacation, pick up on Amazon two novels that are absolutely perfect for beach reading: Currency by L Todd Wood and Jonah: A Novel of Men and the Sea by Howard Butcher both offer thrilling stories set around the ocean.
