Some Anecdotes About Anecdotes

This post was written by Stephen Tuttle, a Humanities Center faculty fellow.     The year I turned eleven, I spent a lot of time not reading. I was more interested in setting a high score on Megamania, a video game that was basically Space Invaders if the invaders were hamburgers (I know, I don’t get …

Wild Truth

This post was written by Coleman Numbers, a Humanities Center student fellow.    “I teach them correct principles, and they govern themselves.” —Joseph Smith, 1851 Why is so much science fiction concerned with totalitarianism?   This question has infected me since I started Adrian Tchaikovsky’s latest novel, Alien Clay. It’s not the question I expected …

Consider the Water Lilies

This post was written by Kathryn Charles, the current Humanities Center Intern.    Under most circumstances, I would jump at the chance to visit Monet’s garden at his home in Giverny, France. Under jet-lagged circumstances in the early morning, I did not. My husband, Sam, who had visited the garden before, promised me that if …

Lamenting the Loss of Literacy

This post was written by Cherice Montgomery, a Humanities Center faculty fellow.    As a child, I loved stories; and if the thirty books now precariously perched on my nightstand are any indication, that has not changed much. Books are some of my best friends. They tell me everything from their most trivial thoughts to …

In Praise of Wandering

This post was written by Rex P. Nielson, BYU Humanities Center Director.    I’ve just returned from attending the MLA annual convention, held this year in a very chilly and rainy New Orleans. Following a lengthy more-than-ten-year stretch in which I deliberately avoided the MLA convention, a hiatus that I freely admit was prompted by …

Safe in His Love

This post was written by Aaron Eastley, a Humanities Center faculty fellow.    On a recent research trip, I found myself in a place even quieter than the library archives I have sometimes visited. I was on Cranberry Island off the coast of Maine, following in the footsteps of Leslie Norris, a Welsh poet I …

Linguistic Ecosystems and the Creation

This post was written by Chris Rogers, a Humanities Center faculty fellow.    The first time I wanted to learn another language was because a new student, Edgar, had moved from Mexico into my fourth-grade classroom in Southern California. I asked my dad to teach me how to introduce myself to Edgar in Spanish (my …