The Denial File
What We Can't Think About—and Why
A Reading for the Fall Program
Bill Bornschein | August 30, 2011
As many of you know, the EBF Fall Program will have an environmental focus. With this blog I’d like to suggest a reading that would …
Don’t Pick the Buds
Bruce Floyd | August 23, 2011
The below poem, “The Picture of Little T. C. in a Prospect of Flowers” by Andrew Marvell is a pure Beckerian poem, by which I …
Full Faith and Credit…Congress and Wall Street
Henry Richards | August 18, 2011
I too was confused, until I realized that the model for understanding the whole thing was sitting in the trunk of my car. I have …
The Good Place of Religion
Daniel Liechty | August 15, 2011
Sunday afternoon, while driving through west Bloomington (what we might call “the poor side of town”) I saw a sign that said “Free Sale.” Intrigued, …
The Dark Knight Needs Paris
Bill Bornschein | August 11, 2011
The trailer for the latest Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises, begins with the following intonation: “If you make yourself more than just a man, …
The Psychic Bartender: Pole Dancing
Kirby Farrell | August 10, 2011
No, no: not a guy from Warsaw doing the boogaloo. Racier than that. Guy saunters into the bar wearing a striped tie with a gold …
Mortal Grossness
Bruce Floyd | August 5, 2011
This morning, another bright and hot one here, easing toward the end of torpid July, I sit in my study, sip coffee, listen to “Bolero” …
Reading Ernest Becker in 2011
Daniel Liechty | August 1, 2011
Recently a person contacted me to say that he had read Ernest Becker’s 1974 book, The Denial of Death, and felt that it was more …