Author: Collin Garbarino
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Readings in Late Antiquity
This spring semester, I’m teaching a class on Late Antiquity. When I say that, people usually ask, “What is Late Antiquity?” Late Antiquity is the period of transition from the late Roman Empire to the early Middle Ages. Often we talk about the the Fall of Rome as if it was something that happened in 476…
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Less and More Writing
What did I accomplish in 2016? I only wrote four posts for my personal blog. I wrote a couple of movie reviews for Reformation 21. I wrote an article for The Federalist. I also wrote an article on martyrdom for HBU’s The City. Altogether, that’s probably only 10,000 words—a pretty sorry showing for someone who…
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Heir to the Jedi—Review of a Star Wars Novel
Heir to the Jedi is the first Star Wars book that I’ve read since Disney bought the universe and rebooted the novels with a fresh continuity. I had hoped that Disney would do a good job protecting their property, but they should have exercised more quality control with this book. Heir to the Jedi takes place…
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What We’ll Be Reading this Spring Semester
Today is the first day of the spring semester so I thought I’d give a run down of what we’ll be reading in my classes. Western Civilization I This class covers roughly the ancient and medieval world. We’ll be reading the same primary-source reader that I developed over the summer. This reader has excerpts from over a dozen…
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The Stupidest Picture of the Universe
Every now and then, this picture of the universe shows up in my Facebook feed. The universe is a beautiful place, and I like the universe—it’s where I keep my stuff. Even so, I don’t like this particular picture of the universe. Why? Because someone has written stupid stuff on it. The picture warns me…
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New Year, New Perspective, New Look
The beginning of a new year hasn’t been the time that I traditionally make my plans and set my goals. Since I’m a college professor, I usually think about the year on the basis of the academic calendar. One of the benefits of the academic calendar is that it has a number of new beginnings, so one can keep making…
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Most Popular Posts of 2015
I didn’t have my most prolific year of writing, but I figured I’d end 2015 with a retrospective blog post anyway. This way I can finish up my year without having to think of something new to say. Here is a list of my most popular blog posts from 2015. 1. “Talking Sensibly about Hitler.…
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20 Recycled Elements in The Force Awakens from the Original Trilogy
This post contains spoilers; so quit reading now if you’re one of the dozen people who didn’t see The Force Awakens this weekend. ____________ Why come up with a new movie when the old ones were so good? As I noted in an earlier post, The Force Awakens recycles a number images and plot devices…
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The Force Awakens: J. J. Abrams’s Love Letter to Star Wars Fans
Just in case you haven’t heard, Star Wars is back. And it’s the good Star Wars. It’s the Rebellion-and-the-Empire Star Wars. It’s the everything-is-a-little-gritty Star Wars. It’s the Han-shot-first Star Wars. (Okay, so Han doesn’t mention shooting first, but I’d like to believe it’s implied.) Thirty or so years after the rebels blew up that second Death…
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Politics and Religion in Ridley Scott’s The Martian
The Martian is good science fiction. It has a hard-edged realism combined with a compelling plot. In the near future, NASA is sending manned missions to Mars, but the Ares III mission runs into trouble. The crew leaves behind astronaut Mark Watney, played by Matt Damon, because they think he’s dead, but Mark, who isn’t…
COLLIN GARBARINO 