Ryan's NY Observer Essays (and a few others)--Republished in Arts & Letters Daily and Elsewhere.

I've moved away from writing essays, but I think my best essay was the most inflammatory, in Quillette. I compared two communities, one right and one left, and discovered that political correctness was alive and well on both sides. Political correctness--a term that Christian patriots do not own--is found in various American groups. It might have something to do with our early colonies when people needed to fit in or risk expulsion, when Cotton Mather struck fear into those who stood alone in their beliefs.

From "A Raft of Books," in Quillette: "In 2008, university officials ordered 15,000 condom coupons destined for freshman eyes to be removed from circulars, by scissors. In 2005, they censored fliers that promoted university films and lectures by covering them with stickers to be 'less offensive.' It was as though church moms were everywhere, tidying up, dumping unclean books and magazines, and wiping all the windows that looked onto God’s blue sky."

From my Milo essay in the NY Observer: “I support anyone's right to speak and publish. But my own feeling is that Milo was often thin stuff—he was one-dimensional, neglecting to locate any other personality trait that might mitigate his constant judgments about people on the left . . . His rhetoric was absent goodwill that might truly persuade, and therefore he lacked complexity and depth on the stage. In short, too much stupidity issued from his pretty mouth.”

Catcher in the Rye essay in the NY Observer. "In fact, Holden’s criticism earns all the more trust because it’s deeply personal. Though he’s a child of a corporate lawyer, he never speaks in unison with his class. He has every privilege—and insists on wearing ties and fitting in—but risks his position by his behaviors . . . He’s no beatnik or bohemian, though he’s met with those and has neglected to emulate them. He articulates his own ideas, unafraid to stand alone—an exemplar to millions throughout the world."

From my NY Observer essay "The Rebel Left is Dead" (Arts & Letters Daily): "I occasionally despair of the loss of the 1960s rebellious left in American life. Many 60s writers refused a total allegiance to their politics. They found singular voices through dissonance, ambiguity, and contradiction—as individuals often do. It’s not surprising that Norman Mailer, Joan Didion, and Hunter S. Thompson explored free expression on so many of their pages." 

https://observer.com/2017/12/rebel-left-vanished-diversity-authoritarianism-journalism/

Rumpus Essay: "Many evenings I rode my bike to a Mexican restaurant nearby, ate the free chips and salsa at a booth, and drank beer. Headphones and a notebook were good company. A tacky string of fat little bottles hung blinking on the wall above the table I favored. Mostly I took notes on the short stories I was writing, for an excuse to be alone. But I also liked just drinking and listening to Alien Lanes."

https://therumpus.net/2015/09/17/albums-of-our-lives-guided-by-voicess-alien-lanes/