The State of First Things, June/July 2010

The most noteworthy thing about this issue is the complete redesign.  And, since the whole point of this series of posts was to figure out if this magazine was still worth reading, the redesign means that the series is back to Square One.  (By the way, the origin of this phrase ("Back to Square One") is probably a reference to the old game Snakes and Ladders, a game which has long intrigued me because by the time I became a youth, the game had metamorphosed into Chutes and Ladders; now since Snakes and Ladders would be a much cooler (or, I suppose, a much more tubular) game than Chutes and Ladders, the reason for the change must have had absolutely nothing to do with young children (the only sort of people who would ever actually enjoy playing a game in which the outcome is dictated solely by the series of numbers generated by something akin to a random number generator), but rather due to the misplaced sensibilities of the same sort of people who gave all the Grimm Fairy Tales happy endings.  What's wrong with snakes, anyway?)  But, back to the matter of the new design; I assumed I would hate it because, well, I actually always dislike change, but oddly, I don't mind the new look and feel of the magazine.

As for the content:

A. Must Read Articles
1. Weiler, "The Trial of Jesus"
This is one of those articles which makes you think something new about something you have spent endless hours thing about before.  Weiler notes that the Jewish leaders who plotted to kill Jesus may have been acting on strong Biblical grounds.  Deuteronomy 13:1-5 seems to order the execution of a person who is promised to arise in Israel and who will act exactly like Jesus.  If this article is right, and it is certainly persuasive, then the execution of Jesus is not only the Right thing to have happened from the standpoint of Christian theology, but also from the standpoint of Jewish theology.  The orchestrated nature of the life and death of the Son of God is simply awe-inspiring.

2. Mariani, "Regard the Scuttlebutt As True"
Another amazing article.  My favorite contemporary poet, A.M. Juster leads a double life.  In his other life he is Michael Astrue, the current Commissioner of the Social Security Administration.  By day, he runs a huge government bureaucracy, by night he writes poetry and is rapidly becoming a leading translator of Latin poetry.  The mind reels to discover things such as this.  The best part of the article was the reprint of one of Juster's poems, "Candid Headstone"

Here lies what's left of Michael Juster,
A failure filled with bile and bluster.
Regard the scuttlebutt as true.
Feel free to dance; most others do.

Look at that third line carefully.
Also, of note: A.M Juster is an anagram of M.J. Astrue.
Also, of note: this is not simply a case of a bureaucrat anonymously publishing under a pen name.  Juster used to regularly be seen in public at poetry workshops and the like.  Asture appears in public all the time.  Apparently, the people who go to poetry workshops don't watch Social Security press conferences or vice versa.


B. Flawed, but worth reading
1. Cohen and Levin, "Nothing to See Here"
A nice look a the collapse of the Presidential Council on Bioethics under the Obama Administration.  It is no longer doing much of anything interesting.
[In other Obama news, unrelated to First Things, last night Obama gave his big talk on the Oil Spill.  I saw a clip of Olberman and Matthews absolutely skewering Obama and his talk.  When Keith Olberman and Chris ("thrill down my leg") Matthews are mercilessly going after Obama, I think we can safely say the Obama Fun Run is over--he is Jimmy Carter.  Well, at least we can hope he stays at Jimmy Carter levels and doesn't become the guy who made Jimmy Carter look good.]

2. Arkes, "Vast Dangers in a Small Place"
A report from the front lines of the battle to turn sexual orientation into something demanding the same status as race in legal decisions and elite conversation.  Arkes does not sound optimistic that free speech and freedom of assembly will prevail in this new legal climate.

3. Dalrymple, "The Brothers Grim"
A review of the autobiographies of Peter and Christopher Huthcins.  The article is worth reading because Dalryrmple's prose is always lively, but as a review--well, he spends almost the entire time talking about Christopher's early affinity for Trotsky.

Dalyrymple, by the way, is a curious guy--it is the pen name of Anthony Daniels.  And, he writes regularly under both names--indeed, there was a recent issue of the New Criterion which had an article by Daniels and another article by Dalrymple.  I have tried in vain to figure out the difference between articles written by Daniels and those by Dalrymple--I used to think that Dalrymple was used whenever there was a reference to Daniels' work as a psychiatrist (he is still a practicing psychiatrist--primarily, it seems, working with the prison population), but every now and then I read an article which breaks that rule.


Also, in this issue, I liked the new crossword puzzle.  There also seems to be more poetry in this issue, but that may not be related to the new format.  The last page looks like the start of a series of Art photos--which could be interesting.  There was also a one-page essay on architecture, which could also mark a new feature.  There was also a very long, sappy story about military fathers whose sons died in military service, which I am really, really hoping is not a sign of things to come--if First Things turns into an Oprah-like magazine ("Adventures in True Life"), it will be a sad day indeed.