Dean A Hoffman - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Dean A Hoffman
Occidental World Magazine, 2022
Occidental World, 2021
If a latter-day BBC poll is indeed correct that Homer's The Odyssey is the most influential tale ... more If a latter-day BBC poll is indeed correct that Homer's The Odyssey is the most influential tale ever told, it is an indirect but unsurprising vindication of Dana Gioia's premillennial lament over the absence of extended verse in modern poetry, particularly his observation that, faced with the prospect of writing on an epic scale, such figures as Robert Graves and Howard Nemerov turned to the novel as their mode of choice, part of a pattern of avoidance of the long poetic form.
Occidental World Magazine, 2021
With an erratic history of triumph (including platinum records, landmark performances at the Mont... more With an erratic history of triumph (including platinum records, landmark performances at the Monterey Pop and Woodstock festivals, and their justified 1990 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of fame), and tragedy (the drug-related deaths of two members and the near self-destruction of their lead songwriter), the seminal British rock group The Who will probably be defined for the ages by their innovation of the oxymoronic genre of "rock opera." Best represented by their ambitious 1968 release of Tommy -a seventy-five minute tour de force that articulated composer Pete Townshend's convoluted preoccupations over the relationship between such disparate subjects as messianism, childhood trauma, and pop music fame -the creation of this single genus has come to eclipse virtually all of their other pop culture achievements, not excluding the infamous auto-destruction act that concluded their 1960's-era performances and the equally damaging public antics of doomed drummer Keith Moon.
Occidental World Magazine, 2020
Occidental World Magazine, 2020
In an emblematic scene set in the quiet courtyard of a venerable Italian cathedral during the con... more In an emblematic scene set in the quiet courtyard of a venerable Italian cathedral during the conclusion of Francis Ford Coppola's Godfather trilogy, the papabile Cardinal Lamberto, convincingly played by veteran actor Raf Vallone, presages his attempt to persuade Al Pacino's ailing Michael Corleone to confess his sins by breaking a pebble drawn from a nearby fountain as an exemplum:
Occidental World Magazine, 2020
Pope Francis' livestreamed Urbi et Orbi ceremony on Friday, March 27 -devoted entirely to a plea ... more Pope Francis' livestreamed Urbi et Orbi ceremony on Friday, March 27 -devoted entirely to a plea for an end to the coronavirus and delivered to an eerily unpopulated St. Peter's Square -was utterly solemn and reverent, thanks in no small measure to the presence of the so-called miraculous crucifix, an intact survival of a conflagration that devastated the church of saint Marcellus in 1519 and was petitioned in the city of Rome during the 1522 outbreak of the bubonic plague.
Occidental World Magazine, 2020
The recent announcement of yet another United States-brokered peace plan for the Middle East -str... more The recent announcement of yet another United States-brokered peace plan for the Middle East -strategically timed as it was to deflect attention from the Democratic party's latest antic attempt to overturn the 2016 election and partnered by the beleaguered heads of two deeply divided nations -has been greeted with seasoned skepticism at worst and almost imperceptible optimism at best by members of the chattering class.
Occidental World, 2019
Britain's imminent cessation of its near half-century membership in the European Union has unsurp... more Britain's imminent cessation of its near half-century membership in the European Union has unsurprisingly resulted throughout the United Kingdom in the undermining of rational argument, negotiation and due process by strident expressions of political division, all of which is reaching a tipping point with Prime Minister Boris Johnson's galvanizing attempt to achieve a "hard Brexit" by the end of next month through a suspension of Parliament until a fortnight before the designated October 31 deadline.
Weekly Standard, Nov 28, 2016
Occidental World Magazine, 2022
Occidental World, 2021
If a latter-day BBC poll is indeed correct that Homer's The Odyssey is the most influential tale ... more If a latter-day BBC poll is indeed correct that Homer's The Odyssey is the most influential tale ever told, it is an indirect but unsurprising vindication of Dana Gioia's premillennial lament over the absence of extended verse in modern poetry, particularly his observation that, faced with the prospect of writing on an epic scale, such figures as Robert Graves and Howard Nemerov turned to the novel as their mode of choice, part of a pattern of avoidance of the long poetic form.
Occidental World Magazine, 2021
With an erratic history of triumph (including platinum records, landmark performances at the Mont... more With an erratic history of triumph (including platinum records, landmark performances at the Monterey Pop and Woodstock festivals, and their justified 1990 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of fame), and tragedy (the drug-related deaths of two members and the near self-destruction of their lead songwriter), the seminal British rock group The Who will probably be defined for the ages by their innovation of the oxymoronic genre of "rock opera." Best represented by their ambitious 1968 release of Tommy -a seventy-five minute tour de force that articulated composer Pete Townshend's convoluted preoccupations over the relationship between such disparate subjects as messianism, childhood trauma, and pop music fame -the creation of this single genus has come to eclipse virtually all of their other pop culture achievements, not excluding the infamous auto-destruction act that concluded their 1960's-era performances and the equally damaging public antics of doomed drummer Keith Moon.
Occidental World Magazine, 2020
Occidental World Magazine, 2020
In an emblematic scene set in the quiet courtyard of a venerable Italian cathedral during the con... more In an emblematic scene set in the quiet courtyard of a venerable Italian cathedral during the conclusion of Francis Ford Coppola's Godfather trilogy, the papabile Cardinal Lamberto, convincingly played by veteran actor Raf Vallone, presages his attempt to persuade Al Pacino's ailing Michael Corleone to confess his sins by breaking a pebble drawn from a nearby fountain as an exemplum:
Occidental World Magazine, 2020
Pope Francis' livestreamed Urbi et Orbi ceremony on Friday, March 27 -devoted entirely to a plea ... more Pope Francis' livestreamed Urbi et Orbi ceremony on Friday, March 27 -devoted entirely to a plea for an end to the coronavirus and delivered to an eerily unpopulated St. Peter's Square -was utterly solemn and reverent, thanks in no small measure to the presence of the so-called miraculous crucifix, an intact survival of a conflagration that devastated the church of saint Marcellus in 1519 and was petitioned in the city of Rome during the 1522 outbreak of the bubonic plague.
Occidental World Magazine, 2020
The recent announcement of yet another United States-brokered peace plan for the Middle East -str... more The recent announcement of yet another United States-brokered peace plan for the Middle East -strategically timed as it was to deflect attention from the Democratic party's latest antic attempt to overturn the 2016 election and partnered by the beleaguered heads of two deeply divided nations -has been greeted with seasoned skepticism at worst and almost imperceptible optimism at best by members of the chattering class.
Occidental World, 2019
Britain's imminent cessation of its near half-century membership in the European Union has unsurp... more Britain's imminent cessation of its near half-century membership in the European Union has unsurprisingly resulted throughout the United Kingdom in the undermining of rational argument, negotiation and due process by strident expressions of political division, all of which is reaching a tipping point with Prime Minister Boris Johnson's galvanizing attempt to achieve a "hard Brexit" by the end of next month through a suspension of Parliament until a fortnight before the designated October 31 deadline.
Weekly Standard, Nov 28, 2016