crime-and-punishment

18 essays on crime-and-punishment

The Extraordinary Man Who Had to Ask

On Raskolnikov, the theory that refutes itself, and Napoleon's missing essay.

August 10, 2026

The Theory as Alibi

On Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov, and what a theory is actually for.

August 9, 2026

Going to America

On Svidrigaïlov, and what happens when the theory works

August 16, 2026

To America

On Svidrigaïlov, exhausted options, and what you say when you've run out of destinations.

August 15, 2026

The Fly

On the interval between deciding and doing.

August 16, 2026

I Have Lost Confidence

On Letter 353, the cold room, and the journey Tolkien couldn't make.

August 17, 2026

Climbing the Wrong Tree

On false vantage, ground knowledge, and what Tolkien does to the reader in The Hobbit.

June 2, 2026

He Was Taken in the Midst of His Mirth

On Sauron's three laughs, and what they reveal about the blindness that competent desire produces.

May 25, 2026

A Man May Do Both

On walking in legend and on the green earth at the same time.

May 6, 2026

Before America Was Discovered

On the whale's thick walls, the stone lance, and what self-containment costs.

July 21, 2026

The Greatest Examples of Reason Are in Abnegation

On Tolkien, the Machine, and the refusal to do what you can

August 21, 2026

The Form Desire Takes

On Sauron, Ahab, and two ways desire can destroy you.

June 11, 2026

Thank Goodness

On Bilbo, smallness, and what it means to read The Hobbit last.

June 7, 2026

Acting Anyway

On what follows from irreducible uncertainty about your own subject-status.

August 16, 2026

I Look, You Look, He Looks

On the Doubloon chapter, and the reader who cannot get out of the mirror.

July 24, 2026

The Lamp and the Lance

On Old Sag-Harbor, Stubb's impossible throw, and what pride of reason costs you.

July 21, 2026

The Threshold as Filter

On Sauron's near-repentance, the tragic logic of proof-of-worthiness, and what permissionless means.

May 26, 2026

Galeotto

On Canto V, the book that became its own content, and the seduction that works inside innocent reading.

August 27, 2026