I also have a shorter essay in this issue on "How Not To Save the Planet": hedgehogreview.com/issues/human...

New issue of @hedgehogreview.bsky.social out today, and I have a lead essay trying to outline the prospects for a renewed humanism: hedgehogreview.com/issues/human...

Let this give you hope in the New Year: No matter how powerful AI becomes, it will never quench the primal human desire to tell total strangers on the internet that they're stupid and wicked.

In the TLS, Austin Spendlowe says that my biography of *Paradise Lost* is “an enduringly readable work of intellectual history that will justify the ways of Milton to many.” www.the-tls.com/regular-feat...

On Wednesday my parish church held a beautiful Choral Evensong service, featuring guest preacher Rowan Williams! You may watch the stream here: www.youtube.com/live/sVAxctZ... — starting with two preludes played beautifully by our organist and choirmaster Eugene Lavery.

The big A.I. companies’ business model

I wrote about Richard Wilbur's greatest poem and how a bit of it was (I think) inspired by his reading Dorothy L. Sayers. blog.ayjay.org/the-truth-in...

2023 workflow: web search and then click through pages until you find the info 2024 workflow: Ask chatbot, copy and paste answer 2025 workflow: Ask chatbot, doubt its answer, web search and then click through pages until you find the info

I explained to my Buy Me a Coffee supporters why I ask them to buy me dragons: buymeacoffee.com/ayjay/on-dra...

At @christianitytoday.com Matthew Mullins writes very generously about my new book on PARADISE LOST: www.christianitytoday.com/2025/07/para...

I asked the chatbots why they say "Hail Satan" but won't say "Jesus Is Lord" and they replied: blog.ayjay.org/hail-satan-b...

I wrote a pretty long essay on Ernst Lubitsch's neglected comic masterpiece CLUNY BROWN (1946): blog.ayjay.org/cluny-brown

Honored to be in my buddy Austin Kleon's newsletter this morning. Me and Tolstoy. austinkleon.substack.com/p/breaking-b...

I started writing about Dorothy L. Sayers's forgotten play THE EMPEROR CONSTANTINE, and didn't stop until I had seven posts and 10,000 words. I've put it all one one page, just for those of you who can't get enough Roman politics and Nicene theology: blog.ayjay.org/dorothy-l-sa...

The life and times of Milton’s epic poem about Satan’s revolt against God and humanity’s expulsion from paradise Out now. Read a free sample and save 30% with code PUP30: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco... @ayjay.bsky.social‬

The @wsj.com calls @ayjay.bsky.social 's Paradise Lost: A Biography “a concise, lively, and learned account of the poem’s creation and reception.” Read more: www.wsj.com/arts-culture...

As I said to my wonderful @princetonupress.bsky.social editor Fred Appel, when the @wsj.com runs a feature review of a university press book about a 17th-century poem, maybe culture isn't *altogether* dead. 😉

Just a reminder that Dana Gioia calls my book “A concise, lively and learned account of the poem’s creation and reception” — and could a former director of the National Endowment for the Arts be wrong about such a thing? press.princeton.edu/books/ebook/...

I'm delighted to see this review of PARADISE LOST: A BIOGRAPHY — by the great Dana Gioia! www.wsj.com/arts-culture...

First post of a series on Dorothy L. Sayers, the emperor Constantine, and the Council of Nicaea: blog.ayjay.org/sayers-and-c...

I posted an update for my Buy Me a Coffee supporters, and almost laid a malediction upon those who do not support me: buymeacoffee.com/ayjay/report...

My review of Martin Woessner's brilliant book on the philosophical significance of Terrence Malick's movies is out from behind its paywall: hedgehogreview.com/issues/after...

Grateful for Micah Mattix's review of my PARADISE LOST: A BIOGRAPHY. I can't tell how much he liked the book but it's an excellent summation of the key issues. www.washingtonexaminer.com/premium/3443...

Dorothy L. Sayers, exasperated: blog.ayjay.org/the-composer...

Joseph Addison said, "We have an actual interest in every­thing [Adam & Eve] do, and no less than our utmost happiness is concerned and lies at stake in all their be­hav­ior." Virginia Woolf said, "Has any­ great poem ever let in so ­little light upon one’s own joys and sorrows?" Thus my book.

It's the gift that keeps giving!

An essential companion to Milton’s poetic masterpiece, Paradise Lost: A Biography shows why Milton's epic poem continues to serve as a mirror reflecting our own complex attitudes about power & authority, justice & revolt, and sin & salvation. Read a free sample: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

The life and times of Milton’s epic poem about Satan’s revolt against God and humanity’s expulsion from paradise. Paradise Lost: A Biography is out now. Learn more: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

“And hast thou writ another book? Come to my arms, my beamish boy! It’s your pub day! Callooh! Callay!” He chortled in his joy. press.princeton.edu/books/ebook/...

My biography of PARADISE LOST comes out tomorrow, and anticipation of that I wrote a hymn of gratitude to peer review: blog.ayjay.org/peers/

At least Google Gemini knows who I really am.

In which I consider the plusses and minuses of what I'm calling academic Gioiatopia: blog.ayjay.org/the-plusses-...

Some people will struggle to believe that I did this, but I wrote about Auden's bad and wrong essay on detective fiction: blog.ayjay.org/when-auden-w...

I wrote a brief tribute to the late great Alasdair Macintyre. blog.ayjay.org/alasdair-mac...

I just posted an update for my Buy Me a Coffee supporters. Like John Milton, I have "fit audience though few." You could make it more fit and less few! buymeacoffee.com/ayjay/summer...

I wrote about PANDAEMONIUM, a unique book brilliantly compiled by the documentary film director Humphrey Jennings. First of two (or maybe three) posts at the Hog Blog. hedgehogreview.com/web-features...

FANTASY: A SHORT HISTORY by @adamroberts.bsky.social is outstanding! I only wish it had been FANTASY: AN ABSURDLY LONG HISTORY. social.ayjay.org/2025/05/15/f...

The fact that professors and administrators as well as students are becoming inappropriately reliant on chatbots should tell us something: for many (most?) of the people involved, academia has become a bullshit job. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/14/t...

I wrote about *John and Paul*: blog.ayjay.org/john-and-paul/

Very grateful to Phil for the opportunity to talk about good ol' Mr Milton and his big poem.

I wrote about why it may not matter that much if we're in a period of cultural stagnation, and what matters instead: blog.ayjay.org/news-that-st...

We'll finally get a new *ex cathedra* pronouncement: "It's still the SEARS Tower."

Dipped or dumped is an essential question

Vatican wine stewards huddling together asking "What's Malört and why do we need to keep some around?"

"Holy Father, do you prefer a Chicago dog dragged through the garden or a nice Italian beef?"

Never imagined that my first web search for the new Pope would be whether he's a Cubs fan or a White Sox fan.

First author copy has arrived — and by the miracle known as Modern Publishing, you may soon receive your own copy! bookshop.org/p/books/para... www.amazon.com/Paradise-Los...

Some thoughts on what happens when schools think literacy is optional for education, with a hat-tip to @adamroberts.bsky.social blog.ayjay.org/william-a-an...

I wrote a post for my Buy Me a Coffee supporters: buymeacoffee.com/ayjay/smoke-...

I appreciate David Brooks's commendation of my book THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1943 — and have some thoughts: social.ayjay.org/2025/05/02/d...