Metallica and the Freedom to Roam William Irwin *This essay is excerpted and adapted from The Meaning of Metallica: Ride the Lyrics. Metallica means freedom, and “Wherever I May Roam” is a declaration of individual independence, a freedom manifesto. The song starts with sitar, evoking visions of the far East, but this is an American…
Let it Go? Elsa, Stoicism, and the “Lazy Argument” Brendan Shea Disney’s Frozen (2013) and Frozen 2 (2019) are among the highest-grossing films of all time (IMDb 2021) and are arguably among the most influential works of fantasy produced in the last decade in any medium. The films, based loosely on Hans Christensen Andersen’s…
A Stoic Wouldn’t Play the Squid Game by Konstantin Pavliouts Stoicism is a philosophy that calls for great self-control, concerning one’s thoughts, emotions, and actions. This is not a matter of making a simple intellectual decision. Rather, it demands practice, and role models are particularly helpful in inspiring practice. The Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher…
Russian Doll, Fate, and Stoic Acceptance RK Taylor The Netflix original series Russian Doll tells the story of Nadia, a video game programmer who repeatedly dies through a hodgepodge of unfortunate and inevitable circumstances. After each death, she wakes anew at the same point in spacetime: a bathroom during the night of her 36th birthday. After her…
The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series 