2021 Wrap-Up Edition

Hello,

Happy Christmas! This will be the last newsletter of 2021. I hope you have enjoyed following THE ZONE and I thank you very much for doing so.

This year began about as badly as it could have done when my mum passed away, but I’m glad I could pay tribute to her by releasing a collection of her poems and prose. I am also glad to have written and published Noughties, my book of short fiction.

Here, as in previous years, is a list of my favourite of the articles that I have published over the last twelve months:

“Bath Time”, Spectator World

“Patrick Leigh Fermor and the Tensions of Travel”, Areo

“Laughing Laureate of Western Decline”, The Critic

“A Guide to Conservative Commentators”, Spectator World

“Notes on Cockwomble”, THE ZONE

“Jordan Peterson Sermonizes Again”, Athwart

“The Power of Thought”, American Conservative

“Why the Atheists Turned on Dawkins”, UnHerd

“Vicariotica”, im-1776

“The Meaning of Monster”, Spectator World

Here is a list of my favourite of the articles that I have written for my paying Substack subscribers:

“Try to Praise”

“Identity and Experimentation”

“Separation”

“Smoking and Keyif”

“The Body as a Site of Struggle”

“Rhetoric and the Right”

“Elevatorgate and the Death of Franz Ferdinand”

“How I Ended Up In Poland”

“IRHell”

“How Professional Wrestling Can Change Your Life”

Between all this writing and my day job it has been a very, very busy year. A combination of revolting against my youthful laziness and wanting to make the most of the wonderful opportunities I have been blessed with have driven me on. I worry, though, that this mild workaholism sometimes makes me insufficiently appreciative of things and people, and excessively indulgent of bad habits. I intend to change that in 2022 (while, naturally, still doing a lot of work).

As for the world, well, it is tough to be optimistic. Omicron is making its merry way across Europe and governments are going predictably beserk. The Chinese are testing spaceplanes while we bicker about speech codes. But men have faced death with a song in their hearts, so what is our excuse? Let’s never lose our humour or our grip.

Again, have a lovely Christmas, and thank you very much for reading me this year,

Ben