www.thornwalker.com/ditch/nowickicontents.htm


 

Andy Nowicki

Andy Nowicki is a reactionary Catholic living in Georgia. His latest novel is The Columbine Pilgrim (2011). He is also the author of the novel Considering Suicide. It's available from Amazon, and the preceding link will take you to the page.

Other books by Mr. Nowicki include The Psychology of Liberalism and Letters To an Unborn Child. He teaches college-level English for fun and profit.

Mr. Nowicki invites us to view a certain YouTube posting in which a friend interviews him about Considering Suicide. The venue is a shopping mall, and Mr. Nowicki warns us that tension rises as he and his interlocutor run afoul of the Mall Authorities: "Success Is for Losers #53: Poet of the Mall."

Mr. Nowicki operates his own blog, Dyspeptic Myopic, at www.andynowicki.blogspot.com.

His regular column for TLD appears under the standing series title, Notes from Underground.

 

• Reading a couple mainstream reviews of a certain new sci-fi movie, I'd decided not to bother seeing it; but when I read Mr. Nowicki's account, which I post here, I reconsidered. (It's not the first time that's happened.)

The System's employees just aren't supposed to notice certain things, and if they do, they're not supposed to write about them. Mr. Nowicki, though, does notice, and he does write:

"Facing fearful odds: 'Oblivion' as a reactionary parable"

(April 25, 2013)

• The swine who presume to rule us "ask" (as they like to put it) for our compliance in almost every corner of our life these days. Recently they've started to "ask" for compliance as they expand their assault on our right of self-defense. A great many New Yorkers, I hear, may be disinclined to comply. But most of us do comply most of the time, and without requiring the government gangsters to put a gun to our head.

A gripping little movie recently came out on DVD that's a must-see for liberty partisans, who may find that it offers clues to what some of us call the mystery of obedience. It's called "Compliance," and I've just posted Mr. Nowicki's penetrating review of it:

"'Compliance' — An unnerving parable"

(January 26, 2013)

• In his thoughtful review of "The Dark Knight Rises," Mr. Nowicki shines light on more than one kind of darkness, including ignorance: "The gnostic knight rises." (August 6, 2012)

• I hope you're not too surprised to learn that Mr. Nowicki has found a few things to say about the regime's recent attack on freedom of conscience: "So this is what the liberals mean by 'choice' and 'tolerance': The Obama contraception tyranny." I preface the column with an editor's note taking some account of the Obama "compromise." (February 12, 2012)

• Donning his reviewer's cap once again, Mr. Nowicki takes a powerfully insightful look at what he deems a "powerfully honest" movie, "Big Fan":

"White boys, black gods"
(November 10, 2011)

• Mr. Nowicki invaded the imperial fortress recently to attend an "alternative Right" confab titled "Towards a New Nationalism." Having returned safely to the actual America, he offers us his impressions and reflections: "Lively dissent in the sepulchral city." (September 27, 2011)

• What those dizzy lefties get up to! In his latest movie review for TLD, Mr. Nowicki cocks an eye at Robert Redford's "The Conspirator" and finds "Liberal complications." (May 20, 2011)

• The standing title for Mr. Nowicki's columns has started to look less wry and more literal. As you're no doubt aware, the enemies of free expression have won their second disastrous victory over American Renaissance in as many years, again preventing an AR Conference from taking place as planned. Mr. Nowicki has some thoughts on all that — and some manly counsel: "What 'diversity' means in Charlotte (and everywhere else)." (February 22, 2011)

• Speculative fiction, broadly defined, has long been popular at Yuletide — I'm thinking of tales featuring not the Holy Ghost but ghosts of a nature less celestial, if more ghastly. What about hard SF, though? With his characteristic verve and good humor, Mr. Nowicki the cinephile argues that it can have a place, too: "Sci fi at Christmas: Clone, cyborg, son." (December 23, 2010)

• The silver screen has lured Mr. Nowicki once again, and while the Feature Presentation turned out to be pretty thin gruel as movies go, it did provide grist for commentary — of a sort "more metaphysical than social," he says: "That chick flick again." (October 26, 2010)

• Establishment critics have greeted the latest film associated with M. Night Shyamalan with chortles and pshaws — no surprise there — but Mr. Nowicki advances a contrary view that you may find is better grounded in the classic themes of our civilization: "Night's Devil." (September 29, 2010)

• A certain faith-based construction project in Lower Manhattan is rubbing a lot of Americans the wrong way. Surveying the dust-up, Mr. Nowicki again displays his talent for reasoned commentary proceeding from radical premises: "The Ground Zero mosque on the skyline of Babel." (August 17, 2010)

• After the interminable soccer marathon in South Africa got rolling, I proposed to Mr. Nowicki that he might try extracting a few significances from the Mandelite rugby movie "Invictus," which neither of us had seen. (All I knew was that I didn't like the smell of it.) Proving he is made of stern stuff, Mr. Nowicki decided to subject himself not only to "Invictus" but also to another movie set in South Africa that's much lesser known hereabouts (and for good reason). I'm glad he did, and I think you will be, too: "Farm attacks and World Cups: A South African diptych." (July 9)

• "We will not, we cannot, at any cost or for any reason, cease to believe in ourselves and our inherent wonderfulness," writes Mr. Nowicki in this installment. On the basis of that, even one new to Mr. Nowicki's writing may begin to suspect his attitude toward the old saw, "Vox populi, vox dei."

"Tea Parties, Rocky, Ahnuld, and Jesus: God bless the U.S.A.!"

(May 20, 2010)

• If you attended to the telescreen in December '09, you saw some promotional froth being slathered over a certain pair of movies — and TLD's Kremlinologist of cinema did, too. With the West and its fate in mind, Mr. Nowicki expertly reads between the pixels in "Brought to you in Technicolor: White is the new black." (December 16, 2009)

• In this column, Mr. Nowicki takes on Quentin Tarantino's latest cinematic offering, and I wager you'll find his analysis unique as well as (need I add?) thought-provoking: "We are all basterds now." (September 21, 2009)

• As you probably know, when it comes to today's public manners — public routines would be more like it — Mr. Nowicki is not a fan. In this column he takes a withering look at "The popular pseudo-scandal: Dance of the dummies." (August 29, 2009)

• Mr. Nowicki examines a certain analytical tool that some of Obama's adversaries like to use, and he wisely recommends that we choose one that won't so easily come apart in our hand: "Obama, abortion, and the tyranny of consensus." (May 25, 2009)

• At TLD, we're intensely partisan in favor of freedom, justice, and peace. In his latest offering, sharpshooter Andy Nowicki draws a bead on another kind of partisanship that most of us probably won't find as congenial. Or as principled: "Power tools." (April 29, 2009)

• Assessing a current controversy involving the Vatican, Mr. Nowicki vents some understandable disappointment in this column: "The Bishop Williamson fracas: From Holy Mother to Big Brother." He discusses issues that should be of interest to Catholics and non-Catholics alike. (February 19, 2009)

• In his first column of the new year, and on this bizarre day of statesgod-worship, Mr. Nowicki forgoes worship for analysis, including racial analysis, and offers us some well-considered "Meditations upon the solemn Investiture." (January 20)

• With yet another election ritual under way, TLD needs to pour some more frothing acid over what I like to call Duh-MOCK-risy, and no one can do that better than Mr. Nowicki, who writes here that "among all of the democracies of recent and ancient history, the 21st-century American brand strikes me as especially obnoxious."

"The three stigmata of modern American democracy" (August 18, 2008)
• This incisive entry isn't so much a review of a film as a review of fame and the fickle popcult: "What's 'Happening' to M. Night Shyamalan?" (June 30, 2008)

• His filleting knife wickedly sharp as ever, Mr. Nowicki cuts deep into a story that less-skilled surgeons on our side of things may shy away from: "U.S. vs. FLDS: Prejudice vs. principle." (May 22)

• Mr. Nowicki detects something bubbling in the popcult, something he takes to be irrepressible: "Abortion horror movies: 'Forget the children.'" Whether you agree or disagree with him on the permissibility of abortion, you must, I think, salute his perceptiveness. (February 18, 2008)

• Ken Burns's latest TV documentary has prompted Mr. Nowicki to explore the uses and misuses of nostalgia — not to mention its outright exploitation by some of the worst savages in American public life — in this typically thoughtful column: "The 'good old days' of total war." (November 27, 2007)

• I can't remember whether it happened to O.J. or not, but it is certainly unusual to see a strong, accomplished black man being booed by white left-wingers. Mr. Nowicki deftly explores that embarrassment for our political culture in "'My race, right or wrong' / Vick and his defenders." What strikes me about this column is how calm and well-balanced it is, seeing as how it's thoughtcrime. (September 3, 2007)

• We won't stop pointing out the illiberalism of liberals, because they won't — or can't — stop being illiberal. Mr. Nowicki adds to the indictment: "An open letter to liberals: I'm still mad at cha." (July 16, 2007)

• The bold and fearless Mr. Nowicki identifies a consolation that I reckon you won't expect in a grisly genre of today's cinema: "The bright side of 'torture porn.'" (June 14, 2007)

• Scrutinizing Mel Gibson's latest subtitled opus, Mr. Nowicki finds significance beyond the fact that something by Hollywood's most-hated man made it into general release and actually earned some money: "'Apocalypto': Seeking a new beginning." (February 16, 2007)

• According to Mr. Nowicki, Sean Hannity and David Horowitz have a peculiar way of pursuing truth, assuming they're trying to do any such thing: "The mugging of Mark Weber." (December 22, 2006)

• Mr. Nowicki explores what it means to harbor unpopular opinions in our suffocating time: "Dissent and punishment." (November 13)

• On the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Mr. Nowicki meditates provocatively on "Loving death: How the West is lost." (September 11)

• Sampling a couple of right-wing, pro-war talk shows, Mr. Nowicki revises his opinion of an old left-wing description: "Hate radio." This vigorous piece uncompromisingly stands up for what Westerners used to consider civilization, and as you will no doubt assume, I simply love its conclusion. (August 12)

• Whatever one can say about the Thought Police and their cheerblock, it's hard to call them a loving and charitable bunch, as Mr. Nowicki recognizes in his latest unapologetic venture into crimethink: "The hate experts." (June 24)

• Again plumbing the darkness of his local cineplex, Mr. Nowicki expertly dissects the film that has been hailed as Hollywood's "first anarchist movie": "P for Preposterous." (March 30)

• Mr. Nowicki says the Muslims have made their point in the Toon War: "Don't mess with Mohammed." But according to our writer, a Western prophet who once had difficulty in Denmark made some points, too, that Westerners would do well to take. (March 3)

• In this entry, Mr. Nowicki recounts some ugly experiences in the blogosphere involving what I think of as one of our era's defining habits of mind: "Thrice banished, twice shy." The tale is disturbing — but funny withal. (February 3, 2006)

• According to Mr. Nowicki, a new movie has our "contemporary guardians of acceptable discourse" knitting their brows and waxing admonitory: "A dangerous agnosticism: 'Emily Rose' and the cultural commissars." (September 24, 2005)

• Near the 60th anniversary of the nuclear attacks on Japan, Mr. Nowicki finds a few things to say, from his dreadfully old-fashioned perspective, about today's brave word-warriors who salivate for more and better massacres: "'Doing what it takes.'" (August 13)

• In this installment, Mr. Nowicki juxtaposes two recent imbroglios-at-law to remarkable effect: "The law: in our own hands or in no one's." (July 9)

• Nietzsche wrote: "If you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." Fair enough. But surveying the current scene Mr. Nowicki has a somewhat different take: "Gazing into the abyss: It's a little late for that." (March 25, 2005)

• Mr. Nowicki finds a striking parallel between the war against Christmas and another widespread cultural deformation: "Post-modern Herods: The aborting of Christmas." (December 23, 2004)

• On the very eve of the Day of the State, the not-so-optimistic Mr. Nowicki looks at the Reds and the Blues and asks: "Why not secession?" (November 1, 2004)

• The Sacred Day of State-Worship is still six weeks away, but it sounds as though Mr. Nowicki has already had it up to here: "I loathe democracy." (September 19)

• The big established critics dislike M. Night Shyamalan's latest flick "The Village," and Mr. Nowicki thinks he may know what's eating them: "Maybe it does take a Village." (August 4)

• Assisted by Dr. Orwell, Mr. Nowicki cuts right to the center of a certain linguistic tumor: "Grow this!" (July 17)

• Mr. Nowicki is really doing his best to help us come to terms with our fate: "White extinction: Look on the bright side." (May 28)

• Watching the collapse of our civilization, Mr. Nowicki observes that the monstrosities don't always come shambling and lurching upon us in the order you'd expect. But he also finds consolations. One is small; the other, large: "First as tragedy, then as farce." (April 12)

• While attending the 2004 American Renaissance Conference, Mr. Nowicki identified an important philosophical divide between at least two of the speakers and, he suspects, among the audience as well, provoking him to ask: "Does white plus might make right?" (March 5)

• In his first column as a regular TLD writer, Mr. Nowicki detects a double standard in the resentment over Mel Gibson's film: "'The Passion' and the furor: Jews behaving badly." (February 23)

• As a TLD reader, Mr. Nowicki started his march toward regular-writer status with this "guest observation" on some obtrusive propaganda he spotted in an otherwise mundane article: "Training the sheeple." (February 8, 2004)