memoir

Ben Hellman

Jun 28, 2021

Into the Mouth of American Kitsch: Wisconsin’s House on the Rock

The author contemplating another round of phantasmagorical excess at the House on the Rock, Spring Green, Wisconsin. Photo by Rachel...

Ben Hellman

Apr 11, 2021

To Catch a Catoblepas by the Tail

Detail of Sludge, the Catoblepas, a wall-mounted sculpture by author, paper mache and mixed media, inspired by an illustration by David...

Ben Hellman

Nov 10, 2020

The Endless Hunger; Confronting Grief With Gilgamesh

Statue of Gilgamesh at the University of Sydney (based on an ancient bas-relief at the Louvre) and Herbert Mason's Epic of Gilgamesh. If...

Ben Hellman

Oct 31, 2020

Noodling through Norse Myths; Folklorist's Notebook

Some of the books I've been moving to and from various end tables, usually not as neat as this. It has been a week of Norse myth study...

Ben Hellman

Oct 27, 2020

Dracula Revisited: On my long-ago journey to Romania

My original article, published in the Eagle Tribune about my search for the historical Dracula, and the author, twenty years ago this...

Ben Hellman

Oct 17, 2020

Orpheus and Eurydice Go Shopping

(She really didn't want to go in the first place). Edward Poynter's 1862 "Orpheus and Eurydice" altered by the author's brilliant wife....

Ben Hellman

Jul 21, 2020

A Lesson from the Mahabharata for a New Homeowner

The Khandava forest fire, from the 10th century Cambodian temple Banteay Srei, in Angkor. As I plot the destruction of the rodents...

Ben Hellman

Jul 19, 2020

The Parable of the Stink Bug and the Urinal

I want to share with you a story about an encounter I had at a urinal, but stick with me, because this is also a story about life and...

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