Nancy Huntting, Aesthetic Realism consultant, writes: There’s no subject more urgent or deeper than that of this new issue of TRO. “What Kind of Emotion?” tells what great emotion is, and why we want to have it—yet why we also can be against having it. The art emotion is described, and its big, central meaning… Read more

Matthew D’Amico, Aesthetic Realism associate, and political coordinator for a New York State labor union, says: A work I care for greatly is Eli Siegel’s “36 Things about America: An Arithmetical Assemblage of Notations on the Persisting,” of 1961. In it, he shows through wonderful imagination and historical facts that there are things in our… Read more

Steven Weiner, computer specialist and Aesthetic Realism associate, writes: The important word freedom is so often used—and misused—in our nation today. But what does that longed-for thing, freedom, really mean, both in our own lives and for our very troubled country? “Freedom & Our Purposes” answers this question, logically and magnificently. You’ll gain new, vital knowledge about… Read more

Jeffrey Carduner, Aesthetic Realism consultant, writes: “What All Art Has—& Our Everyday Lives” is this year’s first issue of TRO. It tells what art is, and why it matters! Through a landmark essay and moving poem by Eli Siegel, and a clear, thrilling commentary by Ellen Reiss, you’ll learn that all art 1) is about you and everyone,… Read more

John Stern, Aesthetic Realism consultant and former Tri-State urban and regional planner, writes: I have long been interested in New York City—its 400-year history, its people, buildings, its geology, transportation, and waterways. When I heard Eli Siegel’s lecture New York Begins Poetically, my eyes opened to the most important means of understanding the city I’ve… Read more

Nancy Huntting, Aesthetic Realism consultant, writes: The new issue of TRO, “About Cynicism—& Its Beautiful Opponent,” explains in a thrilling way one of the toughest subjects. Is there any state of mind that’s keener, wiser, more powerful than cynicism? Yes, you’ll learn, including through a vivid account by a contemporary man. You’ll learn what cynicism comes… Read more

Steven Weiner, computer specialist and Aesthetic Realism associate, writes: “Good Power or Bad—the Criterion” is about something gigantic in everyone’s life. What kind of power are we after, and is there a fight in us about that? Can we learn from art about the power we truly want? And the battle about power now taking place in our nation—what… Read more

Jeffrey Carduner, Aesthetic Realism consultant, writes: In America and everywhere, there is confusion about how to see one’s family, and people very much hope to make sense of that big matter. “A Daughter, a Mother, & the World” shows beautifully, with depth and logic, how a daughter began to see her mother newly, with comprehension,… Read more

Nancy Huntting, Aesthetic Realism consultant, writes: “How Should We See the World?” describes the central fight in the human mind—and it explains, too, how this fight is dividing America right now. And in some of the greatest, most thrilling literary criticism you’ll ever read, learn how the poet John Keats was after what we ourselves… Read more

Michael Palmer, Aesthetic Realism associate, writes: In his 1953 essay “Art as, Yes, Humility,” Eli Siegel explains something that people have ached to know: how to be genuinely proud of our lives. I once felt that to be proud, I had to impress people with a prestigious job in which I made a lot of… Read more