I’ll have to try some of these.
Thursday, December 31, 2020
Some quite interesting fare …
… The Tin Cannoisseur: More Spiced and Tinned Treats from a Tier 4 Christmas. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
They’re pretty sound …
… Reviews and Reflections: Rules for teaching American history.
And not just American history. History is populated by — surprise! — human beings. We study it not to find out how we ought to be, but how we are. Of course, there are those people who know how we ought to be, but they’re best avoided.
Here's to 2021
It's been a trying year, a difficult one. But next year is coming soon. Let's hope it brings improved health, increased civility, and a renewed sense of generosity and purpose. To all our readers, please continue to stay safe and to care for yourselves and your families. 2021, you're just around the bend.
* * *
As is customary, I wanted to list a few highlights about the blog: this past year, we passed 65,000 posts, 22,000 comments, and over 5,000,000 visits. Not bad at all for a blog about books and literary culture! Here's to the next set of milestones under the steady hand of Frank Wilson.
A useful reminder …
… for today’s pusillanimous prelates:
Burning the candle at both ends for God’s sake may be foolishness to the world, but it is a profitable Christian exercise for so much better the light! Only one thing in life matters: Being found worthy of the Light of the World in the hour of His visitation. We need have no undue fear for our health if we work hard for the Kingdom of God; God will take care of our health if we take care of His cause. In any case, it is better to burn out than to rust out.
— Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
Something to think on …
There are many people for whom 'thinking' necessarily means identifying with existing trends.
— Marshall McLuhan, who died on this date in 1980
Wednesday, December 30, 2020
Faith without God …
… Meehan Crist — Our Cyborg Progeny: Gaia will save us. Sort of — LRB 7 January 2021. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
… this book is a bit nuts. The story Lovelock is telling here falls within the realm of speculation, not prediction, which he acknowledges with a generous peppering of ‘maybe’ and ‘perhaps’, as well as some winking flights of fancy (‘No such assumption can be made about the cyborgs of the Novacene... But what would they look like? Anything is possible, but I see them, entirely speculatively, as spheres’). In this story, the Novacene is the next stage in the cosmos awakening to consciousness, and in our current age of climate catastrophe it is not individuals, or communities, or even human civilisation that must be saved, it is the possibility of this awakening.
I'll stick with Arthur Eddington: The idea of a universal mind or Logos would be, I think, a fairly plausible inference from the present state of scientific theory
Something to think on …
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.
— Rudyard Kipling, born on this date in 1865
Tuesday, December 29, 2020
Master of chills …
… A warning to the curious | Alexander Larman | The Critic Magazine. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Clarity …
… First Known When Lost: A Choice.
Do you sometimes find it hard to believe that the World is as beautiful as it is? It is good to be reminded of one's ignorance. I receive this reminder every day. But the World never gives up on me.
More than cool …
… ‘My Dear Yakutia': An Intimate Portrait Of Russia's Far North. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
A different Emily …
… Reviews and Reflections: Living in the shadow of death.
Most admirers of Dickinson's poetry know that she spent a considerable part of her adult life in what we call self-imposed confinement, rarely venturing outside the family homestead in Amherst, Massachusetts. Less known, perhaps, is that the final 12 years of her life were passed in a state of nearly perpetual mourning.
Good to know…
… Recovering the Theology of Creation - The Catholic Thing. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
What the encyclical does do, in its central chapters, however, is a great blessing. Hans Urs von Balthasar writes somewhere that “the Christian is called to be the guardian of metaphysics in our time.” This entails the defense of the person as destined for the knowledge of God, as I mentioned above, but it also entails guarding a proper understanding of natural being, that is to say, of the intrinsic and deep meaning and mystery inherent in all created things.
Something to think on …
God speaks to each of us as he makes us, then walks with us silently out of the night. These are the words we dimly hear: You, sent out beyond your recall, go to the limits of your longing. Embody me. Flare up like a flame and make big shadows I can move in. Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final. Don't let yourself lose me. Nearby is the country they call life. You will know it by its seriousness. Give me your hand.
— Rainer Maria Rilke, who died on this date in 1926
How profiling is done …
… Paul Davis On Crime: My Q&A With Legendary FBI Profiler John Douglas.
When I got to Quantico at 32, I was the youngest of all the agents. The Behavioral Science Unit had about eight or nine agents and I was assigned to teaching criminal psychology. We had road schools two weeks at a time going from one city to another. I told my partner, let’s go into the prisons and conduct these interviews of Ed Kempner, Charles Manson and David Berkowitz. We went into the prisons and conducted the interviews as I wanted to be a good instructor.
Monday, December 28, 2020
Hmm …
… Nigeness: Be More Cat. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I'm not so sure. My late cat Pandora, whom I found when she was a kitten, seemed fond of me qua me.When she was 21, she had what appeared to be a stroke. I made her comfortable in a basket and checked on her when I left for work the next day. When I got home, I checked on her again. She opened her eyes, looked at me, and died. It really felt as if she had waited for me to say goodbye. But maybe I'm just fantasizing. But it didn't feel that way. She is buried in our garden and I always make sure to plant nice flowers above her.
Altogether human …
… The Future Does Not Simplify the Past: On Nicholas McDowell’s “Poet of Revolution: The Making of John Milton.” (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
McDowell’s judicious weighing of the historical evidence relating to the young Milton’s religious and literary development serves as a welcome reminder of a common flaw in Milton scholarship, the tendency to paint a reductionist portrait of the mature Milton and then to fit the younger Milton into that same narrow interpretive frame. McDowell often makes this same point, albeit more diplomatically:
A common interpretation of ‘The Passion’ is that it “reveals Milton’s difficulties with the crucifixion as a subject.” This is to read backwards from the anti-trinitarianism of the mature Milton’s De Doctrina Christiana to find a naturally heterodox thinker already uncomfortable with orthodox protestant Christology.
Centenary conversation …
… Ray Bradbury at 100: A Conversation Between Sam Weller and Dana Gioia - Los Angeles Review of Books. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
If you look at a similar list today, all but three of the top films — Titanic and two Fast and Furious sequels — are science fiction or fantasy. That is 94 percent of the hits. That means in a 70-year period, American popular culture (and to a great degree world popular culture) went from “realism” to fantasy and science fiction. The kids’ stuff became everybody’s stuff. How did that happen? There were many significant factors, but there is no doubt that Ray Bradbury was the most influential writer involved.
Something to think on …
The idea of a universal mind or Logos would be, I think, a fairly plausible inference from the present state of scientific theory.
— Arthur Eddington, born on this date in 1882
Sunday, December 27, 2020
Good Lord …
… Even Homer Gets Mobbed - WSJ.
“It’s a tragedy that this anti-intellectual movement of canceling the classics is gaining traction among educators and the mainstream publishing industry,” says science-fiction writer Jon Del Arroz, one of the rare industry voices to defend Ms. Cluess. “Erasing the history of great works only limits the ability of children to become literate.”
A master and a character …
… The Vatican’s Latinist (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Besides being the Pope’s Latinist and “one of the Vatican’s most colorful characters” (as the Catholic News Service called him), Foster has been a tireless champion of Latin in the classroom. Indeed, Foster’s greatest legacy may be as a teacher. “The most influential Latin teacher in the last half-century is Reggie Foster,” says Dr. Nancy Llewellyn, professor of Latin at Wyoming Catholic College. “That’s not just my opinion—that’s a fact. For decades, he had the power to change lives like no other teacher in our field. I saw him for an hour in Rome in 1985 and that one hour completely changed my life. His approach was completely different from every other Latin teacher out there, and it was totally transformative.”
'Tis the season …
… Beware of the burglars - Philadelphia Weekly.
Detectives and security specialists I’ve spoken to over the years say that most burglaries can be prevented. To avoid being burglarized, simply install an alarm system with cameras, place a sign in plain sight that states the property has an alarm system, and install good locks on the doors and windows. The cops see that many of the victims of burglary often have apparent security weaknesses that the burglars probably saw as well. The victims’ homes had no exterior lights, no alarm system, no signs and poor locks on the doors and windows.
RIP …
… Rev. Reginald Foster of Milwaukee served four popes as Vatican Latinist. (Hat tip, Dave Lull)
Something to think on …
Only in Russia poetry is respected — it gets people killed.
— Osip Mandelstam, who died on this date in 1938
Saturday, December 26, 2020
Something to think on …
To be silent the whole day long, see no newspaper, hear no radio, listen to no gossip, be thoroughly and completely lazy, thoroughly and completely indifferent to the fate of the world is the finest medicine a man can give himself.
— Henry Miller, born on this date in 1890
Thanks, doc …
For confirming what many of us already thought — that you’re an asshole: Dr. Fauci justifies lies, saying Americans can't handle the truth - American Thinker.
Of course, the timid faithful will object, as usual. Which is fine by me. I still believe in free speech, which means the right to disagree with me or anyone else. Just remember: It works both ways.
Hear, hear …
… The “Dr.” will see you now. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
If Epstein were being misogynistic in pointing out a home truth to Jill Biden, was The Washington Post engaging in xenophobia when it made fun of the foreign-born Hungarian-American commentator and Trump supporter Sebastian Gorka for identifying himself as “Dr. Gorka?” He “likes to be called ‘Dr. Gorka,’ ” WaPo sniffed in 2017. But “he gets his way only in conservative media.” And what about Ben Carson? The current Secretary of hud is also the former Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, that is, a real doctor. Yet The New York Times regularly identifies him as “Mr. Carson” even as it lovingly refers to Jill Biden as “Dr.” Is that racist, or is it merely intolerant woke leftism in action? As the author and commentator Glenn Reynolds sharply observed, “It’s good to see the weight of our journalistic and academic establishments being brought to bear to protect the self-esteem of a rich, powerful white woman.”
Well worth reading …
… THE STORY OF MY UNIVERSE AND OTHER STORIES | Kirkus Reviews.
I know they’re well worth reading, because I’ve read them.
Friday, December 25, 2020
Wimps …
… Fewer Plan To Attend Religious Services This Christmas - Rasmussen Reports.
I went to the Vigil Mass yesterday afternoon.
Light and revelation …
… Equations of the Light by Dana Gioia | Poetry Foundation. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Dana Gioia turned 70 yesterday.
How tyrannies work …
… North Korea Executes Fishing Fleet Captain for Listening to RFA. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Sweet and sad …
… Thank-you note | About Last Night. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Another thing about PURE’s Satchmo that made me cry was that Hilary wasn’t there to watch it with me. It was her boundless faith in my talent that gave me the courage to try writing a play of my own, and the two of us saw the results together in Orlando, Lenox, West Palm Beach, and off Broadway. Alas, she was too ill to see my second staging of Satchmo in Houston, and union regulations forbid making copies of archival videos, even for the personal use of the playwright. She was as proud as ever, but it wasn’t the same.
Something to think on …
Atheism is so senseless. When I look at the solar system, I see the earth at the right distance from the sun to receive the proper amounts of heat and light. This did not happen by chance.
— Isaac Newton, born on this date in 1643
Thursday, December 24, 2020
Blogging note …
Well, it is Christmas Eve. I will be heading out to Mass in just a few minutes, and when I get back I have to put on dinner. So once again, blogging has to take a back seat.
Hmm …
… Why I won't be closing my church this Christmas - UnHerd.
… the most compelling reason for being open is the same reason for being closed: the presence of death. “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined”. These words from Isaiah have long been taken by Christians as an indication of what Christmas is all about. God does not exist in some pristine ethereal space, hovering high above human misery like some distant potentate safe in all that glorious omnipotence.
I prefer trusting in God to being governed by fear of death. Were I to contract Covid-19 I could well die of it, since I am in my 80th year. So I take common-sense precautions in the hope of avoiding it. But I am not inclined to spend my days cringing.
Something to think on …
As a writer, you paint strokes and leave suggestions so readers can create their own pictures. That allows you to know someone by a small action and it saves countless pages of explanation.
— Mary Higgins Clark, born on this date in 1927
Wednesday, December 23, 2020
Something to think on …
As the saying goes, you might as well be yourself; everyone else is taken.
— Robert Bly, born on this date in 1926
Tuesday, December 22, 2020
These times …
… ‘Passionate’ Belief in Freedom of Speech and Multiplying Orthodoxies. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
There is no midnight knock on the door, at least not yet, to ensure conformity, but those who question these little orthodoxies (whose content, incidentally, changes all the time, but also extends in scope, like multiplying starfish crawling over a coral reef) are subject to such punishments as ostracism or black-listing.
Remembering …
… 'Any colour, so long as it's grey'.
And here is:
Molloy - The Sucking Stones - Samuel Beckett - BBC TelevisionAuthor and character …
… John le Carré on George Smiley: “Insofar as I am capable of self-love, I love him.”
Does David Cornwell — better known as John le Carré — admire George Smiley, his most celebrated spy? “He is the best of me, the most rational — I admire his commitment to his task and his sense of responsibility to humankind. Insofar as I am capable of self-love, I love him.”
This brings to mind something from one of Anthony Powell's novels: "He fell in love with himself at first sight and it is a passion to which he has always remained faithful. Selflove seems so often unrequited." My own view is the one advanced by Oscar Wilde: "To fall in love with oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance."
Something to think on …
The meaning of life can be revealed but never explained.
— Kenneth Rexroth, born on this date in 1905
Learning to see again …
… Of Heart-Breaking Strangeness in Dreeping Hedges. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Letting the light in with Patrick Kavanagh’s poem “Advent”.
When we have tasted and tested too much, it is time for us to narrow the chink through which we let the world in. A smaller aperture renews our focus; it allows us to turn our attention from what things can do for us to what they are in themselves.
Monday, December 21, 2020
Appreciation …
… The Man Who Went Backstage - Terry Teachout, Commentary Magazine. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Though he continues to be known for his partnership with May as one of the founders of the modern comedy movement exemplified by the four-decade run of Saturday Night Live, it was Nichols’s career as a director that made him notable. He spent nearly five decades on Broadway, staging versions of such plays as Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes, Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple, Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing, Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull, and Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot.
A thinker worth getting to know …
… Michael Oakeshott: A Hero for Whom? - Econlib. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Reading Oakeshott is a peculiar experience in these days of intense political polarization. It reminds us that politics should not be a totalizing part of human life and cautions us about the dangers of considering political philosophy a blueprint for political action. It impresses upon us a sense of the limits of politics as such not so much because of the existence of “individual rights” that should be respected, but because when politics becomes ambitious it becomes dangerous and grotesque at once.
Something to think on …
People think that because a novel's invented, it isn't true. Exactly the reverse is the case. Biography and memoirs can never be wholly true, since they cannot include every conceivable circumstance of what happened. The novel can do that.
— Anthony Powell, born on this date in 1905
Sunday, December 20, 2020
Appreciation …
… John le Carré didn't invent the spy novel – he joined a tradition and made it new again. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
John le Carré didn’t invent the literary spy novel. He joined a tradition, and made it new and invigorating. It’s a very British tradition, as well. No other literary culture has embraced the espionage novel as we have done. You can argue that the first proponent was Joseph Conrad with his books The Secret Agent (1907) and Under Western Eyes (1911). W Somerset Maughamwrote spy fiction, as did Eric Ambler and Lawrence Durrell (Mountolive is a spy novel, in its elaborate way) and, also, pre-eminently, Graham Greene.
Not cynical at all actually …
… Blogging as a cynical curmudgeon’s survival strategy.
As long as you’re alive, life presents you with challenges. Living means dealing with them. Never back down.
’
For those who may be interested …
… Essential Facts About Covid-19.
This research also includes a groundbreaking study to determine the lethality of Covid-19 based on the most comprehensive available measure: the total years of life that it will rob from all people. This accords with the CDC’s tenet that “the allocation of health resources must consider not only the number of deaths by cause” but also the “years of potential life lost.”
The incomparable Ludwig van …
… Beethoven's Message - Terry Teachout, Commentary Magazine. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Beethoven’s audience is so all-encompassing as to include those whose familiarity with his work is limited at best. Indeed, he is the only classical composer whose name is generally known to people who do not listen to classical music. It is as revealing that the cartoonist Charles Schulz chose Beethoven as the favorite composer of one of the characters in Peanuts as it is that Lorin Maazel chose the Ninth Symphony to perform last fall at his inaugural concerts as music director of the New York Philharmonic.
Something to think on …
No one who accepts the sovereignty of truth can be a foot soldier in a party or movement. He will always find himself out of step.
— Sidney Hook, born on this date in 1902
Saturday, December 19, 2020
Constancy amidst change …
… First Known When Lost: Companion.
Our quickly passing interval of "silent friendship" with the moon, with all the beautiful particulars of the World, is no small thing. And the thought that the World will go on without us, the moon and the seasons forever coming and going, can be a source of comfort and serenity.
Hmm …
… The U.S. Media Are Suppressing the Truth about Hydroxychloroquine - American Greatness.
… more than 2 billion people worldwide have taken hydroxychloroquine in its 70-year history, and it is known to be so safe that it can be taken by “pregnant women and nursing mothers,” according to the CDC. By contrast, the largest and most lauded study this year that claiming hydroxychloroquine may cause harm to COVID-19 patients was the scandalous, retracted Lancet paper, which that journal’s own editor called a “monumental fraud.”
Something to think on …
Everyone tends to remember the past with greater fervor as the present gains greater importance.
— Italo Svevo, born on this date in 1861
Distinguishing reason from rubbish …
… How the 'Underground Grammarian' Taught Me to Tell Reason from Rubbish - Quillette. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Tyranny is always and everywhere the same, while freedom is always various. The well and truly enslaved are dependable; we know what they will say and think and do. The free are quirky. Tyrannies may be overt and violent or covert and insidious, but they all require the same thing, a subject population in which the power of the word is dulled and, thus, the power of thought occluded and the power of deed brought low.
Friday, December 18, 2020
In case anyone is still interested …
… Jill Biden: Weak Dissertation | National Review. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
This is the last thing I will link to regarding this. I continue to agree with Joseph Epstein, who is a very good writer. But I like this from the dissertation:
“Responding to the current social and economic morés of the new millennium, Delaware Tech’s mission has adapted to meet the needs and goals of today’s students.”
Nice of her to add the accent to mores.
Susan Sontag
For sheer intellectual range, there are few modern essayists who can rival Susan Sontag. She writes effectively on so many topics: literature, drama, painting, and photography. Together, these amount, roughly, to culture. Her most celebrated collection of essays, Against Interpretation, is emblematic of this range: Sontag displays an unusual command of intellectual life -- of everything from anthropological methods to theories of poetry.
And yet, would it be disappointing if I were to admit a preference for Joan Didion?
Reading Susan Sontag is, for me, an exercise in education. When I read her work, I learn. This isn't always a linear process, and I won't claim that I follow all of Sontag's arguments. But it's a near certainty that, after each chapter, I'll consider some topic anew, with a sharper eye. With Didion, it's different: that experience is nearly linear, because her writing -- her form -- is less exhaustive. Reading Didion is often a reaffirmation, a confirmation: it's the process by which you articulate existing knowledge differently, in a way that's more natural, more representative. This owes to Didion's insights.
My goal here is not to compare Sontag with Didion, nor to declare one more effective than the other. It's clear that they were interested in different topics, and approached the art of the essay in different ways. Ultimately, though, both were essayists: Sontag pursued her subjects with bravery, even sometimes with defiance. Didion, meanwhile, pursued hers with a sort of solemnity. In this way, Sontag was truly a critic; Didion a poet, masked as a critic.
Something to think on …
All our science calculates with abstracted individual external marks, which do not touch the inner existence of any single thing.
— Johann Gottfried Herder, who died on this date in 1803
Thursday, December 17, 2020
Tomorrow night at 8 …
… Film on Hopkins introduces 19th-century Jesuit priest and poet to wider audience.
… there was also a theological insight of Scotus’ which gave even greater depth to Hopkins’ Christocentric view of nature and of human beings. Scotus (who is now a Doctor of the Church and so we can be sure his theology is orthodox) taught that God did not become incarnate in Jesus Christ just as a sort of divine rescue mission because of Man’s sin. Rather, as the early Greek Fathers of the Church had taught (and which is implicit in St. Paul), God always intended, before the Fall, to become incarnate, to share human nature so that humans could come to share God’s nature. Human beings are modeled on Christ and they are for Christ. And so we can see Christ in human beings. As Hopkins put it in one poem: “Christ plays in ten thousand places,/Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his/To the Father through the features of men’s faces.”
Hmm …
… Florida Is Open, New York Is Closed, And NY Has More COVID Deaths.
Thus far in Florida, approximately 20,000 people have died of COVID-19. In Texas, the number stands around 24,000, and in New York, about 35,000.
New York is the smallest of the three, with 19.54 million residents. Then comes Florida, with 21.67 million, before Texas, with 28.7 million residents.
Florida also has a larger 65-and-older population than New York
Blogging note …
I have much to do today, which I didn't do yesterday because of the snow. I will resume blogging sometime later.
Panic is always bad …
… Viral Panic - Law & Liberty. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Are lockdowns legal? I cannot be alone in my surprise at how many “emergency powers” governors, mayors, and appointed governmental executives like Directors of Public Health have over us. If all a governor has to do is to close down, say, gun stores is to declare an emergency and then use emergency powers from his own declaration, then we should all be concerned about such power being left unchallenged. The legislatures, boards of supervisors, or city councils, should stand against actions of executive tyranny, but they have remained silent with a handful of exceptions or have been even more extreme than the executives whose power they should temper. The courts exist to thwart excessive governmental power, but sadly as is the norm in the United States, some judges uphold the Constitution while others play the role of both executives and legislatures, but not jurists. That being said, there does thankfully finally seem to be a trend toward courts being more respectful of the rights of the individual particularly with respect to the dicta of governors
But many Americans have become timorous, credulous, and servile. And many do not seem to understand that fear of death is not the same as love of life.
From the online etymology dictionary: Panic — 'from Greek panikon, literally "pertaining to Pan," the god of woods and fields, who was the source of mysterious sounds that caused contagious, groundless fear in herds and crowds, or in people in lonely spots. In the sense of "panic, fright" the Greek word is short for panikon deima "panic fright," from neuter of Panikos "of Pan."'
A must read …
Pound desired an immanent, pagan, and materialist theory of history, one that could confer permanence on history and literature without implying transcendence. … Pound wanted beauty but on a material basis. He also wanted religion. And so, he came to advocate a form of classical polytheism, believing that for “the lack of gods (plural) man suffers, or let us say he very gradually impoverishes his mind by the elimination of irreplaceable concepts.” In the same essay, he condemns Eliot’s call for a restoration of Christianity, and explains antisemitism as “revenge on the race that has brought monotheism into general European circulation.”
This is a wondrously learned and incisive essay, though James Matthew Wilson is kinder to Pound that I could be. My problem with Pound is exemplified in the passage from the Pisan Cantos that Wilson quotes, which strikes me as the worst kind of mannerism. But I just got the Kindle version of Pound's Selected Poems, since I think I ought to take another look.
Something to think on …
Tradition is the living faith of dead people to which we must add our chapter while we have the gift of life. Traditionalism is the dead faith of living people who fear that if anything changes, the whole enterprise will crumble.
— Jaroslav Pelikan, born on this date in 1923
Wednesday, December 16, 2020
Rebuttal and response …
… The Life of Viktor Frankl - Tablet Magazine. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
An exchange about the survivor and psychotherapist—and the ‘lessons’ of the Holocaust.
I’m inclined to agree more with Geifman.
Q&A …
… Remembering Maurice Baring, literary convert and beloved friend of Chesterton.
Baring’s work is difficult for the modern reader because Baring was himself much more civilized and much more widely read than the modern reader. This is why I feel in awe in his presence when I read his books. Since Baring is much better read than I, and since he was a polyglot, conversant in several languages and cognizant of many others, ancient and modern, I feel in his presence what Chesterton felt in the presence of the Dominican, Father Vincent McNabb, that he walks on a crystal floor above my head.
These crazy times …
… PRODUCTS OF GESTATIONAL LABOR. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
“We know that the nuclear private household is where the overwhelming majority of abuse can happen. And then there’s the whole question of what it is for: training us up to be workers, training us to be inhabitants of a binary-gendered and racially stratified system, training us not to be queer,” says Sophie Lewis. For her among the most important steps is to “denaturalize the mother-child bond… the idea that babies belong to anyone — the idea that the product of gestational labor gets transferred as property to a set of people.” Children — excuse me, the “products of labor” — being attached to the women who gave birth to them and being raised by them along with their fathers? Whoever thought of such a ridiculous idea.
Further proof of Orwell's observation that "Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals believe them."
Hmm …
… The Biggest News Stories Every Year (You've Never Heard Of) | Literary Hub. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I don’t know if they’re the biggest, and Project Censored seems to have some biases of its own, but they’re certainly worth considering.
Browsing …
… Nigeness: Shakespeare's Flowers.
Shakespeare's works include mentions of 175 varieties of plants (and not a single butterfly), and many 'Shakespeare gardens', containing some or all of these plants, have been created on both sides of the Atlantic. Most are quite approximate in their approach, aiming more at a vaguely Elizabethan and Shakespearean feel, perhaps concentrating on but one aspect of Shakespeare's flora. One such garden turns up in E.F. Benson's Mapp and Lucia, in which we find Lucia sitting in her 'Perdita's Garden'.
Something to think on …
My importance to the world is relatively small. On the other hand, my importance to myself is tremendous. I am all I have to work with, to play with, to suffer and to enjoy. It is not the eyes of others that I am wary of, but of my own. I do not intend to let myself down more than I can possibly help, and I find that the fewer illusions I have about myself or the world around me, the better company I am for myself.
— Noël Coward, born on this date in 1899
Tuesday, December 15, 2020
Kerfuffle du jour …
… In Defense of Joseph Epstein on Dr Jill Biden | City Journal. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The English department at Northwestern also posted a statement: “The Department is aware that a former adjunct lecturer who has not taught here in nearly 20 years has published an opinion piece that casts unmerited aspersion on Dr. Jill Biden’s rightful public claiming of her doctoral credentials and expertise. The Department rejects this opinion as well as the diminishment of anyone’s duly-earned degrees in any field, from any university.”
Why exactly should I give a rat's ass what people like this think?
Moreover:
… Jill Biden’s habit of calling herself a doctor had caused real confusion. Last March, Whoopi Goldberg suggested on The View that, in the case of a Biden victory at the polls, Jill should be named Surgeon General because she’s an “amazing doctor.”
All of which goes to demonstrate Epstein's "actual, and serious, subject. And that subject was the increasing meaninglessness of advanced degrees in the humanities and social sciences."
Not here, not yet …
… Reviews and Reflections: American authorities bring an end to religion.
…
American politicians and bureaucrats have been gaining and using far too much power against the people.
No lie there. And given that we have the worst political class in our history, this is worrisome indeed.
Two poems in one, it would seem …
… Liberty by Paul Éluard | Poetry Magazine, (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
A decree (warning: this is meant as humor) …
… THE BULL AGAINST FALSE DOCTORS. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Now, therefore, ever mindful of Our great duty, We are pleased to ban, extirpate, eradicate, nullify, suppress, cancel, and forbid absolutely the striving after, acquiring, advertising, use, reference to, or insistence upon these pretended doctorates as schismatic, heretical, offensive to pious eyes and ears, unworthy of decent Christians, and altogether unsuitable for men of good will, and likewise enjoin most strictly and without any hope of relief even in the smallest degree, however small one might imagine such a degree, from Our Apostolic Severity and Rigour the use of the title “Doctor” in professional settings, social settings, when obtaining theatrical tickets, when seeking restaurant reservations, when dropping off dry-cleaning, when subscribing to magazines, when introducing oneself to new members at the Club, when having suits of clothes cut, or when doing anything whatsoever, however small and insignificant it may seem, among Christian people, whom, in Our most tender solicitude, We wish to protect and defend, lest they be bewitched and beguiled by the appalling error of wishing to appear be important and learned.