Tuesday, September 13, 2022
Monday, September 12, 2022
Thank you, Dr. Fauci …
… More Reports of COVID Vaccine-Linked Heart Inflammation in Young Males Submitted to CDC.
I guess the media deserves a round of applause for this also.
The poetry of faith …
… Speak, Memory: A review of All That Will Be New: Poems. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The fine arts of their nature depend upon the act of sublimation or transformation. Our ancient ancestors expressed this by proclaiming Mnemosyne (Memory) the mother of the nine muses (the inspiring goddesses of the fine arts). Events occur in time; no sooner do they appear from the nonexistent future and manifest themselves as the present than they have already been carried off into the nonexistent past. Sunk as we are in the mutability of things, existence is momentary and thinner than the glassy surface of a pool of water. Before we can touch its sheen, we have already broken it. Thus it is, Hesiod and Homer, Plato and St. Augustine, all teach us that Memory allows what passes away to be gathered up and held together. Memory gives to what is always dissolving a place of timeless stability; it is from that deep and invisible place that the muses draw forth materials that will, finally, inspire the artist to give them manifest and permanent form. The arts give to passing events the permanent form of a story; they give to invisible, elusive ideas and wisdom permanent expression; they allow even the most evanescent of passions to strike us with an everlasting note.
Adventures in grammar …
… Communication Breakdown. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Teachers no longer pay such close attention to errors in grammar and spelling. Instead, they leave it to the spellchecker. Jovin’s fieldwork confirms that teachers, by failing to teach the basics, are making millions of us look foolish. Hal, a businessman in Decatur, Ala., confuses "accept" and "except." Tara in Venice Beach confuses "affect" and "effect." No one seems to know the difference between "further" and "farther." And then there is the morass of confusion and rage that is the lie/lay distinction.
Something to think on …
On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.
— H. L. Mencken, born on this date in 1880
Why study the classics?
… Doing Things Badly, and the Good That Comes of It. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The modern education system, with its stupid and unhealthy obsession over testing metrics, constantly requires young people to demonstrate what they can give. But the classical school only asks the student to show up ready to receive. This emphasis on the students’ receptivity has one obvious corollary, which is that young people of highly differing aptitudes can benefit from a course of study so conceived. If the significant thing is not what students bring to their studies, but what they take away, then a considerable disparity in talents can be accommodated in classrooms where engagement is prioritized above all things.Frank
Sunday, September 11, 2022
Whither we sre bound …
… Opinion | What John Donne Knew About Death Can Teach Us a Lot About Life - The New York Times. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
A certain amount of ease around death would have been in character. John Donne was honest about death and its place in the task of living, just as he insisted on joy. Both his life and his work tell us the same thing: It is only by keeping death nearby that one can truly live.
Confronting the darkness …
… Even Wearing Black the Church Shines - The Catholic Thing. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
No prim turning aside, with perfume and flowers, from the brute fact of death and the decay of the flesh. It is as if the Church says, “I know the worst, and Christ has overcome it.”
Speaking her mind …
… Abominations by Lionel Shriver review – into battle with a culture warrior. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
… a good place to begin might be with her 2016 speech to the Brisbane Writers festival in which she spoke – rightly, in my view – against the notion of cultural appropriation (novelists, she said, must be free to inhabit characters unlike themselves and to relate experiences alien from their own). As you may recall, not only did someone walk out; afterwards, the festival, which had signed off on the subject of Shriver’s address long before she arrived in Australia, panicked and, with utmost cowardice, organised a “right of reply” event.
I just pre-ordered the Kindle version Lionel’s. I haven’t seen her in years, but I remain a fan.
Something to think on …
Freedom is a very great reality, but it means above all things, freedom from lies.
— D. H. Lawrence, born on this date in 1885
Saturday, September 10, 2022
Not quite getting to know her …
… The life and work of Barbara Pym - Claire Jarvis - Bookforum Magazine. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Byrne uses Pym’s fiction, primarily, to decode the novelist’s real-life romances. Her episodic approach offers a tidy chronology. We follow Barbara on her romantic peregrinations, touching on the Oxford of the 1930s, the life of a Wren in WWII, a single editrix’s life in postwar London. Byrne’s focus, perhaps shrewdly, is on a sort of sentimental eroticism. In her hands, Pym’s loves and flirtations—the moody, irritable, movie-star handsome Henry Harvey; the urbane, weak, married Gordon Glover; the Nazi officer Friedbert Glück, whom she romanced in Germany in the 1930s—are all snapshots of romance that is searching, urgent, and weirdly imbricated in political and social upheaval. But the major project of Pym’s life, turning the deeply mundane activities of a single woman in England into surprisingly complex novelistic art, falls somewhat by the wayside …
Words, words, words …
… We Added 370 New Words to the Dictionary for September 2022. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Something to think on …
Words were her plague and words were her redemption.
— Hilda Doolittle, born on this date in 1886
Religion with a beat …
…. Hillbilly Thomists: Dominicans tracing their roots into Appalachian music and faith. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The band's name is a nod to Catholic writer Flannery O'Connor and her blunt, surreal fiction. In a letter, she once said that while some have called her "a hillbilly nihilist," she would prefer "hillbilly Thomist" – referring to her love of the theology of St. Thomas Aquinas.
Friday, September 09, 2022
Would you want your kids taught by this person?
…Carnegie Mellon University professor's critical tweet about Queen Elizabeth II goes viral | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
I sure in hell wouldn’t. What kind of a person must you be to tweet something like that?
A sweet tale …
… When Duke Ellington Made a Record for Just One Person—Queen Elizabeth. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
What was the Queen’s response? We will never know. But I note that as recently as 2019, Her Majesty surprised British jazz musician Gary Crosby by mentioning how much she admired Duke Ellington.
Tracking another decline …
. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)The reason is straightforward, as Phillipa K. Chong explains in Inside the Critics’ Circle, a sociological study of the decline of the literary book review: Book reviews no longer attract sufficient eyeballs to generate the ad revenue that used to support book sections. But the problem is deeper than a decline in serious book readership. As Chong explains, freelance reviewers must take care lest they alienate the newspapers or magazines that hire them, or, as writers themselves, trigger reprisals from the authors whose books they might disparage, nitpick, or savage.
Something to think on …
If you want to be happy, try only to please God, not people.
— Leo Tolstoy, born on this date in 1828
Thursday, September 08, 2022
Take a look …
… Winners of the Minimalist Photography Awards Show the Power of Simplicity. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Mastering a skill …
… Using the Bow by Peter Straub | Poetry Magazine. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Peter Straub passed away at 79 this past Sunday.
Well, what do you think?
… Are These Novels Classic Or Overrated Poll. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden,)
I have always The Catcher in the Rye was overrated.
The age of the automobile …
… How the Car Created the Modern World. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Things change because when problems arise, people work at solving them, and sometimes they arrive at solutions. The answer to the psychosocial and physical degradation brought on by too many people employing too many horses in the burgeoning Industrial Age was, of course, the development of the motor vehicle. Specifically, one powered by the internal combustion engine.
Something to think on …
God is the shortest distance from zero to infinity.
— Alfred Jarry, born on this date in 1873
Wednesday, September 07, 2022
Encouraging words …
… The Surprising Return of Christian Poetry in America. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
What has been unexpected is that so many gifted poets should write openly religious work that would be published in major trade and university presses—and that one of those volumes, Franz Wright’s Walking to Martha’s Vineyard, which begins with an apology for the existence of God, should win the Pulitzer Prize in 2004.
Blogging note …
I am busy this morning. I have finish getting the house ready for the cleaning ladies. This is in preparation for Debbie’s return home in a couple of weeks. So blogging will have to take a back seat for awhile.
Something to think on …
I have often wished I had time to cultivate modesty... but I am too busy thinking about myself.
— Edith Sitwell, born on this date in 1887
Tuesday, September 06, 2022
Start reading one …
… NATIONAL READ A BOOK DAY - September 6, 2022 - National Today. (Hat tip, Tim Davis.)
Appreciation …
… D. Keith Mano: National Review's Consistent Genius | National Review. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Journalism tracks change, for every day brings something new. But journalism also relies on the familiarity of repeating frameworks, or features, whether they be columns, cartoons, or centerfolds. Mano thrived on the push/pull of this regimen.
Something to think on …
You cannot imagine at all how much you interest God; He is interested in you as if there were no one else on earth.
— Julien Green, born on this date in 1900
Anniversary …
… once upon a time : Second novel gets rave review.
Here)s something I wrote for the 50th anniversary of the publication of On the Road: Jack Kerouac’s Sound of America. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
You can read my piece now.
Monday, September 05, 2022
Hmm …
… Catholic comments by Connecticut principal under scrutiny | AP News.
The administrator is seen in a 12-minute video, which appears to have been taken covertly, speaking with a woman at various locations about how he tries not to hire politically conservative staff, including Catholics. He says: “Honestly, I don’t want to,” when asked if he’d hire a Catholic. When asked why, he says if someone is “raised a hardcore Catholic, it’s like they’re brainwashed. You can never change their mindset.”
Apparently this bozo has never heard of lapsed Catholics.
Something to think on …
The evils of mankind are caused, not by the primary aggressiveness of individuals, but by their self-transcending identification with groups whose common denominator is low intelligence and high emotionality.
— Arthur Koestler, born on this date in 1905
Sunday, September 04, 2022
Royal Ballet...
...Features a disabled dancer; this is a significant moment for inclusivity in the performing arts
The life bestowed by tradition …
… Found in Translation: Capturing the Sublime with Ryan Wilson | The Russell Kirk Center. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Ultimately, what Ryan Wilson offers is a tradition that has largely been abandoned. The danger in abandoning this tradition, like abandoning religion, is being conscious of what takes its place. If we do not raise our children in this tradition, we do not render them free; we abandon them to a different, darker vision of the world. This world lacks the inspiring spark of poets like Leopardi and Rimbaud, and the shocking admissions of a Baudelaire or Heym. Without poets, as A.E. Housman said, “to friend us…on the dark and cloudy day,” we are left with the saccharine platitudes of sitcoms and the script-by-numbers emptiness of today’s superhero movies.
The complete Auden …
… Love, Death and Music: The Poetry of W.H. Auden - WSJ. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
One generalizes warily about Auden, given his scope. But what’s perhaps most notable about him is a fidelity of outlook or character. Over the decades, his style alters, radically; his poetic structures tirelessly mutate; his attitudes and subject matter veer and shift. But you read his poems from the 1930s and marvel at how much young Auden sounds like Auden; you read his wildly different poems from the ’70s and marvel anew at how much elderly Auden sounds like Auden. Something more encompassing than style or structure or subject matter is stably on display: one of the most charming sensibilities in the long, panoramic pageant of English verse.
The look of war …
… Awards Ceremony Photos Capture Devastating Impact Of Invasion On Ukrainian Families. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Something to think on …
The myth of unending consumption has taken the place of the belief in life everlasting.
— Ivan Illich, born on this date in 1926
Saturday, September 03, 2022
Everyone should read this …
… Health Officials Backtrack, Did They Just Admit This?
The CDC being wrong on everything about the pandemic — and taking two and a half years to admit even a fraction of it — is proof positive that centralizing health care decisions is a bad idea. Ideally, all that HHS money should be divided among the states. We’d be far better off with local community programs handling current HHS services — including pandemic response
The way of a saint …
… ‘Mother Teresa: No Greater Love’: a Review. (Hat tip. Dave Lull.)
Not only was she unafraid of violence and enmity, but she was also not frightened by poverty, illness, or death – not by their sights or stench. To watch Mother Teresa: No Greater Love is to grasp why she had dark nights of the soul. She labored for half a century and, though she saved and enlightened many lives, she did not end poverty or indifference, giving us a perfect application of Matthew’s report of Christ’s words: “Why do you trouble the woman? She has performed a good service for me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me.”
Something to think on …
We cannot pluck a flower without disturbing a star.
— Loren Eiseley, born on this date 1907
Questioning one’s views …
… Reason to Believe ~ The Imaginative Conservative. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Instead of making the standard stock objections of the atheist to the arguments for God’s existence, Professor Feser asked instead how Thomas Aquinas or Gottfried Leibniz would respond to the standard atheist objections to theism. He set to work delving and diving deeper into theistic philosophy. He discovered that Aquinas’ Five Ways of showing the existence of God “were saying nothing like what I and most other contemporary philosophers supposed they were”. Professor Feser’s eyes were opened. He had been blinded by prejudice and presumption but now he could see clearly: “[N]o one who has actually studied Aquinas’ natural theology could think that he believes the things commonly attributed to him or that the standard objections have any force at all.”
Friday, September 02, 2022
Modern evangelists …
… C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien and the Inklings: Telling Stories to Save Lives | America Magazine.
At the center of this great pantheon, we find the Inklings. For generations now, these great Oxford storytellers have drawn the whole world to their crackling hearth. C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narniahave sold more than 100 million copies worldwide. J. R. R. Tolkien’s novels, by some estimates, have sold an astonishing 600 million copies. Both authors have been translated into more than 40 languages. They continue to provide rich content for film and television, as we see in the new Amazon series based on The Lord of the Rings.
Poetry snd music …
… “Here's Peter McSloy's sonnet for saxophonist Ben Webster—” (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Something to think on …
The birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus means that one day everything sad will come untrue.
— J. R. R. Tolkien, who died on this date in 1973
Q&A …
… Returning to the sea: A conversation with David Mason | by Red Hen Press | Aug, 2022 | Medium. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
This is a place where I can have a cultural life, contact with other writers and artists when needed, and the solitude and peace I require to do my own writing. I’ve retired from full-time teaching now and still find plenty of freelance work. It feels like a balanced, productive life.
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