December 2010
22 posts
“In the late ’90s I started an awkward—some might say excruciating and as-yet...”
– Stephen Metcalf (from an essay on the late Denis Dutton)
“Both Newman’s attraction to Catholicism and his hesitation in embracing it...”
– Eamon Duffy (via ayjay)
This—the development of doctrine and apostolicity—is my main confusion as I consider converting to Catholicism.
“To watch the corn grow, and the blossoms set; to draw hard breath over...”
– John Ruskin, from Modern Painters (via ayjay)
Andrew Hudgins, "Praying Drunk"
Our Father who art in heaven, I am drunk. Again. Red wine. For which I offer thanks. I ought to start with praise, but praise comes hard to me. I stutter. Did I tell you about the woman whom I taught, in bed, this prayer? It starts with praise; the simple form keeps things in order. I hear from her sometimes. Do you? And after love, when I was hungry, I said, Make me something to eat....
1 tag
Wiretypes
I’m just finished season two of The Wire, and I realized that I keep comparing people to characters in the Wire, asking what characters they remind me of. This happened like 6 times yesterday on my way from Sweden to Chicago. So, either David Simon has made brilliant characters, or I love me some archetypes. Has this happened to anyone else?
“Putnam and Campbell are quantitative, liberal, and upbeat; Hunter is...”
– Douthat:A Tough Season for Believers - NYTimes.com (via ayjay)
1 tag
“I have never looked for utopia on a map. Of course, I believe in medicine, in...”
– Richard Rodriguez, in his essay “Late Victorians”
“A few weeks ago at a conference, I listened to a distinguished political...”
– Very important essay by Stanley Fish. There are of course some people — some blessed few — who have the judgment to pursue their own educational path. But in my experience there are far more people who think they have that discernment than actually possess it. I have had too many former students...
Risk the Game: On William James →
Marilynne Robinson in The Nation
1 tag
“The guy next to me at the library computers has pushed away his chair and is...”
“Still, as the New York Times put it, “there is no public evidence to...”
– The rush to smear Assange’s rape accuser
[via Ben]
“It feels important to remind ourselves, at this point, that Facebook, our new...”
– Zadie Smith [yes, I know I’m weeeeeks late on linking to this review]
“Our literature is full of autobiographical or reportorial or fictional accounts...”
– Lionel Trilling, in his review of Richard Wright’s Black Boy, which he does not include as one of these sorts of books.
“His loyalty to the Cubs showed during his unabashedly biased run in the radio...”
– Ron Santo - a passionate, feisty Cub for life
“A company composed wholly of men of learning, though greatly to be valued and...”
– “Wise words from Lord Chesterfield to his son, via my friend and colleague Richard Gibson. If only I had received this counsel thirty years ago… .” (via ayjay)