We watch the blogs at night,

We go where eagles dare…

Alan David Doane says Palomar, the new and enormous collection of Gilbert Hernandez’s Love and Rockets comics set in a fictional South American small town, is a great way for people who haven’t picked up L&R; yet to start. I don’t rightly know–I hate gigantic books (if I can’t read it in the tub what good is it?), but I do see that it can be difficult to start with one of the great G. Hernandez comics like “Human Diastrophism” or Poison River if you don’t know the characters. So… basically I’m saying, this is some of the best art out there. Not solely some of the best comics, but some of the best art. Fetch yourself some L&R;. If you like big fat books, buy Palomar. If you don’t, stand around in a comics shop reading different volumes of the paperbacks until you find something that really grabs you, and start there.

Bruce Baugh: “One of the functions of horror is to frame the act of grieving in art.” I’m not sure how to permalink his entries–go here and scroll down to “Horror and Grief.” There’s also an excellent comment on art that tries to blind the audience to the rest of the world and art that opens us up to that world.

MarriageDebate is hosting a discussion of marriage and gender, sparked by this piece in the new Commentary. Anybody interested should drop by.

Sursum Corda: Powerful meditation on falling in love with Christ. This is not really a perspective I share, to my great loss; I’m still more in the stage Cat Power described–

What defeats people is a double confession. One time they will confess one thing and the next they will confess the next;

You talk to them, they will say,

“Learn to say the same thing.”

The Volokh Conspiracy: Supreme Court starts sniffing around the secret habeas corpus case. More updates as I know more.

And a description of a “boot camp for creative writing.” Merely underlines how much work I need to do on my stuff…. (Speaking of which, next short story will begin on Friday.)