“Desolations”

Last updated on: September 10, 2013 at 12:31 am By Eve Tushnet

of being gay and Christian–Brent Bailey blogs: I resist stereotypes about gay people and try to avoid ascribing certain inclinations or aversions to my sexual orientation. With that being said, I recognize there are certain ways my sexual orientation has directly influenced my relationship with God and my relationships with other Christians. This post is a sketchbook for me to reflect on the desolations I attribute to being gay, the ways it’s harmed my faith. These aren’t the ways it’s... Read more

The Dishonorable Poor: “Harakiri”

Last updated on: September 4, 2013 at 3:22 pm By Eve Tushnet

It’s 1630. A desperate, aging ronin arrives at the gates of a big estate and asks permission to commit harakiri in the courtyard. The estate’s counselor lets him in and tells him a story: the story of the last samurai who came there, not too long ago, with the same request. This is the arresting opening to Masaki Kobayashi’s 1962 Harakiri, a tense, tragic movie which includes the requisite crazy samurai fight scenes and discourses on the nature of bushido,... Read more

Convention of Ex-Slaves in 1916

Last updated on: September 4, 2013 at 3:02 pm By Eve Tushnet

Just fascinating, via Ghosts of DC. Read more

“Demons in Exile”: Marc Maron on Addiction

Last updated on: September 2, 2013 at 2:57 pm By Eve Tushnet

Lots of stuff I liked here. I don’t buy sentences of the form, “Addicts/alcoholics are all [negative generalization]” (because I’m defensive of other people, not because I think those generalizations are especially untrue about me personally) but other than that, good for him. Not sure if I still need to notify you all when there’s cussing, but yes, there is. …Slate: A big problem for psychiatrists when it comes to understanding addiction is that there are many of us have... Read more

“I Want a Fur Coat and a Villa and a Cat”

Last updated on: August 30, 2013 at 2:35 pm By Eve Tushnet

new book on 20th-c changes in English marriage ideals pushes back against my Weekly Standard piece: The longing for a home of one’s own was all-encompassing. As one commentator explained, “Where almost everything else is ruled from outside, is chancy and likely to knock you down when you least expect it, the home is yours and real.” Those who idealise long-lost working-class communities forget how many people married to escape their parents. David Kynaston, in his recent book Modernity Britain,... Read more

Friday Links: Wal-Mart, Letter to My Freshman Self, Kitchen Tricks, And Much More

Last updated on: August 30, 2013 at 2:22 pm By Eve Tushnet

What I’m reading. If you follow me on Twitter you’ve seen some of these–but not all! Radley Balko does an AMA (Ask Me Anything) about his new book, Rise of the Warrior Cop. Tons of interesting q&a about police practices and culture. And more from Balko, “New Study Finds that State Crime Labs Are Paid Per Conviction.” I see no way this could go wrong! Megan McArdle: “Why Wal-Mart Will Never Pay Like Costco.” Useful reading, important in correcting various... Read more

Man, Last Night Was Apocalyptic!: “The World’s End”

Last updated on: August 30, 2013 at 1:24 pm By Eve Tushnet

A group of grown-up, respectable friends who have drifted apart are reunited by their very much not grown-up, not-respectable ringmaster to relive an epic pub crawl which marked the high point of their misspent youth. Also, the world ends. I loved “Shaun of the Dead” (haven’t yet seen “Hot Fuzz,” although I want to) so I was super-excited for this new movie from the same director/writer?/acting team of Edgar Wright & Simon Pegg. I can tell you for sure that... Read more

“This Is Because of Their Similarity to the Human Head”: Orthodox Customs to Commemorate the Beheading of John the Baptist

Last updated on: August 29, 2013 at 6:39 pm By Eve Tushnet

which is what we’re doing today. Commemorating it, I mean, not doing it. Read more

From Yesterday’s Readings

Last updated on: August 29, 2013 at 6:36 pm By Eve Tushnet

R. (1) You have searched me and you know me, Lord. Where can I go from your spirit? From your presence where can I flee? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I sink to the nether world, you are present there. R. You have searched me and you know me, Lord. If I take the wings of the dawn, if I settle at the farthest limits of the sea, Even there your hand shall guide... Read more

Monday Links: More Atonement! Plus Interrupting Violence, Texification of the Church in America, and More

Last updated on: August 26, 2013 at 4:06 pm By Eve Tushnet

Hey! Here’s what I’ve been reading: Leah Libresco asks for stories of atonement and tells a Jewish fable (which I’ve heard attributed to St Philip Neri!–and more on that in a powerful short piece here). The Juvenile Justice Information Exchange on “The Art of Interrupting Deadly Youth Violence“: “‘One of the biggest challenges is overcoming the years and years and years of confirmation that nothing can change,’ Achisimach ‘Chis’ Yisrael, a former SOS Outreach Worker, said, seated behind the large... Read more