…and other thoughts from my talk at Notre Dame. I was there to talk about “friendship in narratives of addiction and recovery” aka my ranting about “Drinking Song” and We Shall All Be Healed and Withnail & I. The only, how to put this delicately, book I treated in depth was Dan Barden’s 2012 neo-noir, The Next Right Thing. I’d read it in early sobriety and liked it quite a bit. I re-read it, finishing up on the plane to... Read more
with the Irish website, The Minimise Project: Ever wondered what crisis pregnancy centres do? How do they actually help women? I did, so I interviewed Eve Tushnet, whose writing has appeared in a number of publications, including the Atlantic, and (online) the Washington Post, the New York Times, and now this blog. …She has also been volunteering in Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center since 2002 (and her views are, of course, her own and not the official position of the centre).... Read more
I’m working on a piece for America magazine about the role of work in 12-Step/recovery culture, and how recovery movements can reshape a Christian theology of work. As part of this project, I would really love to talk to anyone who’s had a stereotypical “sober job”–that first low-status or minimum-wage job you held in early recovery, or the job which brought you back to the very beginning of your career in a kind of fresh start from the bottom, or... Read more
Recently watched The Interrupters, a PBS documentary about a group of Chicagoans who seek to prevent murders by “interrupting” the cycle of anger, vengeance, and despair which leads people to choose to do violence against others. These people, (almost?) all of whom have gnarly criminal histories themselves, find potential perpetrators at vulnerable moments–on probation, or after they’ve been shot, etc–and stick with them, doggedly making the arguments for peace. They can’t offer a whole lot in terms of practical incentives.... Read more
Two very small thoughts from the Catholic Imagination Conference. The first one is that today is a holiday. It is a holiday I just invented, viz. Weird Catholic Book Day. You celebrate this holiday by purchasing a weird Catholic book for your parish library (if you have one) or local school (if they take donations from randos), or by requesting that a weird Catholic book be added to your local public library system. Lots of library systems let you suggest... Read more
So I just finished two slender novels released only a year apart, which read like they come from completely different eras. They’re both tales of the romantic longings and disappointments of a risk-loving chick, a child of divorce not yet old enough to drink legally; they’re both gabby, slangy tales about a material girl who wants something more than just another cute outfit but doesn’t know why. One of them is better than I expected and the other is a... Read more
‘Tis the season. Cat’s Eye: Three Stephen King stories linked by Drew Barrymore (eh ok) and A CAT (yes!). The first two are genuinely horrifying and tense. “Quitters, Inc” is kind of a cheesy story, about a man who enters a quit-smoking program with… extremely effective incentives. There’s even a party hallucination scene with dancing cigarette packs. But director Lewis Teague keeps the story taut and unsettling. Cat content: medium, the cat is tortured to demonstrate the program’s evil methods.... Read more
showing you my teeth :E Teeth are our biographers. They record the difficult paths we have walked in life and place the evidence on display. In discolored, broken or missing teeth anyone can read our history of difficult circumstances or bad decisions: childhood neglect, lifelong poverty, depression, addiction. And so healing the teeth can be a first step in restoring hope and giving us a chance to tell a new story with our lives. For a long time, Nicole Rouse’s... Read more
I hope all those interested in fantasy & science fiction already know about Doxacon, the DC-based Christian f/sf convention. If you haven’t checked them out already, you can still get tickets for the November 1-2 con here. I spoke a couple years back on “The Humiliation of Authority in Horror Movies,” and had a blast. I’m hoping to present again in the future, possibly on a topic near and dear to my heart: losers. How do you write a story... Read more
Last year’s effort (sorry about the weird gap of silence at the end of “Red Sunshine”!). Several of these choices I owe to Generic Male DJs, a highly pleasurable YouTube channel. This year seems heavier, and less aggressively Gen-X; I have no theories as to why, I just like all these songs a lot and think they would enhance your vampire weekend, werewolf bar mitzvah, ghouls’ night out, or other spooky occasion. Talking Heads, “Psycho Killer.” Toto Coelo, “Dracula’s Tango.”... Read more
Eve Tushnet
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