As the sixth week of Lent came I had to go through my religious exercises, for the convicts were divided by the sub-superintendent into seven sections–answering to the weeks in Lent–and these had to attend to their devotions according to this roster. Each section was composed of about thirty men. This week was a great solace to me; we went two or three times a day to the church, which was close to the prison. I had not been in... Read more
The comments thread at this AmCon post by me has turned out to be mostly about “early” marriage, which was not my intention with that post!, but it did lead me to make this point which I think is useful in many contexts: Or, to go to a higher level of abstraction, a) structural solutions often turn out to be easy for the preexisting culture to ooze past, whereas harder and weirder solutions which focus on cultural attitudes address the... Read more
We give up the temptation to move from place to place in search of an ideal situation. Ultimately there is no escape from oneself, and the idea that things would be better someplace else is usually an illusion. And when interpersonal conflicts arise, we have a great incentive to work things out and restore peace. This means learning the practices of love: acknowledging one’s own offensive behavior, giving up one’s preferences, forgiving. –via the Archdiocese of Washington blog Read more
sort of. Read more
Reihan Salam comments. I haven’t read the essay itself yet, but wanted to point you to Salam’s excerpts and notes, and will definitely read it since the world the essay describes is largely the one I’m exploring in the novel I’m working on, about martial artists in a futuristic prison. The excerpts in the Salam piece seem right-on to me. ETA: more. Read more
Am I just Jesse Walker’s twitter feed in disguise? Two questions answered! Read more
In which those who can’t do teach, at AmCon! (And btw you really, really should read this piece by Michael Brendan Dougherty on growing up with a single mother.) Read more
Last night I watched Pitfall, the 1962 movie with a script by Japanese surrealist Kobo Abe. It’s an unsettling genre-crosser: Carnival of Souls-style afterlife horror, plus union vs. management and the suffering of the workers, plus sad and scary metaphysics. It’s strange and grimy, and although I still don’t know what to make of the character of the little boy, the story is twisty and compelling. Read more
Step three: Beauty saves the world! I find this perennial article frustrating because it accurately identifies a problem but it’s written as if it’s also identified a solution. It’s super easy to say, “Turn from culture-war to culture-creation!” and stop there. So let’s take this article as the opening move, and go on to make three further points. 1. One reason some of the examples in the article don’t seem to point to any practical action is that there are... Read more
I review a show of George Bellows’s paintings and prints, at AmCon. Read more
Eve Tushnet
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