If you make God bleed, then people will not believe in him.–the least scientifically-accurate line from Iron Man 2. Spoken by a Russian, no less! Read more

PHILOSOPHY WORKS IN PRACTICE, BUT NOT IN THEORY is my basic response to this discussion of “Great Books” propaganda. In theory yes, Great Booksiness is cultural relativism in cultural conservative wool. In practice, if you have a nexus of friendships and a structure for leadership, you can come to understand philosophy as eros, the self-changing love of truth. It’s a practice which requires humility and desire and the longing for the glimpsed but (for an atheist) unnamed Beloved. I still... Read more

HOW IS JONATHAN RAUCH SO AWESOME? I mean, yeah, this isn’t the column I would write about Red Families vs. Blue Families, but it is still so much more focused on the most important issues than approximately 99% of the reviews/articles/responses I’ve read so far, and so completely free from pharisaism . When I went to see him talk about his gay-marriage book he was totally self-overhearing, too, which as you know is one of my absolute most admired traits... Read more

HELL IS FOR CHILDREN: Because my life is one giant roulette wheel and I am the shiny ball, I decided to start my Eastertide by reading a 500-page Hungarian Holocaust novel. Janos Nyiri’s Battlefields and Playgrounds is one of the best novels I’ve read in a long time. Personal digression, included because it might be of interest, but skip this if you want to know about why the book is so powerful: I admit that I actually haven’t read that... Read more

THOUGH I PUT YOU ON A PEDESTAL, I PUT YOU ON THE PILL: Some thoughts about Neil LaBute, Reasons to Be Pretty. At the Studio Theater ’til May 16, I think, and this really is a good production with good acting, even though I’m gonna be pretty rough on the play itself. Even with an amazing actor as Kent (Thom Miller, who’s really fantastic and hilarious), LaBute’s script is way too on-the-nose. I mean I get that your story is... Read more

A MAN’S CASTLE IS HIS HOME! Building the modern medieval fortress in France; and in the Ozarks. Links via the Rattus. Read more

P IS FOR PUS. Saint Catherine of Siena drank pus! Among other things she did. Read more

EVERYBODY GOES HOME IN THE END. Read more

“The only thing worse than losing this war would be to win it. God has saved us from that.”–Torma the teacher, in Janos Nyiri, Battlefields and Playgrounds, tr. Nyiri and William Brandon Read more

LORD GOD HAVE MERCY–ALL CRIMES ARE PAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIID!!!! On Saturday the Rattus and I went to New Britain, CT, to see the Hole in the Wall Theater’s punk-themed production of Richard III. I was expecting cheap thrills, something a bit chintzy but still fun. And sure, okay, some of the acting was wobbly. But mostly this was super extra awesome! And smart, too–there were genuine insights and smart choices here. I feel like I understand the play better now, plus it... Read more