a book crafted, it would seem, utterly and precisely pour moi: The first addicts to stumble across the threshold of the English language, refugees from Latin, were not only drunks or gamblers. Their ranks included devout Christians and scholars. Today we argue about whether addiction is a sin or a sickness, but when the term first entered our language it could name a virtue and an accomplishment: In the 16th century “addiction” covered many forms of “service, debt, and dedication,”... Read more
I am delighted to report that Harrison Lemke is at it again. This indie music guy, whose album inspired by the Book of Genesis I reviewed for First Things, is back with a four-song EP exploring the emotional landscape of our first parents, and the sudden changes their sin made in the world around them. It’s so terrific–wistful, stunned, self-lacerating. Lemke finds images I’d never considered: the first death, which is not a human death but a sparrow’s. The first... Read more
So there are way more orthodox gay people, seeking to live in obedience to the Church, than pretty much anybody realizes, and they have every possible spirituality and theology within the Church. There are gay folk for whom the Franciscan way shines with light, and gay folk who are very into Opus Dei, Byzantine gay people and flamboyant-Spanish-crucifix gay people; and these are all people who accept themselves as gay. And so I’ve recently talked with a couple of Our... Read more
at First Things: I Am Not a Witch, the brilliant feature debut of Zambian-Welsh writer and director Rungano Nyoni, is a satire with the haunting, surreal sensibility of a fairy tale. A little girl is accused of witchcraft, and driven on a forced journey through an entire society, from parched agrarian fields to a TV call-in talk show. Her enigmatic silence and possible magic powers expose the folly and wickedness of the adults around her—and expose, also, the inevitable consequences... Read more
Clash: On paper, this is a fairly formulaic movie. During the 2013 conflict between supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Egyptian Armed Forces, a group of Egyptians (and Egyptian-Americans) from disparate religious, political, and social backgrounds all get shoved into the same locked police van, and discover one another’s common humanity. “My enemies are people” is one of those things easy to write but complex to learn; Clash takes the viewer on the journey with the characters, so their... Read more
Extremely ’70s rural vampires, a black neorealist classic of work and childhood, and South African manhood rituals in the age of gay rights. Lemora, A Child’s Tale of the Supernatural: A girl whose daddy is in prison is the singing star of her little church, a pure angel with no knowledge of the big bad world. But when her daddy escapes, and little Lila Lee receives a summons to meet with him from a mysterious woman named “Lemora,” she begins... Read more
and American religion, by Martyn Jones in the Weekly Standard: Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker were a husband-and-wife televangelist team who rose to prominence in the 1970s and ’80s before their ministry was brought down by scandal, trickery, and bankruptcy. They lived extravagant lives in front of the camera, inviting viewers into their beautiful homes for holidays and vacations. While most children in this era grew up on television, the Bakkers’ kids grew up on television. In the early days,... Read more
I stayed up ’til 1:30 this morning to finish Gabriel Blanchard’s Victorian vampire novel, Death’s Dream Kingdom. It’s the first book in a trilogy and WHERE IS THE SECOND BOOK GABRIEL???? WRITE FASTER GABRIEL!!! On its surface this is a very conventional vampire novel done right–all the trimmings, the dead aestheticism and the vampire politicking and the killer sunlight and the claws. But the book also uses its creepy creatures to portray shame and religious despair (and hope) with rare... Read more
>In my project of revisiting my past in prayer, I’ve reached 1998, the year of my conversion. (And in certain ways a moral low point, which is a weird thing to recognize about the year you became a Christian.) I re-read St Anselm, probably for the first time since college and maybe for the first time ever. Not the “ontological proof of God,” which has never done much for me: Let’s all do math on a rollercoaster, and at the... Read more
for Commonweal: Daniel Swift runs his new book, The Bughouse: The Poetry, Politics, and Madness of Ezra Pound, like a shell game. Genres flash in front of your eyes: literary criticism, political journalism, biography, institutional history. But Pound himself is under none of the shells. The purpose of the game is to teach you that Pound, subjected to every kind of study and system, remains elusive—incoherent and undiagnosable. more (alternate title: “The Mods Must Be Crazy.” You can thank the... Read more
Eve Tushnet
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