BIOLOGY IN SCIENCE FICTION BLOG. Looks fascinating; will link what I find as I trawl through its archives. Via Mumpsimus. Read more

ONE OF THE FUNNIEST “GO FUG YOURSELF” ENTRIES EVER. I can’t do it justice. Just go read. Read more

INSIDE OF A CATHOLIC, IT’S TOO DARK TO READ: My book column for Inside Catholic is on Heloise and Abelard, in that order. (And yes, I’ve been waiting to use this post title for weeks.) Read more

“OH! FRABIUSCE DIES!”: “Jabberwocky” in Latin. ZOMG. Read more

THE MEN FROM THE PIGS: James Lasdun, The Horned Man. A quick, creepy little fable about a gender studies professor who finds his life and identity slipping from his grasp as he becomes enmeshed in the circumstances surrounding a series of brutal murders. It’s… let’s say Philip Roth by way of Edgar Allan Poe. It’s a fierce and reactionary tale, a horror novel under the skin. The descriptions are especially lovely–“the park, where the snow was now lying in raised... Read more

OVERSTATEMENTS A SPECIALTY…: Clio writes, Are you really so indifferent to the Church as a “supportive” structure? It seems to me that as the Bride of Christ, it has a duty to be supportive in the right way, and in as much as the Bride fails to achieve this, she is neglecting her responsibilities. It’s a fair cop. I was very much emphasizing one angle on the question of how to understand the Church because it had come up several... Read more

The real tragedy of the action lies in the perfect sincerity with which they both played the comedy of sanctity.–Etienne Gilson, Heloise and Abelard Read more

THE SPIRIT AND THE BRIDE SAY, “EVERYBODY BE COOL! THIS IS A STICKUP!”: So the other day I figured out why the Pope makes me feel minty. I’ve talked about this before: The Pope does not stir immortal longings in me. He’s a guy in an interesting car. But when he was in town, I had to grapple with the reasons I was so thoroughly disconnected from his visit. I mean, the DCPD was out in force, and I couldn’t... Read more

THEY CALLED YOUR FAILURES ART: I was at Yale for most of my preceding absence; and so yeah, I’ve heard about Alisa Shvarts. (Why am I the only person I know who seems to care if she’s Jewish?*) I don’t have anything to say in public except–isn’t she just insisting, yet again, that something once considered sublime is really banal? My uterus is just as boring as my parents’ front yard. Even if you agree–does it trouble you that that... Read more

In winter especially, with the traffic and nearby housing projects unhidden by foliage, you felt the thinness of the romantic illusion of [the college]–something between a country estate and a medieval seat of learning–that it seemed intent on purveying; its closeness to nonexistence.–James Lasdun, The Horned Man Read more