I really enjoyed Melinda Selmys’s list of the twenty books that have shaped her. It’s my birthday (totally unrelated link, you guys) so it seemed like a good time to do my own list. Herein, fifteen books I blame, with commentary. In chronological order; when I can’t remember (e.g. the first three books), in order from greatest impact to least. And keeping in mind that we are unknown to ourselves, we knowers, so probably like Carbonel, The King of the... Read more
for First Things: Little Men, the new gentrification drama from writer/director Ira Sachs (Love Is Strange), has a rich premise and two excellent young stars. Its thinness—its inability to satisfy the expectations it sets up—comes from Sachs’s unwillingness to explore both sides of the class divide in his double story. Little Men is about the sudden, deep friendship between two thirteen-year-old boys: Jacob (Theo Taplitz), a yearning, driftwood Manhattanite who wants to be an artist, and Antonio (Michael Barbieri), a... Read more
This is a terrific opening: Long ago in 1945 all the nice people in England were poor, allowing for exceptions. The streets of the cities were lined with buildings in bad repair or in no repair at all, bomb-sites piled with stony rubble, houses like giant teeth in which decay had been drilled out, leaving only the cavity. Some bomb-ripped buildings looked like the ruins of ancient castles until, at a closer view, the wallpapers of various quite normal rooms... Read more
Abundance and destitution are two facets of the one face of God, and to be spiritually alive in the fullest sense is to recall one when we are standing squarely in the midst of the other. Read more
In the order I saw them. Saving the best for last. Hush: Home-invasion horror centering on a deaf woman. This is very suspenseful–really effective–and I loved that three of the four characters were noticeably, extremely quick-witted and resourceful. Absolutely worth watching if this is the sort of thing you like. Quite bloody. The ending has some degree of ambiguity; I’m choosing the grimmer interpretation because I think the movie has already given you plenty of reasons to consider even that... Read more
Would you like a practical, philosophical, and psychological look at natural family planning from someone for whom it has been at times a grueling and frightening struggle? Someone who understands why you might be bitter and exhausted, who has experienced some of the beauty and promises of NFP but also been harmed by the Pollyannaish or judgmental attitudes with which it’s often promoted? You are in luck: Eve Tushnet has been twisting my arm a bit to try to get... Read more
Along with Barcelona, my other RNC counterprogramming was Michael Moore’s 1989 documentary, Roger and Me. It’s structured around Moore’s quest to get a personal interview with Roger Smith, the head of General Motors, who is in the process of basically devastating Moore’s hometown of Flint, Mich. by closing the GM plant there. It’s incredibly powerful–I don’t think there’s a wasted frame. A few thoughts, beyond my basic thought which is just, “You should see this movie.” Artistically it is just... Read more
explains how being a refugee is changing: The Refugee Olympic Team (or #TeamRefugee) is the first time refugees have been represented at the Olympic Games. And by representing the 19 million refugees and asylum seekers displaced around the world, the team is an inspiring symbol of internationalism. Its 10 team members, who have been displaced from five countries to five other countries, embody tremendous fortitude, discipline, and courage. But the Refugee Olympic Team is also a symbol of the failure... Read more
this piece starts grim and only continues in that vein: In July 2012, Steven Galack, the former owner of a home remodeling business, was living in Florida when he was arrested on an out-of-state warrant for failing to pay child support. Galack, 46, had come to the end of a long downward spiral, overcoming a painkiller addiction only to struggle with crippling anxiety. Now, he was to be driven more than a thousand miles to Butler County, Ohio, where his... Read more
Someone who knows I volunteer at a crisis pregnancy center sent me a recent article from Medicine Anthropology Theory, “Blessing unintended pregnancy: Religion and the discourse of women’s agency in public health.” It’s a qualitative study of the reproductive histories and practical spirituality of women at a homeless shelter in the Southeast. The things the women say really sound like things our clients say; but what struck me most was how much of their experiences resonated with the religious experiences... Read more
Eve Tushnet
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