THE SEASONS COME, THE SEASONS GO<\/span>: 2009 best-of. I\u2019m posting it now because I\u2019ve accepted that I probably won\u2019t finish Under Western Eyes<\/span> in 2009. Previous years\u2019 compilations can be found on the sidebar\u2026.<\/p>\n I did a lot of re-reading this year, and read a lot of fiction I don\u2019t need to revisit. I also separated out plays for the first time. Those facts combine to make the book lists a bit thinner than usual. So I\u2019ve starred the books and plays-I-read which I would recommend without qualification to anyone who reads this blog. The unstarred things are often amazing, but not as universally-recommended.<\/p>\n Best books read for the first time (nonfiction)<\/span>: * Alan Bray, The Friend<\/a><\/span>. Hands-down winner. One of the most beautiful and mind-expanding books I\u2019ve ever read.<\/p>\n Speaking of the Eucharist, I love how thoroughly Bray has placed this sacrament at the heart of his book. Anyone interested in Eucharist as love-feast and as quintessential Christian prayer cannot afford to miss this book, for real.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n more<\/a>! I\u2026 don\u2019t want to be a bitch, but if this is service journalism then I should probably note that the Cherlin wouldn\u2019t\u2019ve made it onto a best-of list in any previous year. I did a lot of re-reading and a lot of reading of subpar fiction this year. The Cherlin has a lot to recommend it, as I hope my review makes plain, but it\u2019s just not in the same league as the other four. And The Friend<\/span> is just interstellar distances beyond the others.<\/p>\n Best books read (fiction\/whatnot)<\/span>: Huh, this was not a fiction year for me. I did a lot of re-reading, as well. Best movies watched for the first time<\/span>: \u201cThe Trial.\u201d<\/a> almost made it!: \u201c(Untitled),\u201d<\/a> \u201cThe Squid and the Whale,\u201d<\/a> \u201cNosferatu: A Symphony of Horror,\u201d<\/a> \u201cThe Descent.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n plus honorable mentions for various shorts in the two discs of \u201cAvant-Garde: Experimental Film of the 1920s and 1930s.\u201d One<\/a>; two<\/a>.<\/p>\n Best blog posts (six, not five, as is traditional)<\/span>: What I actually meant can perhaps be discerned by noting that I don\u2019t only begin the Commonweal<\/span> piece with my coming-out story. I begin it with two parallel love stories: my crush on a high-school girl, and my Catholic conversion. The implicit narrative of the essay is the story of how love of Christ and His Bride the Church became more central to my life than lesbian love (real love, not just crushes!), and how, therefore, I began to interpret the latter kind of love in light of the former.<\/p>\n Both of these loves are things I really experienced my own self. So my argument probably should not have been cast in terms of experience vs. tradition, but in terms of which experiences lead us to reinterpret prior experiences and transform our response to subsequent experiences.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n more<\/a> Best things I wrote (nonfiction, non-blog)<\/span>: \u201cRomoeroticism<\/a>.\u201d Possibly the most interesting thing I\u2019ve ever written for money?<\/p>\n This year, just like last year, Gay Pride weekend coincided with the feast of Corpus Christi.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n more<\/a> We need to keep in mind that it\u2019s okay to challenge God \u2014 Abraham did it. It\u2019s okay to howl at God in desperation \u2014 Job did it. It\u2019s even okay to laugh at God \u2014 Sarah did it. All of them still understood themselves to be bound to God, to hold Him as their Lord, even as they expressed themselves in ways that wouldn\u2019t make the parish council happy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n more<\/a> But it would be a mistake to map the Burkean sublime too quickly onto a Christian sublime. In the Christian worldview, sublimity is like cheap lipstick \u2014 or the ashes of Ash Wednesday: It gets all over everything<\/span>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n more<\/a><\/p>\n Best plays (read or watched)<\/span>: Studio Theatre, Rock\u2019n\u2019Roll<\/a><\/span>. (And a * for the script, which I also read for the first time.) My published short fiction<\/span>: \u201cBetter.\u201d<\/a> What if the aliens are just better<\/span> than us? God bless, and see you in the new decade. Remember that New Year\u2019s Day is also the feast of Mary, the Mother of God, a holy day of obligation. Drag yourself to church!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" THE SEASONS COME, THE SEASONS GO: 2009 best-of. I\u2019m posting it now because I\u2019ve accepted that I probably won\u2019t finish Under Western Eyes in 2009. Previous years\u2019 compilations can be found on the sidebar\u2026. I did a lot of re-reading this year, and read a lot of fiction I don\u2019t need to revisit. I also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1071,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
* Caroline Walker Bynum, Fragmentation and Redemption: Essays on Gender and the Human Body in Medieval Religion.<\/span>
* Julia Serano, Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity.<\/span>
* Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez, Perfumes: The Guide.
Andrew Cherlin, The Marriage-Go-Round: The State of Marriage and the Family in America Today<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n
Christopher Logue, All Day Permanent Red: The First Battle Scenes of Homer\u2019s Iliad Rewritten<\/span>.
Djuna Barnes, Nightwood<\/span>.
Paul Celan, Last Poems<\/span>.
James Agee, A Death in the Family<\/span>.
Randall Jarrell, Pictures from an Institution<\/span>.<\/p>\n
\u201cBarton Fink.\u201d<\/a>
\u201cSpring, Summer, Fall, Winter\u2026 And Spring.\u201d<\/a>
\u201cRan.\u201d (Yes, by this ranking you can tell how difficult it is for me to separate personal-favorites from best-of.)
\u201cUp.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n
\u201cSong for a Future Generation\u201d<\/a>: I wrote a lot about friendship and kinship and same-sex love this year. This post might be the best place to start. (more<\/a>)
\u201cThe Most Important Word in the Declaration of Independence Is \u2018Created'\u201d<\/a>: Or, why there\u2019s no point in requiring \u201csecular reasons\u201d for political stances. With bonus aesthetic theory and America-as-argument.
\u201cFalling in Love (Is So Hard on the Knees)\u201d<\/a>: A response to the best criticism I received for my Commonweal<\/span> piece about Gay Catholic Whatnot.<\/p>\n
\u201cWear Your Insides Out\u201d: Beauty is a killer mutant cat that hides inside another cat.<\/a>
\u201cPolitics and the English Language,\u201d a two<\/a>\u2013part<\/a> thing about gay marriage and the rhetoric of its opponents. The second post is by far the more important one, I think, but the first post provides context and concessions.
It is now my duty to completely drain you: Against sincerism.<\/a><\/p>\n
\u201cDefining the Relationship.\u201d Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus? <\/p>\n
\u201cChurch Ladies,\u201d<\/a> First Things<\/span> review of Catholic and Feminist<\/span>.
\u201cShelf Life,\u201d<\/a> my American Conservative column on MLK library. I also liked my piece on Malcolm X Park<\/a>. Both are subscribers-only.
\u201cSublimity Now!\u201d<\/p>\n
* Edward Albee, The Goat, Or Who Is Sylvia?: Notes Toward a Definition of Tragedy<\/a><\/span>. I\u2019d seen this before but never read it. It\u2019s a harsh, brilliant, scathingly funny play.
\u201cA Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream,\u201d adapted and performed by the Synetic Theater.
* Elie Wiesel, The Trial of God<\/a><\/span>.
\u201cDracula,\u201d adapted and performed by the Synetic Theater.<\/p>\n
\u201cA Story Like Mine\u201d<\/a>: For every scar there\u2019s at least one story.<\/p>\n