Life and Culture
Likely the single-most important thing I read this past week by an essay by N.S. Lyons at The Upheaval. It’s about change, and why things seem to be changing constantly, even when the changes are clearly worse than what they’ve replaced to swept away. “The Change Merchants: Why rule by nerds leads to perpetual chaos” is about a society and culture where change has become a vested interest for a very small handful of people. Journalist Matt Taibbi, one of those who examined the Twitter files with Bari Weiss and Michael Shellenberger, wrote out a speech on free thought for a conference in London. He didn’t give it (he extemporized instead), but he posted it, raising some of the same issues as N.S. Lyons.
At High School Debates, Watch What You Say (Part II) – James Fishback at The Free Press.
We’ve gotten used to seeing abandoned spaces, like the shopping malls many of us grew up with. The closest one to our house in St. Louis was born in the early 1970s, flourished until the early 2000s, struggled for a few years, and then was torn down. After the land lay dormant for a few years, it’s now the site of a large grocery store, some other businesses, a housing development, and a large chunk of undeveloped land. James Lileks at Discourse considers “The Allure of Ruins,” while Chris Martin at Terms of Service fondly recalls “Liminal Spaces and Summers in the Suburbs.”
In the mid-1980s, I spent a great deal of time in Canada for work. The longer I went, the more I realized that, despite surface similarities like language, Canada is a very different place than the United States. Since then, it’s become even more different, like California on steroids. For example, “In Canada, Asking for Evidence Now Counts as ‘Denialism’,” says Jonathan Kay at Quillette.
The university lie: Can academia still support meaningful intellectual life? The Critic Magazine editorializes about universities in Britain, but its concerns apply equally across the Atlantic.
The Tale of the Machine: Paul Kingsnorth has posted a useful guide to his essay series on what he calls the revolution we’re living through now. I’ve linked to many (and likely all) of these essays; they take a big-picture view of society, culture, and what many are seeing as the collapse of “the West” as we know it.
Writing and Literature
A Reader’s Guide to Thornton Wilder’s Neglected “The Eighth Day” – Daniel Sundahl at The Imaginative Conservative.
My senior English high school teacher told our class that Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes should be read three time in a life – when you’re young, middle-aged, and old. I’ve read it twice, when I was young (17) and when I was middle-aged (44). And I discovered it was a different book from what I remembered. Or was it? E.G. Runyan at Story Warren discovered that the same books came seem very different when read a second or third time, and found some words from C.S. Lewis to be a possible explanation. (I plan to read Don Quixote a third time when I get old.)
Goodreads Has No Incentive to be Good – Lincoln Michel at Counter Craft.
Four Popular Mystery Tropes and Why We Love Them – Katie Garner at CrimeReads.
Ukraine
So, was there an attempted coup in Russia? What’s going to happen to the Wagner Group now? What’s the impact on the war in Ukraine, with the best-performing Russian group now in question? The shorts answers are all “Who knows?” The Free Press posted a summary of what may or may not be known, with some recommended readings (I’ve learned that The Free Press tends to stick to reporting and journalism, unlike most of the national media today). At the Spectator, Chuck DeVore sees the Wgner episode as a Russian failure – with lessons about how
ideological obedience is toxic to merit, innovation and military risk-taking.
Poetry
Atheism’s Easier – Stephen Cushman ay Kingdom Poets (D.S. Martin).
South Vietnam Warfare – Roy Peterson at Society of Classical Poets.
Faith
When God Woke Up Wales: Three lessons from revival – Jeremy Walker at Desiring God.
There are a lot more of us elderly than there used to be, and many of us are also caring for aging parents. And one effect of that is that we’re seeing, or hearing about, more people with dementia and Alzheimer’s. Mark Botts at Front Porch Republic tells a story about one such situation. Read “The Census Taker in the Pew, Part 2.”
The Music We Make – Seth Lewis.
Women are still more religious than men? Maybe the times they are a-changin’ – Ryan Burge at Get Religion.
American Stuff
Lieutenant James W. Dixon: The Baby Before the Breakthrough – Edward Alexander at Emerging Civil War.
British Stuff
The hanging gardens of Camden: The Alexandra and Ainsworth Estate, London – Andrew Eberlin at Photos, photographers and photobooks.
At Dr. Johnson’s House – Spitalfields Life.
Interlude – Timi Yuro (1968)
Illustration: Studying in Bed by Norman Rockwell (1894-1978).
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