There are so many lists in the internet that one stops paying attention after a while, yet recently we were intrigued to discover, through a reader’s recommendation, that the website St. Peter’s List had put together a post titled “5 Short Stories Every Catholic Should Read.” Go check out their list and then tell us what you think. Are all these stories really must-reads? Or what alternative list would you propose?

We’re strongly tempted to suggest several more by O’Connor, so we’re instituting a rule that any proposed list can only have one short story per author mentioned. Perhaps something by the much neglected J.F. Powers?

While “3D printing” technology is still in its early stages, many commentators are already discussing how it will usher in a third industrial revolution during the coming century. The technology allows for cheap, customized, small-scale manufacturing: simply create a three-dimensional design (or download it from the internet), press print, and — voilà — out comes an bracelet, a wrench, an engine part — or a sculpture.

The technology is already becoming a reality for everyday people through companies such as Shapeways and Quirky, which allow anyone to upload and sell designs online. If you are relatively unfamiliar with the technology, you may find the following video as fascinating as I did:

As I said earlier, commentary about 3D printing tends to center around its potential economic effects, but I am likewise intrigued by how it may affect the world of art and design. Though as an economist by training I admire the many benefits of the original industrial revolution and the advent of mass production, which allowed for an unprecedented increase in standards of living across the world as goods were made available at ever-more-accessible prices, as a lover of beauty I’ve been much less of a fan. As factories killed the craftsman, design became increasingly utilitarian and lacking in charm. Uniformity became the norm. Detail, inventiveness, and imagination faded from our everyday lives. While some think that a simple return to a more craft-centered way of life and production is the solution, I’ve never been satisfied with such an answer for the simple reason that such labor-intensive work is too costly to be available the mass of humanity. Only the relatively well-off (and by world standards, that includes most Americans) can afford to sneer at the soullessness of the products one might find at the local Walmart; I think it is fair to say that most others would just be delighted to find what they need to furnish a home at a price they can afford. For detail and charm to return on a massive scale they simply have to become affordable.

And this is why 3D printing intrigues me so much. The potential it has for feasibly producing small-scale, detailed, skillfully-designed, and inexpensive goods could transform the aesthetics of our everyday lives. Think, for example, how this could affect architecture. A person could design a structure as full of detail as a Gothic cathedral, each sculpture and ornament entirely unique to the building, and then simply print the relevant parts at a relatively low cost. While, of course, this can never quite match the charm and dignity of an item crafted by hand, there would still be, I think, an element of uniqueness and authenticity.

I’m curious to read what others think. Could this “third industrial revolution” mark a turn away from utilitarianism and usher in a renaissance in forms of design that are more detail-oriented and humanizing? Or could it, perhaps, have the opposite effect by turning even the craftsman into just another desk-worker staring at a screen, one more step removed from the physical world? (I can already imagine the craftsman of the future sitting in a cubicle in some nameless office building, working 9 to 5 [if he's lucky], never even touching the fruits of his labor.)

So what will it be: utopia or dystopia? I suppose the truth will lie somewhere in between.

Friend of Dappled Things, Fr. Damian Ference, excerpts Walker Percy’s address upon receiving the Laetare Award from the University of Notre Dame in 1989:

While truth should prevail, it is a disaster when only one kind of truth prevails at the expense of another. If only one kind of truth prevails, the abstract and technical truth of science, then, nothing stands in the way of a demeaning of, and a destruction of, human life, for what appear to be short-term goals. It’s no accident, I think, that German science—great as it was—ended in the destruction of the holocaust.

Whether you’re a longtime reader of Percy’s work, or would like to find out what all the fuss is about, Fr. Ference’s article at Word on Fire is a terrific start. Their next book discussion group will focus on Percy’s Love in the Ruins. We suggest you follow along!

Readers and friends: As I step down from my post to give my full attention to my family, it delights me to welcome Meredith Wise as the new editor in chief of Dappled Things. A graduate of Christendom College and the University of Kentucky, she has been part of the Dappled Things editorial staff since 2008. I am confident that the magazine will continue to flourish in her capable hands.

Within the past five years, this editorial staff has transformed Dappled Things together. No longer an online-only start-up venture run by fresh-from-college kids, it is now the premier, indeed the only, English-language literary quarterly in print that is intended specifically for writers in the Catholic tradition. It is a great privilege to have been a part of this transformation.

Editing shares some traits with mothering: sleeplorn nights, intense attention, and passionate interest in minutiae of detail that may seem irrelevant to less involved minds. But they are not irrelevant. When one gives them the care they merit, their necessity becomes obvious. Meredith is ready and able to give Dappled Things the care it merits. Right now, my care is needed elsewhere.

This is not goodbye, though. I look forward to returning to my previous role as an associate editor and continuing to work with all of you under Meredith’s leadership.

Katy Carl

“The recurring motif in cinema of a freshly finished manuscript being scattered by the wind or burned in a fire is far more savage a drama than the computer crash that modern authors contend with.” So contends Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association award-winner Craig Thompson in this brief reflection on traveling with print books.

I just returned from a three-month book tour and was discouraged to see eBooks as the requisite travel accessory, the airports littered with travelers hunched over smart phones and Kindles and iPads. It’s true, Bolaño’s 2666 takes up a lot of space in your carry-on bag, but that’s the point! It’s like a pet that requires a 5am walk. The heft is a symbol of commitment —a marriage band.

I have to admit I agreed with him right up until the point where I got a Kindle for Christmas. What say you, readers?