Friday Links – October 27 2017

Fr. Zed considers King Alfred, Chesterton, the White Horse of England, and the creeping nihilism within and without the Church. "I know that weeds shall grow in it / Faster than men can burn; / And though they scatter now and go, / In some far century, sad and slow, / I have a vision, and I know / The heathen shall return."Some Libyan bookshop owners are interviewed by Lithub about how and why they remain open in times of turmoil and heavy censorship. "In January, for example, forces loyal to Field Marshall Khalifa Haftar were accused of burning 6,000 books in the east of the country. In a video of the book seizure posted online, an officer said the books promoted violence, sorcery, eroticism and the Muslim Brotherhood."Dappled Things editor Karen Ullo gives her thoughts on the spiritual purpose of horror stories. "The easiest thing for a Catholic or other Christian to do was to brush all horror aside, revile it, and be done with the whole genre. However, in doing so, we misunderstood the true purpose of literary monsters and the genuinely spiritual roots of the horror genre."