Friday Links
June 2, 2023
Clare Coffey in Plough on Selling Friends
First Things Foundation interview with Eugene Vodolazkin
Rachel Lu on the “holy whodunits” of G.K. Chesterton, Agatha Christie and Ralph McInerny
Daniel McInerny: On Keeping Yourself Unfit for the Modern World
Katy Carl asks: We still have no Catholic fiction?
Clare Coffey in Plough on Selling Friends
Oh, this is Coffey at her best! I am not even going to try to sum it up, except to say, social media is already a bit like high school. Add in the MLM sale and you get HS on steroids. Too often, friendship, as Coffey says, “is not the means to the sell; it is the thing being sold.”
First Things Foundation interview with Eugene Vodolazkin
Vodolazkin says, “Man was created in the likeness of God. He has free will in almost everything, except for one thing, the time of his arrival in the world. Here he does not choose. This suggests that a special meaning is attached to the time of the person’s birth.” The conversation goes on to include time as circle vs. time as spiral, memory, Dostoevsky, and more. Here’s a link to the transcript if you’d rather read it.
Rachel Lu on the “holy whodunits” of G.K. Chesterton, Agatha Christie and Ralph McInerny
Summer is upon us, which means, you get to read a whole bunch of “whodunits.” Rachel Lu gives a fantastic overview of three favorites.
Daniel McInerny: On Keeping Yourself Unfit for the Modern World
“By “modern world” I mean the world insofar as it is no friend of Christ; the world insofar as it has rejected the notion of any reality that transcends physical nature; the world insofar as it strives to master and control nature via technological prowess; the world insofar as it is devoted to power and prestige and money and sensuality—and consequently, the world as it is filled with anxiety, ignobility, ugliness, and banality, and sin.” But, also, says McInerny, you must “love the world you are not fit for, and to love it passionately.” I think you can only love the world, truly love it, if you are not fit for it. Please read the whole thing. It is so good.
Katy Carl asks: We still have no Catholic fiction?
Our fearless leader has definitively answered this perennial question! She also recommends some books you should read. There is good Catholic fiction (and poetry and non-fiction) out there, quite a lot actually, and we should do what we can to support it.
