Friday Links, September 8, 2020

Is The Pilgrim's Progress the perfect American epic? Matthew Schmitz considers this thesis at First Things. "Bunyan lived in a time when every man seemed an Ishmael without inheritance, a Ulysses incapable of feeling at home. He wished to provide a path toward a home in which we can rest."

The legacy of Catholic novelist and jack-of-all-trades Alice Thomas Ellis is regarded by Bonnie Lander Johnson at Catholic Herald. "[Ellis] loved women in the way her husband, Colin, loved men: for their fellowship. He was happiest in his drawing room or at high table with Horace, whisky and men of letters, as she was happiest, at least once the babies had grown up, drinking in the kitchen with smart and familiar women, either in London or in her preferred house in the Welsh countryside."

Are modern architectural trends the result in part of mental disorders? A recent article in Common Edge examines this idea at length. "It is revealing to consider how the detachment people often feel around modern buildings and urban settings closely mirrors the disconnect people with PTSD and ASD often have towards others."