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Christian Sexual Ethics Did Not Emerge Ex Nihilo
Christian Sexual Ethics Did Not Emerge Ex Nihilo Delving into material (i.e., ancient ethics) that I usually don’t, I have to object to Benjamin Wilker (and subsequently Rod Dreher) when they...
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Good Writers Need Tough Readers
Good Writers Need Tough Readers Susan Sontag once observed: Sometimes a writer will be so uneasy before the naked power of his art that he will install within the work itself—albeit with a little...
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Population Stampede in Austin, Texas
Population Stampede in Austin, Texas Two pieces out this week on the increasing urban redevelopment of Capital City. “Report says gentrification threatens to displace Austin’s low-income residents,...
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Early Autumn Mushrooms
Early Autumn Mushrooms View this post on Instagram A post shared by Christopher Landrum (@bookbread2) on Sep 21, 2018 at 10:58am PDT From Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882): …. So also full of flowers,...
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To Read or Not to Read, that is the Question
To Read or Not to Read, that is the Question From the always cheerful Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) on what one should read (and otherwise): The art of not reading is a very important one. It...
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Scribblings and Droppings no. 01: Building Community by Reading and Writing...
Scribblings and Droppings no. 01:Building Community by Reading and Writing(and Rereading and Rewriting) I’ve been working on a major book review/philosophical essay for at least six months. I’m done...
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Scribblings and Droppings no. 02: On Editing, Empathy, Words, and Wars
Scribblings and Droppings no. 02:On Editing, Empathy, Words, and Wars Some more thoughts on editing the thoughts of others in order to understand one’s own: Do you remember the corny, WASPy nostalgia...
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Scribblings and Droppings no. 03: the Writer as Victim and Victor
Scribblings and Droppings no. 03:the Writer as Victim and Victor Have you ever been involved in a creative project over a long period of time? Did you reach a point where you felt the project was...
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Things I’ve been Reading the Past Decade to Prepare for a Trip to Germany...
Things I’ve been Reading the Past Decadeto Prepare for Writing a Novel about a Trip to Germany (Part I) Germany before Goethe and Schiller: Julius Gaius Caesar, Commentaries on the Gallic War (58–50...
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8 Thoughts on the “New York Times’” Article about the Demise of “The Weekly...
8 Thoughts on the New York Times Article about theDemise of The Weekly Standard. So Jim Rutenberg wrote this article in the New York Times. In that article you will not find out that: 1. I think most...
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Things I’ve been Reading the Past Decade to Prepare for a Trip to Germany...
Things I’ve been Reading the Past Decade to Prepare Writing a Novel about for a Trip to Germany (Part I) Read Part I here. Martin Buber, Erzählungen der Chassidim (Tales of the Hasidim) (1948)...
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The Gospel of Honor (or “Honour”)
The Gospel of Honor (or “Honour”) I’m very glad to have my essay/review of Tamlar Sommers’s Why Honor Matters (2018) published in the Fortnightly Review. It explores what Aristotle, Boethius,...
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A Shout-Out to all the Creative People in My Life
A Shout-Out to all the Creative People in My Life I’m still recovering/glowing/musing/recollecting from a trip to Europe, where I had Germany for a main course and London for dessert. It was great to...
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On Writing: How to Avoid Materials
Currently I’m working on the first of a series of essays that deal with the idea of tolerating the intolerant. For the first one, I’ll be using some old family stories. I’ve also picked out some...
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What I Don’t Know
What I Don’t Know From Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011), a book that took me thirteenth months to complete: The notion that we have limited access to the workings of our minds is...
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What The Hell Does “Culture” Mean, Anyway?
What the Hell Does “Culture” Mean, Anyway? Let’s ask Leo Strauss (1899-1973): Nietzsche has a deeper reverence than any other beholder for the sacred tables of the Hebrews as well as of the other...
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Thucydides and Our Refusal to Debate Neighbors-as-Enemies
Thucydides and Our Refusal to Debate Neighbors-as-Enemies Today I’m reading some things I haven’t quite got around to: Sophia Redelfs, “The Lost Art of Civil Discourse,” Areo Magazine, December 8,...
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Pruning the Paragraphs
Pruning the Paragraphs Here is a paragraph I had to prune from an essay I’m finishing up but that I think still has some worthwhile comparisons: One also wonders whether some reactions spawned by...
View ArticleWalking with Thoreau
In his essay “Walking,” Thoreau writes: You must walk like a camel which is said to be the only beast which ruminates when walking. When a traveller asked Wordsworth’s servant to show him her master’s...
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Reading in the Hospital
C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) once confessed what his ideal reading situation would be: Johnson once described the ideal happiness which he would choose if he were regardless of futurity. My own choice,...
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