Priority of Goods: Entertainment
Do you want deeper, richer entertainment? Do you want stories that stay with you for years, giving you food for thought, beloved characters, and multi-faceted stories? Do you seek a fulfilling happiness in your leisure hours? These aids made my resolve easier to act on, but you must make that resolve yourself, or these resources will do you no good.
The Untold Story
There is a story I’ve been trying to tell my whole life. It’s the reason I tell stories.
Sometimes I come very near to it, either in writing or in reading, but the note is never quite perfect, never quite completed, the taste never quite right. Or else I find it to be too apologetic, or else too sarcastic.
As far as I can tell, from the pieces I have put together thus far, it involves a graveyard and a garden. It features a heroic, magnificent knight who is utterly broken, and a broken heroine who is also utterly magnificent. There lurks in the shadows of the tale the ultimate evil of a dragon, and the ultimate innocence of a unicorn. It involves in the forefront a lion and a doorway, and the journey consists of a descent to the underworld and a rising to the afterworld. In its very fabric it communicates final suffering, and ultimate joy.
Debunking the Need for ‘Reading Comprehension’
Finding a new book for my eight-year-old brother is both a joy and a struggle. An avid book listener, and the youngest of nine children, he has had many books read to him through the years, and he digests good stories like they are desert for the ears. Recently, he just got proficient enough to read chapter books all by himself.
Roles in a Team in a Story
Leader - Sees what needs to happen, and leads others to do it
Philosopher - Asks “Should this be done?”
Inventor - Gets it done
Protector - Protects in the process of getting it done
Trickster - Does them all, but badly
Accomplisher - Know which one they are, embraces it, and does all the rest well
Book List for Early Readers
Small children collect data in an active way, but do not try to sort it into a contextual understanding, and they do not question the truth or relevancy of what they’re learning. When we give a child a book to read, and they soak it in without question or deep understanding, it’s important to give them a book with words they can read, but the actual content does not need to be understandable.
Treading Water with Moby Dick, and the App that Finally Helped Me Read It!
Two years ago, I gave up on reading Moby Dick. It was an extremely well-written work, with beautiful descriptions, vivid characters, and striking scenes; it was a book of mythic magnitude, of fabled fame, of prosperous popularity, and yet – I could not get through the seventh chapter.
Reclaiming Catholic Culture through Classic Literature: An Interview with Joseph Pearce
You may know him as the acclaimed expert on J.R.R. Tolkien, or you may know him for his Ignatius Press critical editions of the classics, but Joseph Pearce is also the dedicated editor for St. Austin Review (StAR), a publication committed to reclaiming culture.
The magazine centers on reviews of classical reads, articles that delve deeper into children and adult literature, and advice for why and how to approach the classics, so I was very excited when I found them! I reached out to Joseph Pearce, and he kindly agreed to share the story behind StAR, as well as some of his insider wisdom on the importance of reading the classics, particularly for Catholics.
A Stirring of a New Renaissance
To claim humankind’s entry into a New Renaissance might seem like a high-flown claim, and to be honest (or rather to clarify), I must say I do not claim it for all of humankind. Men and women who live in and of the world sadly do not see a need for art that engages beauty. This recognition of the need for beauty must come from the heart, placed there and stirred up by God. It is not a worldly need, but a personal need. The renaissance itself is personal. It is a call from the Lord into the heart to seek out beauty, and if the heart does not find it… to make it. Not for its own distinction, but for the sake of the beauty which is absent. This is why a renaissance is awakening - not in the world at large, but in the individual hearts of those seeking and yearning for beauty, and it is why I am so bold as to claim a New Renaissance - because it is a stir and call in my own heart. Is it stirring in your own?
A Helper for the Man
I aim to demonstrate how men rely on the love of their life to help them in their trials, and how this reliance is always mutual. In the search for three couples who exemplify three entirely separate and iconic relationships between men and women, I have failed. I can’t say I have chosen the best examples, and it might even be sustainably argued that one of my couples doesn’t even count, since we never see them together as a couple on screen. Notwithstanding, I have chosen those who were uppermost in my mind, and have enjoyed the searching out of the secrets of their relationships very much. The first couple, Will and Elizabeth from Pirates of the Caribbean, whom I thought would be the easiest of the three, was by far the most difficult. If I hadn’t felt like it was a challenge to find the answers, I would have given up.
Cultivating Imagination through Family Structure
Bridging the Divide between Culture and the Church
Reclaiming Beauty, Art, and Language
New Renaissance
JP II’s New Evangelization worked, but without harvesters, this rich harvest will be lost…
How Men Can Write About Only Men, but Women Write of Both
There are many, many books in existence with no female characters, or else merely a passing mention of a mother, or sister. It’s actually a little astonishing how many exist.
And I don’t mean astonishing from a politically correct point of view. It’s not my intention to make a war of the sexes out of this observation, but merely to poke into it, and see what I can turn up. I think it’s a fascinating question - why can so many books exist with only men, and none without them?
Only this Ghastly Age…
Even were he to land on a desert island, the modern man would believe he was superior to the Divine. He does not consider how he will survive all on his lonesome or how he will propagate, for such pursuits are extraneous to the simple and ultimate fact…
On the Catholic Propensity, in Literature, to Glorify Pain
But if we Catholics are obsessed with suffering, it is no more than society at large… only our suffering looks a little different.
How O’Connor’s characters seem to suffer needlessly, and when they oughtn’t to! And all of it, like my dressing in the morning, appears self-inflicted.
I apologize, but the search engine can be a bit finicky. First try usually gets you a ‘no results’ message, but just push that enter button again, and what you’re looking for should pop up. Happy Reading!