John Kennedy Toole
Doff of the hat to Cory MacLauchlin for reminding me of another great New Orleanian’s birth. a confederacy of duncesJohn Kennedy Toolenew orleansphilosophical literature
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Walker Percy Wednesday 63
Forty-five. It is strange how little one changes. The psychologists are all wrong about puberty. Puberty changes nothing. This morning I woke with exactly the same cosmic sexual-religious longing I woke with when I was ten years old. Nothing changes but accidentals: your toes rotate, showing more skin. Every molecule in your body has been replaced…
What makes a Catholic writer in today’s society?
When ideological noise drowns out the writer’s inner voice, few writers do their best work, no matter what their beliefs This from the Superior Catholic Herald CatholicismDana GioiaFlannery O’ConnorMichael HigginsPaul Eliephilosophical literaturethomas mertonWalker Percy
Walker Percy Wednesday 62
My only firm conclusion after twenty years of psychiatry: nothing is crazier than life. Here is a Baptist deacon telling me, a Catholic, to relax and enjoy festivals. Here’s a black Southerner making common cause—against me!— with a white Southerner who wouldn’t give him the time of day. That’s nothing. Once I was commiserating with…
Walker Percy Wednesday 61
“I get uh uncomfortable when politics gets mixed with medicine, to say nothing of angels.” . . . Here’s the hottest political issue of the day: euthanasia. Say the euthanasists not unreasonably: let’s be honest, why should people suffer and cause suffering to other people? It is the quality of life that counts, not longevity,…
Walker Percy Wednesday 60
When I was in the open ward and working on staff, he was very good to me. He immediately saw what I was getting at and helped me wire up my first lapsometer, read my article and refused to take credit as coauthor. “Too metaphysical for me,” he said politely, knocking out his briar. “I’ll…
Is Japan Finally Coming to Terms With Mishima?
Mishima once famously told his wife that “even if I am not immediately understood, it’s OK because I’ll be understood by the Japan of 50 or 100 years time.” The short answer according to the very excellent Mishima scholar Damian Flanagan is “no”. Today marks the 45th anniversary of Mishima’s death. Speaking of which see Yourcenar’s thoughts…
The epistemic value of speculative fiction
Interesting paper. Archangel of Fire – Uriel – by Simon Berger Counterfactual historyEpistemologyphilosophical literaturesituated cognitionsocial epistemologyspeculative fictionStorytellingthought experiments
Discussion of Confederacy Staging
A sensible discussion by Jeffrey Hatcher. Click image for MP3 discussion (H/T Robert Bugg) a confederacy of duncesJohn Kennedy Toolenew orleansphilosophical literature
Books are not life, only its ashes
Here is an interview I came across with Yourcenar. As one would expect she takes no prisoners and clearly would rub up activists the wrong way — hence they systematically avoid her, assuming they’d even read top-notch stuff like “Hadrian”. I guess she would be unknown to “creative writing” courses constituted as they seem to be by…
manwithoutqualities 