What are you currently reading?

[Maximilian]

habits are meant to be otherworldly to point us to the supernatural.

Not relevant to the question of modesty.

it's not "weird for the sake of weird"

It's ironic that you would say that now when earlier on the thread you said that the people on the cover looked like they were wearing a "family habit."

[Baldrick]

  Or is there some sort of coolness level we have to conform to?  I didn't know Catholicism was a fashion clique.  Apparently it is.

Well, not intentionally.  However, a person who understands that every action and word matters - and that for good reason we pay all kinds of homage to form, whether we acknowledge this or not - because it points to something beyond itself, is also likely to have a sense of style.  Style being a very different concept from what is "fashionable". 

 

[Mono no aware]

  Or is there some sort of coolness level we have to conform to?  I didn't know Catholicism was a fashion clique.  Apparently it is.

Well, not intentionally.  However, a person who understands that every action and word matters - and that for good reason we pay all kinds of homage to form, whether we acknowledge this or not - because it points to something beyond itself, is also likely to have a sense of style.  Style being a very different concept from what is "fashionable".

I understand that.  Philosophically, we have nothing against beauty.  That's why we don't drape our women in burqas.  We can dress ourselves in things other than burlap sacks.  It's not wrong, when choosing clothes, to pick things that will (in a wholesome way) accentuate beauty. 

In fact, the family in question seems to have actually attempted something stylish in their own way: they thought it might be nice to have matching patterns in their outfits.  There's nothing ugly about the picture or the fashions.  Matching outfits or patterns can even be cute on kids who are twins.  It may just look a little goofy on adults.  So be it.  They tried at something and perhaps they didn't quite succeed.  Not everyone can be suave and cosmopolitan when it comes to fashion.  This minor fashion faux pas does not mean that these good people give serious Catholics a lousy reputation.  Should we also get rid of kitsch art and folk Catholicism if the sophisticates consider them an embarassment?  I hate bourgeois tyranny.

[MilesChristi]

habits are meant to be otherworldly to point us to the supernatural.

it's not "weird for the sake of weird"

But where on this thread were we talking about people who dressed "weird for the sake of weird"?  The family on the book cover, I would imagine, were not intentionally trying to freak people out in the same way as people who wear multiple facial piercings or fishnet body garments.  Perry Farrell was never a topic.  You can dress like the family in that photograph (unfashionable, but endearing), or you can dress like Zooey Deschanel (fashionably retro).  In neither instance would you be causing your fellow Catholics to appear like basketcases.  As long as modesty is observed, we can have a variety of tastes.  Or is there some sort of coolness level we have to conform to?  I didn't know Catholicism was a fashion clique.  Apparently it is.

If I dress like Zoey Deschanel, I'll get a magazine cover...

[Mono no aware]

If I dress like Zoey Deschanel, I'll get a magazine cover...

Perhaps.  But there's a difference between transvestism and transgenderism.  A man dressed in women's clothing can be funny, like Benny Hill.  But Bruce Jenner, I believe, is sacrificing an important appendage for his own transformation.  (Yikes!)  That's when you go from the frivolous to the insane.

[JubilateDeo]

Either way, it's a good book.

Just not a fashion book

[MilesChristi]

If I dress like Zoey Deschanel, I'll get a magazine cover...

Perhaps.  But there's a difference between transvestism and transgenderism.  A man dressed in women's clothing can be funny, like Benny Hill.  But Bruce Jenner, I believe, is sacrificing an important appendage for his own transformation.  (Yikes!)  That's when you go from the frivolous to the insane.

I'm not in the protesting mood...

[Arun]

If I dress like Zoey Deschanel, I'll get a magazine cover...

Perhaps.  But there's a difference between transvestism and transgenderism.  A man dressed in women's clothing can be funny, like Benny Hill.  But Bruce Jenner, I believe, is sacrificing an important appendage for his own transformation.  (Yikes!)  That's when you go from the frivolous to the insane.

forget transgenederism for a minute. i'm transageist. it's discrimination that they don't make footsie pajamas for 120kg, broad shouldered men. the biggest one i could find wouldn't even fit one of my legs in. where's my magazine cover??

[Kaesekopf]

If I dress like Zoey Deschanel, I'll get a magazine cover...

Perhaps.  But there's a difference between transvestism and transgenderism.  A man dressed in women's clothing can be funny, like Benny Hill.  But Bruce Jenner, I believe, is sacrificing an important appendage for his own transformation.  (Yikes!)  That's when you go from the frivolous to the insane.

forget transgenederism for a minute. i'm transageist. it's discrimination that they don't make footsie pajamas for 120kg, broad shouldered men. the biggest one i could find wouldn't even fit one of my legs in. where's my magazine cover??

Actually, I think they do now.

[Bernadette]

If I dress like Zoey Deschanel, I'll get a magazine cover...

Perhaps.  But there's a difference between transvestism and transgenderism.  A man dressed in women's clothing can be funny, like Benny Hill.  But Bruce Jenner, I believe, is sacrificing an important appendage for his own transformation.  (Yikes!)  That's when you go from the frivolous to the insane.

forget transgenederism for a minute. i'm transageist. it's discrimination that they don't make footsie pajamas for 120kg, broad shouldered men. the biggest one i could find wouldn't even fit one of my legs in. where's my magazine cover??

Actually, I think they do now.

[Clare]

Just about to read C S Lewis's Cosmic Trilogy again, which I first read last year.

Did you ever give us your thoughts on "That Hideous Strength"?

I'm not there yet, but I've just finished Out Of The Silent Planet again. It would be great if some bright spark could devise a Weston-Ransom Malacandrian translator, so politicians' speeches can be entered in and translated into Malacandrian-English, Ransom style!

That part of the book really made me chuckle. I'd read Weston's speech, then Ransom's translation and think, "Did Weston really say that?"; and then look back at what Weston had said, and think, "Yes, I suppose he did!"

[LausTibiChriste]

Just started God's Playground by Norman Davies

[Molly Grue]

Pon de Replay and Clare, I love you both. Thank you.

[Arun]

If I dress like Zoey Deschanel, I'll get a magazine cover...

Perhaps.  But there's a difference between transvestism and transgenderism.  A man dressed in women's clothing can be funny, like Benny Hill.  But Bruce Jenner, I believe, is sacrificing an important appendage for his own transformation.  (Yikes!)  That's when you go from the frivolous to the insane.

forget transgenederism for a minute. i'm transageist. it's discrimination that they don't make footsie pajamas for 120kg, broad shouldered men. the biggest one i could find wouldn't even fit one of my legs in. where's my magazine cover??

Actually, I think they do now.

well all right then

[MilesChristi]

The Sun Also Rises