What are you currently reading?

[Maximilian]

Romanticism has become excessive, and certainly isn't the be-all-and-end-all of marriage.  But even people in arranged marriages (that may sometimes end up better) surely often have some romantic interest in each other (even if only after the marriage) that most certainly does not hurt the marriage: even if the romance may end.  It seem to me natural that this should be true before people marry too - romance that is moral is surely sometimes intended by God as an innocent indication that people may be meant for each other by Him.  Not a proof, since the attraction between too people might come from another source than God. But God uses natural means too.

So how's that working out for you?

I don't mean that as a personal attack, but rather as a reflection on a generation. When an entire generation fails in the most basic human instincts, then isn't that perhaps time to re-think, to re-consider?

When relationships between men and women have become too "troublesome" to bother with, is that time to stop and think? Or when is it going to be time to stop and think? When the last human tries to find a soul mate and realizes that there isn't anyone else left?

In the last few years we had the violent dysfunction of the "Girls" generation. Now that has already been surpassed by the newer generation of young people who don't even know whether they are "Girls" or "boys."

Body dysphoria is rampant. It's not just on television. I spent a few days on campus recently, and nearly everyone looked uncomfortable in their own bodies. All the girls wanted to be boys, and all the boys wanted to be girls. The chances of any of these people ever marrying and raising a family are virtually nil.

Yet the dream of love persists. Transgressive love. This year's Oscar-winning movie feature trans-species love.

[Mono no aware]

I am still reading The Six Enneads by Plotinus. I cannot understand it well or remember it well but I want to finish reading it.

I wouldn't want to discourage you if you're intent on finishing it, but that is one hell of a dense, dry, and difficult collection to slog all the way through.  "Difficult to understand well" is an accurate criticism.  It is possibly best read occasionally and in small portions, but everyone is different in how they proceed.

I have just begun reading The Most Dangerous Man in America: Timothy Leary, Richard Nixon and the Hunt for the Fugitive King of LSD.  If I were a Grammar Nazi I would complain about the lack of an Oxford Comma in the subtitle.  I am now a member of "St. Joseph's Workbench," but in browsing the threads there I didn't see any where "men talk about the irrational things they do when they fall in love with women."  Actually, I get the feeling such a thing would be frowned upon.  Werther, I think, would not receive a warm or sympathetic welcome if he poured out his thoughts there.  "Dude.  Man up and stop fixating on this chick like a weepy pansyboy."

[Jacob]

Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian.

Read it many times before, but I need a break from more serious stuff.  Jack and Stephen are at just setting off on a cruise in search of prizes.

[Gardener]

A Canticle for Leibowitz

[red solo cup]

Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley by Antonio Garcia Martinez.

[Matto]

Alas! what boots it with incessant care
To tend the homely, slighted shepherd's trade,
And strictly meditate the thankless Muse?
Were it not better done, as others use,
To sport with Amaryllis in the shade,
Or with the tangles of Neæra's hair?

Of course that is the seductive part of Lycidas. The pastoral elegy for the drowned protestant hireling by Milton. I always thought it was a shame that most English writers were protestants and my native and only tongue is English. What hot-blooded male wouldn't want to sport with Amaryllis in the shade, or with the tangles of Neaera's hair?

[Jacob]

Finished leafing through this month's NOR.

Some strong explanations of what drives the TLM community in reply to a deacon who suggested last month in an article that Latin Mass goers could be accommodated by reverent NOs should Francis ever decide to dump SP.  Because, you know, those who go to TLM are only interested in smells and bells.   

There was an excellent review of a book about the Carthusians in Italy.

There was an update on the ongoing story of a Pakistani Christian and his family and their travails as they have gone from Pakistan to a Thai refugee (concentration) camp and back to Pakistan.  This month the father got beat up by Muslims and they are considering options.

There was a very cool piece by a guy who has been traveling around Europe.  This month he talked about his experiences in Montenegro and compared the blossoming post-communist Orthodox community with that of the local Catholics who are very modern.  He was not kind to the awful Catholic wreckovations he found.  The Catholic church in the capital is in the "brutalist" style.  Ouch.

[Non Nobis]

A Canticle for Leibowitz

I bought that and have been meaning to read it; I hear it is very good.  It's a "real book" and not on Kindle, and I've been reading mostly on Kindle lately. 

[Gardener]

A Canticle for Leibowitz

I bought that and have been meaning to read it; I hear it is very good.  It's a "real book" and not on Kindle, and I've been reading mostly on Kindle lately. 

It's interesting so far — like a future dystopia with flavors of the Middle Ages. I ended up buying its sequel for continuity, despite the sequel having mixed reviews.

[Sempronius]

Development of Christian doctrine by Cardinal Newman

http://www.newmanreader.org/works/development/index.html

Here is a gem:

How was the man to guide his course who wished to join himself to the doctrine and fellowship of the Apostles in the times of St. Athanasius, St. Basil, and St. Augustine? Few indeed were the districts in the orbis terrarum, which did not then, as in the Ante-nicene era, present a number of creeds and communions for his choice. Gaul indeed is said at that era to have been perfectly free from heresies; at least none are mentioned as belonging to that country in the Theodosian Code. But in Egypt, in the early part of the fourth century, the Meletian schism numbered one-third {249} as many bishops as were contained in the whole Patriarchate. In Africa, towards the end of it, while the Catholic Bishops amounted in all to 468, the Donatists rivalled them with as many as 400. In Spain Priscillianism was spread from the Pyrenees to the Ocean. It seems to have been the religion of the population in the province of Gallicia, while its author Priscillian, whose death had been contrived by the Ithacians, was honoured as a Martyr. The Manichees, hiding themselves under a variety of names in different localities, were not in the least flourishing condition at Rome. Rome and Italy were the seat of the Marcionites. The Origenists, too, are mentioned by St. Jerome as "bringing a cargo of blasphemies into the port of Rome." And Rome was the seat of a Novatian, a Donatist, and a Luciferian bishop, in addition to the legitimate occupant of the See of St. Peter. The Luciferians, as was natural under the circumstances of their schism, were sprinkled over Christendom from Spain to Palestine, and from Treves to Lybia; while in its parent country Sardinia, as a centre of that extended range, Lucifer seems to have received the honours of a Saint.

When St. Gregory Nazianzen began to preach at Constantinople, the Arians were in possession of its hundred churches; they had the populace in their favour, and, after their legal dislodgment, edict after edict was ineffectually issued against them. The Novatians too abounded there; and the Sabbatians, who had separated from them, had a church, where they prayed at the tomb of their founder. Moreover, Apollinarians, Eunomians, and Semi-arians, mustered in great numbers at Constantinople. The Semi-arian bishops were as popular in the neighbouring provinces, as the Arian doctrine in the capital. They had possession of the coast of the Hellespont and Bithynia; and were found in Phrygia, Isauria, and the neighbouring parts of Asia Minor. Phrygia was the {250} headquarters of the Montanists, and was overrun by the Messalians, who had advanced thus far from Mesopotamia, spreading through Syria, Lycaonia, Pamphylia, and Cappadocia in their way. In the lesser Armenia, the same heretics had penetrated into the monasteries. Phrygia, too, and Paphlagonia were the seat of the Novatians, who besides were in force at Nicæa and Nicomedia, were found in Alexandria, Africa, and Spain, and had a bishop even in Scythia. The whole tract of country from the Hellespont to Cilicia had nearly lapsed into Eunomianism, and the tract from Cilicia as far as Ph?nicia into Apollinarianism. The disorders of the Church of Antioch are well known: an Arian succession, two orthodox claimants, and a bishop of the Apollinarians. Palestine abounded in Origenists, if at that time they may properly be called a sect; Palestine, Egypt, and Arabia were overrun with Marcionites; Osrhoëne was occupied by the followers of Bardesanes and Harmonius, whose hymns so nearly took the place of national tunes that St. Ephrem found no better way of resisting the heresy than setting them to fresh words. Theodoret in Comagene speaks in the next century of reclaiming eight villages of Marcionites, one of Eunomians, and one of Arians.

[Lynne]

A Canticle for Leibowitz

I bought that and have been meaning to read it; I hear it is very good.  It's a "real book" and not on Kindle, and I've been reading mostly on Kindle lately. 

I got the audio version from Audible (my commute is about 30 - 40 minutes so I was able to listen to a good chunk each day). The first 1/3 was interesting, the middle was boring (imo) and the last third was amazing. 

[MilesChristi]

Moby Dick

[Gardener]

A Canticle for Leibowitz

I bought that and have been meaning to read it; I hear it is very good.  It's a "real book" and not on Kindle, and I've been reading mostly on Kindle lately. 

I got the audio version from Audible (my commute is about 30 - 40 minutes so I was able to listen to a good chunk each day). The first 1/3 was interesting, the middle was boring (imo) and the last third was amazing.

I'm in the middle now. I think if you go back and listen to it as an analogy for historical events it really opens up some profound insights:

The Church trying to survive against the machinations of the world, the world using the efforts of the Church with no thanks -- seeing the careful means of preserving and advancing knowledge of the philosophical and natural sciences amidst the dark environment of barbarians' minds, the willingness of secular scholars to sell out the Church when convenient despite owing to her their own work's foundation, the thorny relationship with Benjamin Eleazar (who has taken it upon himself to embody the remnant of Israel), the wisdom in the impious and often irreverent Poet's proclamations, etc.

I'm not at the end yet.

This author was a learned man and his ability to recall information and weave it together is astounding. I think he makes a solid case for the Church by placing historical concepts in a remote, dystopian future where they are sanitized by obfuscating in fiction.

[Lynne]

A Canticle for Leibowitz

I bought that and have been meaning to read it; I hear it is very good.  It's a "real book" and not on Kindle, and I've been reading mostly on Kindle lately. 

I got the audio version from Audible (my commute is about 30 - 40 minutes so I was able to listen to a good chunk each day). The first 1/3 was interesting, the middle was boring (imo) and the last third was amazing.

I'm in the middle now. I think if you go back and listen to it as an analogy for historical events it really opens up some profound insights:

The Church trying to survive against the machinations of the world, the world using the efforts of the Church with no thanks -- seeing the careful means of preserving and advancing knowledge of the philosophical and natural sciences amidst the dark environment of barbarians' minds, the willingness of secular scholars to sell out the Church when convenient despite owing to her their own work's foundation, the thorny relationship with Benjamin Eleazar (who has taken it upon himself to embody the remnant of Israel), the wisdom in the impious and often irreverent Poet's proclamations, etc.

I'm not at the end yet.

This author was a learned man and his ability to recall information and weave it together is astounding. I think he makes a solid case for the Church by placing historical concepts in a remote, dystopian future where they are sanitized by obfuscating in fiction.

I had forgotten about Benjamin Eleazar. So many interesting characters in the book. I should listen to it again.

Chapter 27(?) - The abbot went into a long discussion on evilness of euthanasia. It had me sobbing as I was driving down the highway to work. It was just so moving to imagine that a priest would fight so hard against euthanasia. 

[red solo cup]

The Thirty Years War by Peter H. Wilson.