[About Wodehouse] “In this age of instant gratification, fast food, fast-lane commuting, and tele-right-nowing, it is wonderful to find great literature that is capable of doing exactly the same thing. Some great lit just competes with other great lit. But it takes extraordinary lit to compete with drivel—and on its own level, too” (Writers to …
Some Exotic Basque Cheese
So Ted Cruz has outlined his reasons for reversing course and endorsing Donald Trump. The first reason, he said, was that he had pledged to support the nominee and that he was going to do so. A little late, but he is doing so. We may now take a moment here to wait for those …
And Soon to be Pope
“For we are not just doing battle with the powers of darkness; we are also engaged in mortal conflict with the theology of Madeline Bassett, resident theologian and high priestess of pop evangelicalism” (Writers to Read, p. 57).
True But Shrill
“The besetting sin of many cranky, conservative Christian types is their inability to make any good point whatever without sounding shrill. And the better the point, the shriller the making of it can be” (Writers to Read, p. 55).
A Design Feature
“There is a logical bedrock upon which the entire cosmos is built. We do not live in a house built on sand. Metaphor works for a reason. The walls in this house are straight for a reason. The corners go together and fit for a reason” (Writers to Read, p. 53).
The Ponies Are Free
Thomas Sowell has done wonderful work in describing the fundamental difference between liberals and conservatives. He describes it as the difference between an unconstrained vision of man and a constrained vision. The French revolution was a model of the unconstrained vision, and the American revolution was a model of the constrained vision. In the former, …
Clearer and Crisper
“When we move from word to referent, we think we are leaping from crag to crag, across and abyss below. If we slip, we have had it. But this description is itself dependent upon a metaphor, as though meaning has to get increasingly smudgy every time we make a xerox copy of it. But suppose …
With Only One of Them Drooling
The other day I was—what is the past participle of tweet?—I was twooting about the election, and commented on two possibly inconsistent emotions that were jostling beneath my sternum. You see, I want Hillary to lose in a fireball one hundred yards across, and I want Trump to lose in a fireball fifty yards across. …
What to Read First
“Wodehouse was merciless to pretentiousness, and aspiring writers are the most pretentious fellows on the planet. So there’s that spiritual benefit” (Writers to Read, p. 50).
In the Pot Nine Days Old
Introduction: Let us talk for a moment about the way appeasement usually goes, and begin by citing Churchill in his trenchant response to Chamberlain. “You were given the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour and you will have war.” Appeasement Shows Up Everywhere: The emotional makeup of the appeaser is consistent, regardless of …