This Week's Miscellany (02/17/24)
The Lost Women Writers, Declining Reading Skills, Burnout, Robinson, Didion
Hi, I’m Haley! Book midwife (editor) and author. Hello to new subscribers and welcome all to another edition of This Week’s Miscellany. TWM is full of my favorite things from around the web, typically trending literary.
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It was a rainy Saturday yesterday and I almost went to a coffee shop to get some writing projects done and craft this post, but then I decided my own little home office sounds more cozy. So I tucked myself away while Daniel worked on a writing project from the living room couch and the girls were painting on the porch. It was a creative Saturday.
I have quite a backlog of links I want to share with you, so if you also have a rainy weekend on your hands, get ready for plenty of reading material!
Links
I absolutely loved this piece by Dr. Bonnie Lander Johnson and Dr. Julia Meszaros about the lost Catholic women writers that they study (and whose works they are bringing back into print!)
Lost Women Novelists for First Things
It is perhaps important that so many of the lost Catholic women writers were themselves ferocious characters, whose books contain no small number of difficult women. Were they too much for Catholic readers? Too Catholic for feminist readers?
And I’m so pleased that both of these wonderful scholars contributed to a collection of essays I edited for Word on Fire on Catholic women novelists. Keep an eye out for its release this summer!
This piece about the state of students and their ability to read literature is alarming.
The Loss of Things I Took for Granted by Adam Kotso
What’s happening with the current generation is not that they are simply choosing TikTok over Jane Austen. They are being deprived of the ability to choose—for no real reason or benefit. We can and must stop perpetrating this crime on our young people.
I love reading interviews with authors whose books I love. Robinson is an interesting figure to me because it’s hard for me to understand diving wholeheartedly into Calvinism, but I love her novels.
An Interview with Marilynne Robinson
Well, I have to say I’m very surprised, shocked, disillusioned perhaps by the turn that things have taken in this country in the last decade or so. The vulgarity and mercilessness that have entered public conversation, and a kind of meagerness and unwillingness to be a source of benefit to the people in the country at large. A stinginess has settled in that’s intellectual and economic and very appalling to me, and contrary to any notion that I have of what is good.
This TWM seems to be focusing on female writers and I’m not sorry. Here’s a great piece about Joan Didion.
Inside the Writerly Life of Joan Didion by
“It’s the way I process everything, by writing it down. I don’t actually process anything until I write it down, I mean, in terms of thinking, in terms of coming to terms with it.”
And this piece is thought-provoking:
To Cure Burnout, Embrace Seasonality by Cal Newport
The problem with the virtual factory, however, goes beyond the fact that it makes us unhappy. It’s also ineffective. The process of producing value with the human brain — the foundational activity of many knowledge sector roles — cannot be forced into a regular, unvarying schedule. Intense periods of cognition must be followed by quieter periods of mental rejuvenation. Energized creative breakthroughs must be supported by the slower incubation of new ideas.
I think Newport’s claims about the need for sabbatical and rest are strong. But I don’t know how to implement them. Sabbaticals are common for clergy and academics but wouldn’t it be great if every two or three years, other occupations got a break to recharge? Self-employed people can create sabbaticals for themselves (although I was very bad at doing that when I was self-employed). But for the rest of us, the employer would have to decide it was a priority.
And finally, I loved this piece about why it’s okay that YA is created for children.
Shouldn’t Some Things Be for Kids? by
shouldn’t YA be for young adults? I mean, shouldn’t they have something to read that is really, essentially, just for them? Don’t children and teens deserve good, well-made books that are fundamentally and basically for children (and teens)? Why is it bad to do that? Why would it diminish what you’re doing?
Valentine’s Discount on our Pilgrimage to Belgium and Germany!
I know you’ve heard me talking about the pilgrimage my husband and I are leading with Fr. Harrison Ayre this summer. It is nearing capacity (we are closing the trip at 30 people to keep it small and intimate). But we have a handful of spots left AND the tour company we’re using to organize the trip (I’ve been on three other trips with them and they are fantastic), is offering a discount that ends on Wednesday.
Here are the details:
Register for the pilgrimage between February 14th and 21st with your spouse (or a friend that you’re sharing a room with!) and you and your travel companion will save a (combined) $300.
You can check out the registration page: Heavenly Hops Pilgrimage with Fr. Harrison Ayre to Belgium and Germany.
The Valentine’s discount ends February 21st!
Wishing you all a wonderful week! And a huge thank you to Michael for upgrading to a paid subscription. This is a reader-supported newsletter so if you enjoy getting these emails, please consider supporting this Substack by upgrading to a paid subscription with the button below.
Thanks for reading!
Haley
(Editor of Word on Fire Votive, Author, Podcaster)
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Haley, thanks for sharing that!
Great pieces this week. Have you read Ted Gioia's piece on the State of Culture 2024? Reminded me of the literary crisis link you shared.