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.
It’s my birthday today! In accordance with hobbit tradition, I have a gift for you. Get 20% off a paid subscription to this Substack for the next 12 months if you sign up this month.
I’m 38 today. I’m writing this post reflecting on the past year at 4:30am in beautifully quiet house as my family snoozes. The cat is purring beside me and I’m just feeling incredibly grateful to be alive.
The past year has been a year of settling in to a new season. It’s been a new season building a life in our hometown, reconnecting with old friends and making new ones. I’ve been reacquainting myself with the canopy roads of Tallahassee, FL, remembering the girl who used to drive them on her way to high school and then again post-college as a young mom.
Sometimes the smell of the air and the early morning birdsong makes me want to listen to Pedro the Lion. I feel like it’s 2003. But I’m not driving to high school. Instead, my son is taking the bus to the very same school and I’m watching him experience a season of life I loved: developing new friendships, enjoying new freedoms, cultivating new skills, and exploring new activities. I hear lots of parents grieve their children growing up and I’m sure I’ll feel differently when my youngest gets there, but I absolutely adore watching my kids grow up. There’s something beautiful and strange about dropping my son off at the coffee shop at Railroad Square, the art park, to meet friends on a Friday night when it feels like just yesterday I was a teenager absolutely thrilled to be hanging out at Railroad Square (so grown up! So cool!). The dominating emotion I have is excitement for him. What a great time to be alive!
It’s been a new season of juggling a full-time job and my own writing projects. A new season of spending more time driving big kids with social lives and extracurricular interests around. I’m acclimating myself to the reality that the next five years are just going to be very full.
And while I’ve tried to limit my travel in the past 12 months (I didn’t lead any pilgrimages! I turned down speaking engagments! Truly!), I realize that in hindsight I actually did a ton of travel:
Oklahoma City, OK
Dallas, TX (twice)
New Orleans, LA (twice)
Chicago, IL
South Bend, IN
Indianapolis, IN
Orlando, FL (twice)
St. Augustine, FL
Bristol, TN
Houston, TX
NYC
Hudson River Valley, NY
Minneapolis, MN (thrice)
GA mountains (unexpected hurricane evac trip!)
But 8 were family trips (or kids’ field trips) and I only have ONE more (short) trip planned until 2024. So…I guess I’ll try to be less of a globetrotter next year. The thing is, I love going places. And after being very not mobile for over a decade, it’s hard to say no when I’m invited to talk about something I love in a place I’d love to see. My challenge has always been that I want to say yes to everything and go everywhere. But you’ll be proud that the only thing I have on the calendar for 2024 is the Belgium/Germany pilgrimage. (Come with me?) And I’m sure I’ll also have some meetups with the publishing team for work.
As for writing projects, this was the year that I got to see my mouse nuns books enter the world and be loved by readers.
And I edited books for Spark that will soon be launching—some of my favorite work I’ve ever gotten to do. Look for this one September 18th!
I’ve also been working on some other projects that I can’t wait to share with you!
Links
I loved listening to this interview of Dr. Holly Ordway (who I admire so much) on her new book about Tolkien’s Catholic faith. I was making a breakfast casserole on Labor Day and the interview was the perfect length to enjoy while in the kitchen!
The Faith of J.R.R. Tolkien with Dr. Holly Ordway
Also from WOF you can watch Ethan and Maya Hawke discuss their new film on Flannery O’Connor. A great conversation!
Bishop Barron Presents with Ethan Hawke and Maya Hawke
I was impressed to see that Hawke really did his homework in preparing to make this film:
Ethan Hawke on Deciding to Direct a Film on Flannery O’Connor for Variety
That story, along with “Revelation,” exposes the racism of the hypocritical white world she knew intimately. Today, we are expected to acknowledge — and condemn — our own implicit racism. I don’t know if O’Connor always condemned it, but she certainly acknowledged it in herself and painted a harsh picture of its ugliness.
The more I learned, the more clearly Flannery O’Connor grew as a knotty but extremely important subject for exploration. As O’Donnell puts it, “The voices of artists who offer a perspective that seems out of step with our moment are often the very people we should be harkening to. The canceling of a writer who possesses the wisdom and the power of Flannery O’Connor demonstrates our impoverished imaginations, our narrowness, and our inability to embrace complexity.”
Paul Elie’s article ends by indicating “a way forward, rooted in the work.” We have made “Wildcat” out of our love for that work, and for the genius — the flawed, human, paradoxical genius — who authored it. We hope that this film can be a step on the way forward.
There’s already been some controversy about the fact that “Wildcat” contains sex scenes. I haven’t seen the film yet so I’m withholding judgement until I do but I did notice confusion about this and concern that the film constructs events that never happened in O’Connor’s life. However, these scenes are in parts of the film that adapt O’Connor’s short stories (which do have sexual content) not scenes that present O’Connor’s actual life. So, as with all things, hold your outrage until gathering the facts.
Homework: No Proven Benefits by Alfie Kohn
It may surprise you, as it did me, to learn that no study has ever demonstrated any academic benefit to assigning homework before children are in high school. In fact, even in high school, the association between homework and achievement is weak -- and the data don't show that homework is responsible for higher achievement.
I wrote an email to my kids’ school this week lauding my daughter’s Kindergarten teacher who makes homework voluntary and documenting my preference for no homework for my older kids as well. No proven benefits but LOTS of downsides. I doubt anything will change considering the “thank you for your suggestion” response but it won’t be the last time I bring it up!
Mystical Precision by J.C. Scharl
Mystical religious poetry is notoriously difficult to translate. It plumbs the depths of a particular language’s relationship with the unsayable, but the means by which one language plumbs those depths may differ from the means of another. Therein lies the difficulty: to retain, along with the usual elements of verse, the elusive meaning that can only be indicated, never said.
And I’m now interested to read the new translation of St. John of the Cross’s poetry after reading Scharl’s review!
Honey, I Blew Up The Family Film by Alexis Soloski
We can’t expect an “E.T.” every year, or even movies commensurate with the gems I recall from my youth: Agnieszka Holland’s “The Secret Garden,” Alfonso Cuarón’s “A Little Princess,” John Sayles’s “The Secret of Roan Inish.” But we should expect better. And better remains possible.
Prestige directors are still interested in family movies — see “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio,” Greta Gerwig’s “Little Women” and planned Narnia movies. And have you seen the “Paddington” movies? Perfection. So it doesn’t seem unreasonable to imagine a future in which there are more and finer children’s movies in theaters, ones that send you back out into the light blinking and amazed.
I’m reminded of Madeleine L’Engle’s powerful quote about children’s books: “If it’s not good enough for grown-ups, it’s not good enough for children.” If only children’s film producers had the same respect for their audience!
Reading
-Works of Mercy by Sally Thomas
The Year of Jane
The fifth reflection for Sense & Sensibility drops tomorrow! Keep an eye out for the weekly reflection and discussion question email.
Coming Soon!
-Excerpts from my recent talk on G.K. Chesterton’s detective fiction
-Mini book reviews (for paid subscribers)
-Fall playlist (for paid subscribers)
2024 Pilgrimage
Our pilgrimage to Belgium and Germany in 2024 is already half full! We’re keeping it small (we just love the experience of a smaller group of pilgrims). Considering how many sign ups we already have, I would advise interested parties to register immediately:
REGISTRATION NOW LIVE: Heavenly Hops Pilgrimage with Fr. Harrison Ayre to Belgium and Germany.
Feel free to shoot me an email if you have any questions at all about the trip. Let’s go to Belgium!
And that’s all folks! Wishing you all a wonderful weekend. And a huge thank you to Marissa, Maria, Claire, Anna, and C 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 (at 20% off for the rest of September!) with the button below.
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Thanks for reading!
Haley
(Editor of Word on Fire Spark, Author, Former Podcaster)
Haley’s Children’s Mystery Series about Mouse Nuns
Happy Birthday! What a great feast for a birthday! As a former classroom teacher and long time homeschool mom I couldn’t agree more on the homework thing. I read a book and reviewed it years ago (on an old blog) called The End of Homework (I think) and it convinced me of what my teacher brain was already telling me--homework does more harm than good. What kids of all age need more than homework is interaction with their families--talking together, reading together, playing together. All homework does is further isolate kids, or cause tension with parents who struggle to help struggling and frustrated kids. If I had my kids in school, I would be on the same campaign as you!
Happy birthday! Loved the bit about children’s movies-I’ve been so fatigued by children’s movies/movies in general lately with endless sequels and remakes that lack the magic and beauty of what I remember from my childhood