This Week's Miscellany (09/15/23)
Evelyn Waugh, The Door in the Wall, Period Films, Repaganization, and Fanny Price
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.
Before we jump in, for the month of September, get 20% off a paid subscription to this Substack for the next 12 months!
I have two quick opening thoughts;
It’s that time of year when it’s been hot for so long in the American South that you begin to shrivel up and die. No big life decisions should be made during late August or early September. You are not in your right mind. Symptoms may include researching real estate in the Scottish highlands and feeling that if you don’t experience the crisp air of mountains your soul will leave your body. Fall truly is around the corner, but THE SEPTEMBER WANDERLUST IS REAL. And it’s not helping that my husband is going on a two week trip to the UK next month (it’s for work! But I’m so jealous!).
There are so many wonderful things about this season of having big kids, but all the driving around to get people where they need to go is not one of those things.
Links
I wrote about Marguerite D’Angeli’s The Door in the Wall and my vision for my work at Word on Fire Spark for Evangelization & Culture Online.
How can cultivating our minds with stories be a door in the wall? This simple idea struck me because while getting lost in a story is often described as an “escape,” what we usually mean by that escape has a negative connotation: a cowardly retreat from reality. We might imagine ourselves hiding away, ignoring responsibilities, not facing the facts. But that’s not what Brother Luke was trying to communicate to Robin. Instead, the wise monk was acknowledging the power of reading as an escape from what is less real to what is more real. It moves us from the gloomy dungeon of our worldly weariness to the open sky. In our world today, the shadows that seek to overwhelm us are only too obvious. What we need is to be reminded of what Dante calls “the love that moves the sun and the other stars.”
And I loved this piece about one of my top five favorite novelists:
Evelyn Waugh Is Laughing at You by Will Lloyd for The New Statesman
He despised Picasso. He refused to drive a car. He scratched out letters with an ancient pen that required constant refreshment from an ink jar…Who would not despair at the condition of mankind in the 20th century? As Dr Johnson did, Waugh believed all schemes for political improvement were destined to end in pitiful bathos. At that time the proof for such a view was all around him. And if he had been truly lost, truly curdled, then he would not have translated this experience into his masterpiece, the stark, honest war trilogy Sword of Honour.
I also despise Picasso and hate driving. I don’t write with a fountain pen but maybe I should start.
The Past Speaks for Itself by Alexandra Wilson for The Critic
We are constantly told that period drama must move with the times and reflect our own age if it is to make history accessible to younger viewers.
Those of us who were in our early twenties when watching Pride and Prejudice in 1995 could relate perfectly well to these characters from a much earlier age, however. Because the producers didn’t go deliberately chasing a young demographic, the series had cross-generational appeal. The thoughtful, humane portrayal of Elizabeth Bennett by Jennifer Ehle (an actress we should have seen much more of afterwards), the giddiness of Julia Sawalha’s Lydia, and Alison Steadman as the embarrassing mother all did the work. In a less narcissistic age, we did not need the connection to our own time and concerns patronisingly flagging up to us in neon letters with snippets of Oasis’ “Wonderwall”, Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise” or Shaggy’s “Boombastic”. We could imagine ourselves in different times with different people’s lives and still take something of personal value from them.
Yes, yes, YES!!! This is why Netflix’s new Persuasion was so condescending and horrible. We can relate to Anne without you watering everything down with contemporary everything!
And I’m the millionth person to share this piece this week but it was just so thought provoking:
We Are Repaganizing by Louise Perry for First Things
For two thousand years, Christians pushed the forest back, with burning and hacking, but also with pruning and cultivating, creating a garden in the clearing with a view upward to heaven.
But watch as roots outstretch themselves and new shoots spring up from the ground. The patch of sky recedes. “Paganism has not needed to be reinvented,” writes Steven Smith: It never went away. “In a certain sense, the Western world has arguably always remained more pagan than Christian. In some ways Christianity has been more of a veneer than a substantial reality.””
Great piece by my friend Tsh about her converstion:
Says Who? by
Billions of Christians agree that God exists and Jesus is God, but beyond that, serious differences emerge. Many say that all that matters is “a personal relationship with Jesus.” Who determines what that looks like? Is it arrogant for one Church to say they’ve got it right and other expressions of Christianity have it wrong?
And a kind review of my newest fiction!
New Mouse Tale Weaves Faith and Fun for Kids by Denis for The Southern Cross
Without being preachy, the books depict the characters’ Catholicism as a natural part of their daily lives. For example, Stewart noted that the books include moments where characters might have to cut a conversation short after realizing that it’s time for vespers. Such things are “woven into the story” and show that the sisters’ faith is “the center of their world and their mission.”
I created a playlist of music I’m listening to this fall (for paid subscribers)
And the brilliant Bonnie Lander Johnson and Julia Meszaros have released a new novel in their CUA Press Catholic Women Writers series (of forgotten women novelists): One Poor Scruple by Josephine Ward!
Reading
-Works of Mercy by Sally Thomas
The Year of Jane
The sixth reflection for Sense & Sensibility drops this weekend! 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)
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 Sue, Jennifer, Katie, Phoebe, Jane, Andrew, Patricia, Kala, Corners, Rebecca, Maureen, and Aby 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.
Thanks for reading!
Haley
(Editor of Word on Fire Spark, Author, Former Podcaster)
Haley’s Children’s Mystery Series about Mouse Nuns
Boy oh boy do I relate to the August weather induced restlessness - and I feel like I don't even have it as bad as you have in Texas/Florida! Twice now we've almost up and left for colder climates (Scotland zillowing included) -- grateful seasons change and sanity eventually returns!
So many good things here 1. I HIGHLY recommend writing with fountain pens, it adds a meditative and tactile quality that just makes such a difference for me (tend to use them for prayer journaling when I want to be more meditative) 2. The idea that escapism is a bad thing in fantasy/literature is why I am so so fatigued by so much of modern fiction and why fantasy, which used to be my favorite genre, is something I barely read anymore. I remember reading the first of NK Jemisin’s trilogy which everyone said was so unique in its world building, storytelling, and magic system. And it was all of those things. But it was also one horrific tragedy after another with no hope in sight. So often we wallow in tragedy and ugliness in the name of realism, and forgetting that goodness, truth, beauty, and hope are also essential components of the real world, and it is those things we need to be reminded of/‘escape’ into the most.