I recently finished Katherine Rundell’s wonderful new volume in her Impossible Creatures series and had to write a few words about it. In short, I doubt there’s a better week for it to have been released. If you could use some hope, this is one place to find it. 📚
Matthew Crawford on democracy, tradition, & authority 🔗
Here’s a very good essay by Matthew Crawford, drawing on Michael Polanyi, about how democracy depends upon forms of tradition & authority. Crawford also shows how Americans' reflexive anti-traditionalism “traps us in the present”:
How does this work? In the Lockean or Cartesian dispensation that Americans tacitly adopt, tradition is subject to a hermeneutic of suspicion. Our default is to think that inherited wisdom does little more that perpetuate forms of oppression, offered in bad faith as so-called knowledge. But cutting ourselves off from the past in this way, out of a determination not to be duped, we find that we have little ground to stand on against the tyranny of the majority. Intellectually, we find ourselves trapped in the present. This amounts to a kind of anti-culture, as the word “culture” implies something that grows over time, and it led Tocqueville to worry that America would be prone to a creeping “soft despotism.”
Cannot wait to dive into this one! I had to fend off two small but voracious children to preserve my claim. Fortunately I was up to the task. 💪📚
Currently reading: The Poisoned King by Katherine Rundell 📚
Current listening: Arvo Pärt, Alina (30th Anniversary Edition). 🎶
Only and already 30 years old, it feels both ancient and immediate.
Current listening: Field’s Complete Nocturnes, beautifully performed by Alice Sara Ott.
I love listening to Chopin’s nocturnes in the evenings during bedtime reading; it’s delightful to go back to the OG. 🎶
It’s always a good day when Wolfgang Muthspiel, Scott Colley, & Brian Blade release a blistering new single & announce a new album 🎶
Spend a few days camping with Sam at McCarthy Beach State Park near Chisolm. A beautiful spot, and perfect weather for mountain biking at nearby Redhead Mountain. 🏕️
Current listening: Aaron Parks / Little Big, Live in Berlin 🎶
Currently reading: All Things Are Full of Gods by David Bentley Hart 📚
Finished reading: The Courage to Be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi.
Some books feel like they’re written just for you. This one has some sections that I really needed to think through while reflecting on my life, the assumptions I tend to make about myself, & the way the world works in general.
Plus, I enjoyed learning about Alfred Adler, who was part of the same Vienna circle as Freud and his disciple Jung—but who reached very different conclusions about the human person & the role of psychology. 📚
Currently reading: The Courage to Be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi 📚
Finished reading: The Son by Philipp Meyer.
This book is incredible—I see why some think it’s the novel of the century so far. It follows one remarkable Texas family for 150 years, telling the family’s story through the interwoven lives of, primarily, three of its members. 📚
Finished reading: Effortless Mastery by Kenny Werner 📚
A clerihew for MacIntyre:
RIP, Alasdair MacIntyre, A Catholic who, with Marxist fire, Sought to heal the is/ought wound Inflicted by his fellow Scotsman, Hume.
Currently reading: Effortless Mastery by Kenny Werner 📚
It’s the first day of summer break, & my kids just discovered Weird Al. So… it’s going to be a long summer 🫠