"So, too, our Collegiate Gothic, which may be seen in its most resolutely picturesque (and expensive) phase at Yale, is more relentlessly Gothic than Chartres, whose builders didn't even know they were Gothic and missed so many chances for quaint effect." Dwight Macdonald.
"More Catholic than the Pope" is (was?) a standard easy definition of kitsch. And that's where we are. It's not exactly new. Fascism is a modern and individualist fantasy of monarchism: the self against the self; self-abnegation becomes self-destruction. Again, now, nothing new.
"The Decadents knew that Catholicism pairs well with transgression. The Metropolitan Museum of Art knows it, too: It held an exhibition titled “Heavenly Bodies” in 2018, a show that juxtaposed liturgical iconography with high fashion and BDSM paraphernalia. Catholicism embraces the give-and-take between sin and repentance, formalizing it in the sacrament of confession."
"American reconstruction of Catholicism". I was referring to Neuhaus, not the teenagers.
What are "Liberalism's excesses" Utilitarianism? Modern Liberalism is scholastic pedantry, so maybe Eco's liberalism is what's now called conservatism: the rule of vulgar materialism, the greed of the petty bourgeois. But that greed is linked to liberal optimism rather than the old conservative pessimism, so we get Catholic libertarianism and now Julia Yost's happy defense of Saturday night sodomy and redemption on Sunday. So some more history
Huysmans
"In all this hurly-burly, a single writer alone saw clear, Barbey d'Aurévilly, who, be it said, had no personal acquaintance with me. In an article in the Constitutionnel, bearing date July 28th, 1884, and which has been reprinted in his Le Roman Contemporain published in 1902, he wrote:--
'After such a book, it only remains for the author to choose between the muzzle of a pistol or the foot of the cross.'
The choice has been made."
Robert Mapplethorpe.
“There's this clock in Hell that chimes every hour, You will never get out . . . you will never get out . . . you will never get out."
It all seems like so long ago.
And you picked the wrong pic from the wrong period; not the beginning of the 16th century, and not the Renaissance but Mannerism and the Counter-Reformation. What you really wanted was Pontormo, or Bronzino. https://tinyurl.com/467h2stf
All this elf shit. Both Tolkien and Rawls are Oxbridge fantasists and it's hard to say which one is worse. And now instead of Gandalf the hero is Sauron. Dime Store theology indeed.
I've known a few fascists. I've gotten drunk with a few killers. And as far as Monarchists go, I'll take Rupert Everett. This country is so fucking stupid.
“Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.”
"So, too, our Collegiate Gothic, which may be seen in its most resolutely picturesque (and expensive) phase at Yale, is more relentlessly Gothic than Chartres, whose builders didn't even know they were Gothic and missed so many chances for quaint effect." Dwight Macdonald.
"More Catholic than the Pope" is (was?) a standard easy definition of kitsch. And that's where we are. It's not exactly new. Fascism is a modern and individualist fantasy of monarchism: the self against the self; self-abnegation becomes self-destruction. Again, now, nothing new.
"The Decadents knew that Catholicism pairs well with transgression. The Metropolitan Museum of Art knows it, too: It held an exhibition titled “Heavenly Bodies” in 2018, a show that juxtaposed liturgical iconography with high fashion and BDSM paraphernalia. Catholicism embraces the give-and-take between sin and repentance, formalizing it in the sacrament of confession."
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/09/opinion/nyc-catholicism-dimes-square-religion.html
Catholic libertarianism was amusing, but this is something else. Liberalism really has won.
Everything about this is stupid. Suburban teenagers and third hand ideas. I can't even call it decadence. You all know so little.
Santayana was an atheist, and he wouldn't have much interest in the American reconstruction of Catholicism. You should read him.
"American reconstruction of Catholicism". I was referring to Neuhaus, not the teenagers.
What are "Liberalism's excesses" Utilitarianism? Modern Liberalism is scholastic pedantry, so maybe Eco's liberalism is what's now called conservatism: the rule of vulgar materialism, the greed of the petty bourgeois. But that greed is linked to liberal optimism rather than the old conservative pessimism, so we get Catholic libertarianism and now Julia Yost's happy defense of Saturday night sodomy and redemption on Sunday. So some more history
Huysmans
"In all this hurly-burly, a single writer alone saw clear, Barbey d'Aurévilly, who, be it said, had no personal acquaintance with me. In an article in the Constitutionnel, bearing date July 28th, 1884, and which has been reprinted in his Le Roman Contemporain published in 1902, he wrote:--
'After such a book, it only remains for the author to choose between the muzzle of a pistol or the foot of the cross.'
The choice has been made."
Robert Mapplethorpe.
“There's this clock in Hell that chimes every hour, You will never get out . . . you will never get out . . . you will never get out."
It all seems like so long ago.
And you picked the wrong pic from the wrong period; not the beginning of the 16th century, and not the Renaissance but Mannerism and the Counter-Reformation. What you really wanted was Pontormo, or Bronzino. https://tinyurl.com/467h2stf
All this elf shit. Both Tolkien and Rawls are Oxbridge fantasists and it's hard to say which one is worse. And now instead of Gandalf the hero is Sauron. Dime Store theology indeed.
I've known a few fascists. I've gotten drunk with a few killers. And as far as Monarchists go, I'll take Rupert Everett. This country is so fucking stupid.
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/02/22/tina-brown-diaries-new-york-hustle/
“Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre