There are still faint glimmers of civilization left in this barbaric slaughterhouse that was once known as humanity.

What If?

I’m thinking about putting on my own online conference this summer.

For The Love Of God, We Need More Dancing

“Having abandoned the Incarnation, we now regard physical contact between persons as either sexual, violent, or an indication of sickness (a doctor touches his patient). However, dancing offers us physical contact with others which is generous, structured, mannered, and lively. A traditional dance neither incites sexual passion nor denies the sexual nature of the dancers. Rather, dancing sublimates our sexual nature to something higher than itself; when the dance is over, we understand our bodily natures more clearly, having trained ourselves to physically, actively respect the bodies of our fellows.”

-from my latest for CiRCE

Proverbial: The Bird Story

It is not a story I have often told, but I suppose a few readers of this blog may be familiar with “the bird story.” This week on Proverbial, though, I have made a record of it.

Lest We Depend On False Leverage

The term “social construct” is a social construct.

The Hiddenness Of God

It would be impossible to ‘love’ anyone or anything one knew completely. Love is directed towards what lies hidden in its object.

-Valery

Dressed For The Virginia Regency Ball

This is what I want my children to think of when they think of dancing.

Gwyneth Who?

For as chic as the 90s are once again, the line, “What’s in the box?” was uttered during Dune and absolutely no one in the theater laughed.

Only Comes Around Every So Often

The new Grouper record is out today. Late October was an ideal release date.

Quit Taking Notes

After an epiphany over the summer, I began my in-person classes this year with an exercise (or an experiment) wherein I aimed to prove to my literature students and theology students that they were better off not taking notes during class. In the last six weeks of school, I have often required students to put their notes away during class and simply read along with me. I have also occasionally required them to put their books aside, as well, and to only listen while I read. Consequently, I have found my students far more invested in class and enjoying remarkable retention of what they read and hear.

I want to explain to you what I am doing, why it works, why it is classical, and why measuring the diligence of students by note-taking is profoundly counterproductive.

On Monday, October 25th, at 8:00pm EST, I am offering Rethinking Notes, a free webinar. Recordings of this lecture will only be available for current Gibbs Classical students. Registration is now open for Spring 2022 classes including The Divine Comedy for Beginners and Modern Romance: The Cult of Courtly Love in Theory, Literature, and Film. Students registered for Spring 2022 classes will have access to this webinar recording.

If you would like a link to this free Webinar, sign up for the Gibbs Classical mailing list.

When Anger Is Sin, Blindness

When a father is in such a state of mind to speak of “my table,” or, “my car,” or, “my house,” when chastising a member of his family, he is too angry to see the situation properly.