Slight update on SIGNPOSTINGS: I also found there Colin’s reflections on what’s good and bad about living in THE GOLDEN AGE OF TV—yet another postmodern yet conservative theme: Too much disdain for convention and ordinary storytelling and narrative, way too self-indulgent when it comes to the imaginative display of excesses. We saw those tendencies in THE SOPRANOS, and more so, of course, in the recent episodes of MAD MEN and GIRLS, to name a couple.
I also found on SIGNPOSTINGS a link to another Percy-inspired site—THE WAYFARING. There’s a good beginning to developing the novelist Percy’s singular views of PLACE and PLACEMENT. A novelist never really FITS either in the place where he’s from or the place he’s in now. Percy preferred the NONPLACE (Covington) to the PLACE (New Orleans). The novelist has to be detached from the place filled with the ghosts of his ancestors, but not too much. Faulkner might not have been displaced enough, and there was an authenticity “issue” with some of his characters as a result. Percy wanted to live in the South, but on his own terms. Not in THE OLD SOUTH or THE SUNBELT—or, we can add, not in THE AGRARIAN SOUTH.
And finally—don’t let the critics keep you from enjoying THE GREAT GATSBY the film. In some ways it’s good enough to have been on HBO. Another finally, you can find on THE WAYFARING a post on and a link to one of the best articles ever written on MARILYNNE ROBINSON (another novelist that we pomocons love, even though she thinks of herself as anti-con).
You have a decision to make: double or nothing.
For this week only, a generous supporter has offered to fully match all new and increased donations to First Things up to $60,000.
In other words, your gift of $50 unlocks $100 for First Things, your gift of $100 unlocks $200, and so on, up to a total of $120,000. But if you don’t give, nothing.
So what will it be, dear reader: double, or nothing?
Make your year-end gift go twice as far for First Things by giving now.
