April 2010
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What Mr. Ouine says in our time…
Monsieur Ouine, one of the greatest French novels of the 20th century, offers many answers to the modern world as it is. The following quotes provide a glimpse into the evil that insinuates itself everywhere. Continue reading
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The virtues of boredom
In a short, acerbic book (On France, translated by Alain Paruit, L'Herne), Emil Cioran offered an answer to the French malaise. He explained how much he valued boredom, but he distinguished between two kinds: the kind that opens "its doors to infinity," "as a spiritual extension of an immanent void of being," and the kind that… Continue reading
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Notes on The Child of Pleasure
Notes on Gabriele D'Annunzio's *The Child of Pleasure*. P. 58. Between the Trinity obelisk and the Conception column, I hung my Catholic and pagan heart as a votive offering. She laughed at his remark. He had a madrigal on his lips about his suspended heart; but he didn't utter it, for… Continue reading
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Notes on the History of Catholicism
Notes from Jean-Pierre Moisset's *Histoire du catholicisme* (chapter 9: *Le choc de la modernité (mid-18th century – 1870)*, p. 394). The ritual of touching for scrofula after the coronation, still practiced, is losing its prestige. Symptomatically, the formula for the laying on of hands is changing. It was "the king… Continue reading