St. Austin Review: Reclaiming Culture

Welcome to the Ink Desk

Enjoy the ponderings of the Star's contributors and add your own thoughts. As this section develops, we hope it may become a medium for an exchange of ideas among those who are working towards the cultural revival.

• January 5th, 2011Unfalling Towersby Joseph Pearce

  My recent posts on the subject of "falling towers" prompted this comment from a friend: "No city, not even Rome, is eternal, and the Church goes on in the human heart and soul, not in stone and mortar." This is my response:

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• January 5th, 2011Falling Towers In Old Englishby Joseph Pearce

  Further to the dramatic photographs of the falling towers of Detroit as a symbol for the prophesied demise of the United States, Pavel Chichikov sent me this wonderful rendition of the Anglo-Saxon poem, The Ruin. 

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• January 5th, 2011Falling Towersby Joseph Pearce

  Pavel Chichikov, a regular contributor to this site, sent me a link to an astonishing set of photographs of derelect buildings in Detroit. They are so powerful as a witness to the demise of that once prosperoous city and serve as a symbol of the possible future of many other American cities if the present rate of deindustrialization continues. As I perused the photographs, I was reminded of the lines from Eliot's Waste Land about the "falling towers".

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• January 5th, 2011The Shakespeare Warsby Joseph Pearce

  There is no doubt that my two books on Shakespeare have been more controversial than any other books that I've written.

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• January 5th, 2011Favourite Books Of 2010by Joseph Pearce

  As we wave goodbye to 2010, it would seem a good time to look back over the best books published and read over the past year. 

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• January 5th, 2011English Saints And Martyrs On Dvdby Joseph Pearce

  As an Englishman in exile, it warms my heart to learn of good and noble efforts being made by English Catholics to evangelize England's green and godless land. 

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• January 3rd, 2011Fruits of Fiction - Cardinal Newman, Flannery O’Connor and the Unrealby Kevin O'Brien

  The word is “unreal”.

  I had been looking for this word for a long time.  You see, we have a few odd linguistic quirks here in St. Louis, where I live.

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• January 3rd, 2011A little book of great importance…by Dena Hunt

  …to anyone who thinks meditatively about language, philosophically about words, abstractly about syntax and semantics, is “Abuse of Language—Abuse of Power”, by Joseph Pieper (who else?) and published by Ignatius in 1988.

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• December 30th, 2010Stuff to Read and Watch for Christmasby Kevin O'Brien

  My latest comedy video on YouTube, "A Stanford Nutting Christmas" features liberal ex-seminarian Stanford Nutting hosting a holiday special with members of his family, including his radical traditionalist half-brother Bill Johnson, his televangelist cousin Rev. Cletus P. Love, and his cynical atheist grandma who worships the periodic table of the elements.

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• December 30th, 2010Hot Off The Press - The New Issue Of The St. Austin Reviewby Joseph Pearce

  The latest issue of StAR is hot off the press! The theme of the January/February issue is "Science versus Scientism". As ever, it's full of articles that every tradition-oriented Christian will not want to miss. Here are some of the highlights:

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• December 30th, 2010On “Progressive” Humbug And Other Nonsenseby Joseph Pearce

  At the bottom of this post, I've pasted an article by Paul Krugman, which was presumably published originally in the New York Times (the source was not given when it was forwarded to me). Here is my response to Krugman's abuse of Dickens' Christmas Carol:

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• December 25th, 2010Reasons To Be Merry This Christmasby Joseph Pearce

  The following two minute video offers ten good reasons to make merry this Christmas:

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7kofbROMJA&feature=player_embedded

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• December 25th, 2010Literary Converts Take Centre Stage At Conference In Romeby Joseph Pearce

  I'll be speaking on "The Dawn of Twentieth Century Christian Literature" at a conference at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross (Santa Croce) in Rome in May of next year. Since visitors to this site might be interested in further details, and might even wish to submit a paper for the conference, I'm attaching the link below. I hope to see you in the Eternal City on May 5 & 6.

  http://www.pusc.it/pec/conv2011

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• December 25th, 2010Confessions of a Christmas Loserby Lorraine V. Murray

  In my mind's eye I see her: She’s the perfect Christmas woman.

  She is wearing an elegant ensemble with glittering gems gracing her ears. Her home is perfumed with the sumptuous scent of gingerbread men. They are stunningly shaped and hand-decorated, of course.

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• December 25th, 2010Stanford Nutting Christmas Specialby Joseph Pearce

  I know that Kevin O'Brien has already posted the link to his hilarious "Stanford Nutting Christmas Special" but I want to add my own personal recommendation that you take the nine minutes or so to watch it. It's not to be missed. Heresy has never been this funny!!!

  Here's the link: 

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1FOOto-JpU

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• December 25th, 2010ACLU: Dreaming Of A Red Christmasby Joseph Pearce

  Paul Kengor continues the good work he began in his recent book, Dupes, in which he exposes the communist and pro-Soviet sympathies and activities of the founders of America's "progressive" movement. His latest exposé uncovers the support that the founders of the ACLU gave to Stalin's butcherous tyranny. Dr. Kengor's article, originally published in the American Spectator, speaks for itself. Needless to say, there is a grim irony inherent in the connection between those who espouse "civil liberties" while supporting the mass murder of civilians during Stalin's Red Terror. It parallels the irony inherent in those who espouse "civil liberties" while supporting the mass infanticide of legalized abortion. Plus ça change ... 

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• December 16th, 2010Who Needs Condoms?by Joseph Pearce

  The indomitable Janet Smith posted a link to this video on her Facebook page. It’s very funny and could put Planned Parenthood out of business.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhC5hRm673M

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• December 16th, 2010Shakespeare the Papistby Joseph Pearce

  I’ve just responded to a graduate student at a university in New York who is writing a research paper on the Catholic Shakespeare. As part of her research she put the following questions to me. I thought I’d share her questions, and my responses, with the visitors to this site:

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• December 14th, 2010True to the Wordsby Sophia Mason

  As a bonafide JPII baby and a long-time resident of the relatively conservative Arlington Diocese, I grew up without hearing the traditional or Tridentine Mass. I prefer “Tridentine Mass” to “Latin Mass” because having been raised in such a time and place, “Latin Mass” means something quite different to me than it does to most people: it stands for the Latin Novus Ordo.

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• December 10th, 2010Remembering The London Martyrs Of 1591by Joseph Pearce

  On this day in 1591, as the Catholic Shakespeare was working on the earliest of his plays, several Catholics were put to death in London for the practice of their faith. 

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