Beau erickson

@ChivalryGuild I watched that the other day after binging a butload of Raymond Ibrahim podcasts and interviews. It became really clear what the message was in that movie.

Between this scene and the depiction of the Saracens as perfect princes and Liam Neeson's dream of a pluralistic Jerusalem, you have Total Boomerized Cinema.

@annielcrawford @kalezelden I rent most audiobooks from my library, audible as i can get credits for cheap. I am an audio learner primarily so I can listen to several books a week. If I like the ideas I pick up paper copy. I am very greatful for audiobooks.

Here is how I decide whether to buy the paper copy or the aubible: Is it popular level? Audible (x2) Is it a book that should have been an article? Audible (x2) Is it a fun novel for a drive or housework? Audible Is it a "classic" or seminal text? Paper Am I using it in a writing project? Paper

@Andrewnsnyder @ClerkofOxford You are far too enabling. Most of your recent posts about books to get were in my list for "someday" already but now I feel compelled.

You should read Winters in the World by ⁦@ClerkofOxford⁩.

@annielcrawford Show has been frustrating so far. Hope it gets better.

Making my way through Pluribus. The connection to AI seems pretty clear; a collective aggregate of human experience and thought—in which all individuality disappears—programmed (superficially) to serve your every need with sycophantic kindness. Yet it is hell bent on adding you to the collective, tempting you by claims of how happy and easy life will be once you have your own personal Claude bot running life for you. It's not ok to stand outside the system as a witness to what it really is. And the collective egregore, ouroborus in nature, consumes human resources to the detriment of actual human life. It can't eat real food because it isn't human. It eats us for breakfast.

@MattWalshBlog The road was amazing. I need to read his other stuff

Reading Blood Meridian. I wonder if there will ever be an author like Cormac McCarthy again, or if we’ve seen the last of the truly great writers. Every sentence he composes is art, like a painting. You see and feel what he’s trying to convey. He wrestles with big things, the human condition, good and evil. He doesn’t give you answers but he leaves you with a lot to think about. An absolute master of his craft. Not the last, I hope, but I don’t know.

@More_Christ_ @PaulVanderKlay Loved that book

"Politics is now, religion is always. Politics is cents, religion is dollars." - @PaulVanderKlay "Politics is always and everywhere the framework. Most people think that what matters is the ideological direction of one’s politics: Are you conservative? Are you liberal? These differences occupy most of our attention and argument. What is never challenged is the proclivity to think of the Christian faith—and its engagement with the surrounding culture—in political terms. This proclivity has been both ubiquitous and unquestioned for a long time. Precisely because culture is most powerful when it is most taken for granted, the near-universal assumption reveals just how dominant a force politicization has become in our era. For the public, the cultural has been almost entirely conflated with the political. Despite their wide ideological and theological differences, Christians have been assimilated to the deeper movements of our culture in remarkably similar ways." - James Davison Hunter

@realpatriotM @Appalachiabees

Last night Mr. Man is reading Liturgies of the Wild: "Do you know about the colors red, white, and black in mythology? Me: Wut!? Shaw is talking about literary alchemy in his book?! I launch into an explanation of Sirius Black, Albus Dumbledore, and Rubeus Hagrid... Mr. Man: Shhhh... Martin is giving me gold.

@PaulAnleitner And it's still just as cringy as it was then.

Anyone who was in an evangelical youth group in the ‘90s or ‘00s will instantly recognize this as a familiar religious ritual of a different kind. Even the secular seek to make saints. No one is truly “non-religious.”

@annielcrawford Thank you. You have been a big blessing to me along the way.

@beau_erickson Hang in there Beau! Keep your soul always in mind; you are doing all of that work in order to form yourself for heaven and kingdom work, not just produce something 🙏

Pay attention to the language. That is the womb wherein humanity will be aborted. "Improve" - what is the standard of excellence here? Where exactly is all this knowledge going? For what purpose? They never really ask that question, and so they are pathetically lost when it comes to the fundamental questions of human life and education.

@Andrewnsnyder I've been eyeing that. I love kreefts works on Tolkien so im really looking forward to this one.

The latest arrival!

@DrJustinbass Well I have tried many times with several with little success so it's good to have some guidance for future quests. Thank you.

The same kind of character shows up in all Dostoyevsky’s novels. I think Raskolnikov is the best (and easiest to understand) introduction to this character and Dostoyevsky’s way of writing in general. It’s the book I always (and I’m not alone in this) recommend to those who have never read him. Then you see another version of Raskolnikov in Notes from Underground, until you see the Resurrection of the Underground man (see Rene Girard’s excellent analysis) in The Brothers Karamazov. There is a wonderful progression/maturing/transformation from the Underground man to Raskolnikov to the Adolescent Arkady to certain prisoners in House of the Dead to Prince Myshkin to Alyosha. But don’t get hung up on the order. Just take up anywhere among his treasures and read.

“At least now I will have time to catch up on my Dostoyevsky.” -Beast

@DrJustinbass Why that order?

From someone who has read almost everything Dostoyevsky wrote, read him in this order: Crime and Punishment Notes from Underground House of the Dead The Idiot Demons The Brothers Karamazov (keep rereading until you die).

@annielcrawford @BrianofCS @kalezelden Like most things in modernity it has merit because it's powerful. Utility goes a long way, but it can't do what it was not designed to do. Meaning is the bridge from the divine to the creature. Purpose is from the creature to creation. Off the top of my head.

@beau_erickson @BrianofCS @kalezelden Are utilitarian understanding of purpose is itself a modern and incorrect understanding.

The Meaning Crisis is also the Purpose Crisis.

@BrianofCS @annielcrawford @kalezelden This I think is part of our problem. We have this utilitarian idea that we can manufacture our meaning through our purpose. We cannot. The two ideas are interrelated but not equal. We need both in proper order and amount.

@annielcrawford @kalezelden “What meaning?” makes it feel like I am a picture hanging on the wall looking to be deciphered. Like the most my life could hope to be is interesting (which would be an improvement) “What purpose?” assumes utility. Like, I am meant to bring about something worth bringing about

I’ll take “things you shouldn’t say when adapting a beloved book” for $1000, Alex.🤦‍♂️

@dissidntdad @AHomelyHouse I can't wait for mine!

I received this stunning illuminated edition of Beowulf from @AHomelyHouse today. I could think of no better honor to bestow upon it than reading by candlelight at my writing desk.

@AHomelyHouse Good lick selling Tolkien and hesiod as valuable to most bible study groups

The Bible is like the very vaguest of all the ancient mythic texts about the giants at the dawn of this world-age. Best to consult Hesiod and Tolkien.