Friday Links, June 12, 2020
Links from "Catholic Arts Today" at the Benedict XVI Institute, from the Institute for Human Ecology, New Criterion, Patheos, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Haunted by Suffering: Dana Gioia's "Special Treatment Ward"
"The Wounded Surgeon: Suffering the Little Children in Dana Gioia’s 'Special Treatments Ward' is reviewed by Joshua Hren at "Catholic Arts Today," the journal of the Benedict XVI Institute.
On Reading Literature in Difficult Times
“As we now slowly ease out of lockdown and try to puzzle through what sort of world we want to rebuild together, I believe that we need the renewed moral imagination that comes from encounters with great literature as much as we need skilled expertise."—Jennifer A. Frey, Fellow of the Institute for Human Ecology
Bernini & Buonarroti
“Really good stuff at New Criterion recently. This one is totally worth it for the reference to Michelangelo's style as 'beefsteak.'"—Fr. Michael Rennier
“The Cross and the Lynching Tree”
“If the Crucifixion can’t destroy the beauty of the Lord then nothing anybody does to you can destroy His beauty that you bear. This inalienable beauty is a promise that you were made for liberation from sin and oppression, from death and sorrow, into restoration and resurrection."—A pull quote from the linked interview, supplied by Katy Carl
Festive Easter Liturgy at Liturgical Legos
“Liturgical Lego! This is amazing. Two Catholic teenagers have built a site in lockdown showing you every aspect of the Traditional Latin Mass... in Lego"—Liturgical Arts Journal
A photo by Julia Margaret Cameron depicting the Annunciation showed up on my Facebook Home page this week, surprising to me because of it came from the Met. It turns out the post was in honor of Cameron’s birthday on June 11, 1815. I’d never heard of Cameron before; then I found the excellent linked essay by Malcolm Daniel, from the Met’s Department of Photographs.
Cameron’s success may be encouraging to creative women and men who are getting a late start. She received her first camera at the age of forty-eight from one of her daughters after she raised six children.
“Her mesmerizing portraits and figure studies on literary and biblical themes were unprecedented in her time and remain among the most highly admired of Victorian photographs.”
