Friday Links
October 31, 2025
Abbey Graveyard, Athenry, Co Galway, Ireland
Chaffins: 4 Lessons from Solanus Casey
Climbing The Magic Mountain today Thomas Mann’s novel is an antidote to nihilism
Why I’ve started re-reading novels
Seeing Goodness More Clearly
Luma Simms interview Nathanael Blake on his new book Victims of the Sexual Revolution: How Sexual Liberation Hurt Us All
Wiseblood Books Fundraiser Critique Packages
Talk to Me in Long Lines
Emily Chaffins: 4 Lessons from Solanus Casey
Climbing The Magic Mountain today
Morten Hoi Jensen on why Thomas Mann’s novel is an antidote to nihilism:
But the most remarkable character of all is Leo Naphta, a Jewish convert to Catholicism, who affirms the supremacy of the Roman church over the bourgeois state and bluntly justifies the use of violence and terror to goad humankind back under divine rule. At the same time, Naphta also espouses a communist dictatorship that, in his view, will help achieve “the ultimate goal of redemption: the children of God living in a world without classes or laws.” As Hans Castorp rightly intuits, Naphta is a reactionary who sounds, at times, proto-fascist in his terroristic contempt for the liberal bourgeois world. Even so, he is drawn to him for the same reason the reader is: because a life lived in the daylight of reason is somehow only half-lived. Naphta speaks from what Nietzsche called “the unexplored realm of dangerous knowledge,” which is what makes him so intriguing.
Why I’ve started re-reading novels
Fr. Michael Rennier on the joys and lessons of re-reading novels:
I’ve had to humble myself and admit that, when it comes to reading, efficiency isn’t the highest measure of success. The goal isn’t to brag on social media at the end of the year about an intellectual accomplishment and make my friends jealous over how “smart” I am.
Seeing Goodness More Clearly
Joel Miller interviews Shemaiah Gonzalez on writing, joy, and more:
Joy has not been my default. I’m a writer for goodness sake! I remember my father had the family take personality tests one evening in my childhood. I tested as a “melancholy choleric.” I was around twelve or thirteen at the time and I thought to myself, “Yep that sounds about right.” But there were some life events, that I share in the book, which jolted me out of despair.
I realized I could not live this way anymore. So, I started small. I suggest everyone start small. Life doesn’t give us a whole lot of huge joyful moments: birth, marriage, graduations, and so on. Life is not one big party. But when you start being grateful for, and taking delight in, small things, you find yourself rewiring your brain and looking through life through a new lens—until it is contagious.
Luma Simms interview Nathanael Blake on his new book Victims of the Sexual Revolution: How Sexual Liberation Hurt Us All
Nathanael Blake: The sexual revolution has not delivered on its promises; instead of authenticity, happiness, and lots of great sex, it has left Americans lonelier, unhappier, and even less sexually fulfilled. In contrast, though Christian sexual morality has been dismissed as the province of prudes, bigots, and killjoys, it provides a better way to live that is rooted in human nature and which directs us toward our good and that of those around us.
Wiseblood Books Fundraiser Critique Packages
Our friends at Wiseblood Books are in the middle of their 2025 Fundraiser and just announced a special drawing. You can read more about this opportunity to win a critique from James Matthew Wilson, Dana Gioia, J. C. Scharl, Paul Pastor, or Lucas Smith over on Wiseblood’s Substack, Wide-Eyed with Wiseblood Books.
Talk to Me in Long Lines
Have you had a chance to check out my new poetry journal, Talk to Me in Long Lines? If not, please do. Today we have a special cinepoem from Famous Letter Writer. Enjoy!