Introducing "The Magpie"
my new books column!
My very first books column launched today over at Mere Orthodoxy. From the introduction:
I have been granted the great privilege by my editor at Mere Orthodoxy,
of “writing whatever you want but please be yourself.” Paired with the request that “if you are going to request all of these books to review perhaps we should make a column out of it,” and that “I think you are the only mean holding all of these odd books together”; perhaps the column might be as eclectic, as odd, even as curious as I myself can be. So today I present to you my new books column: The Magpie.A few words about the column’s title. I considered another option: “The Overcaffeinated Theologian” had the advantage of being accurate, the disadvantage of being too-on-the nose. I am, indeed, quite caffeinated, but I think my curiosity runs deeper than caffeine. The second, “The Magpie”, had the advantage of being not the first, and also the only other title I came up with.
Magpies are the rascals of the avian world. They gather shiny things they find beautiful and potentially useful. Such behavior is derided by intellectuals under the category of curiositas, a vice of the classical world. I do understand the preference for sustained, careful critique over flitting-about from one thing to the next. But perhaps a thoughtful-enough magpie might herself be the center around which such wild and interesting curiosities might cohere. Perhaps such a dismissive critique of the magpie has more than a bit of anti-feminine about it—gathering beautiful things might be a good in itself. And perhaps such a creature herself may be the center that grants these curiosities a form. Perhaps. Time will tell.
Go give it a read and let me know what you think.
KHS