On writing, books, tech, and faith
Another week, another dollar. What I'm reading: I finished Dante's Paradiso---at last. The poet ascends the spheres of heaven with his guide Beatrice, meeting figures such as Adam, Thomas Aquinas, St. Peter, Mary, and St. John along the way. I have many thoughts and feelings about it, but one surprising moment was in canto 27, … Continue reading On Dante’s ‘Paradiso’ and How Tolkien Improved His Story
What a week. One of the low points was the discovery that Clarkesworld magazine has temporarily halted short story submissions due to an overwhelming influx of fake content generated by AI tools. Clarkesworld is one of the venues where I was planning to submit a work of mine, so needless to say, I'm ticked at … Continue reading On Writing, ChatGPT, Harry Potter, and Evil Equity Language
Happy first week of Lent! I'm writing a simple update this time. I'd like to make this a recurring format so that I can push out regular content rather than waiting until I have something polished to share. What I'm Reading: Ever so slowly, I finished Dante's Inferno and Purgatorio and am now working through … Continue reading Lent and Comedy Divine
The Write the Docs Newsletter (February 2023) has a thoughtful section on whether or not ChatGPT will replace the role of the technical writer: "ChatGPT is a new conversational AI tool that has been making waves in the tech community for its impressively human responses and wide-ranging capabilities. There’s been a lot of discussion – … Continue reading The Impact of ChatGPT on Technical Writing
In an essay for The Atlantic, Thomas Williams criticizes book skeptics, like Kanye West, who proudly admit their disdain of books. Micah Mattix, in turn, criticizes Thomas Williams: "Listen, lots of people never read books. The vast majority of people who have lived on this planet have never read at all. This isn’t a virtue, … Continue reading Reading and Moral Superiority
The other day I saw some paintings of ancient baths which got my imagination going. The scale of the architecture has almost a mythical quality. There are traces here of the capricci style, which has a special place in my heart. Hubert Robert, “Ruins of a Roman Bath with Washerwomen”. Source: Hyperallergic.com. Hubert Robert, "Ancient … Continue reading Writing Inspiration: Ancient Bath Ruins and Why Roman Baths Disappeared
In Image Journal, James K.A. Smith writes about the tension between the ethical life (e.g., engaging in social justice) and the aesthetic life (e.g., writing novels and poetry), arguing that a life of genuine faith may actually be closer to the aesthetic life than you might guess. He draws most prominently from the novel Either/Or, … Continue reading Novels Against Moralism
Several years ago I argued that while digital privacy is a worrisome and complicated issue, our physical privacy is far superior to what was available in the Middle Ages. But there was one thing I hadn't considered. While we may have better physical privacy, do we really have more solitude? Let me begin answering this … Continue reading Solitude Deprivation, Single Parenting, and the Life We’re Looking For
I came across the following image in a book review of the recently-published English Garden Eccentrics. Source: The Critic.co.uk With the open cloudy sky and the grassy pasture jutting up against a wide plane of glacier-like rock formations and distant mountains, it strikes me as something out of a fantasy novel. I don't know exactly … Continue reading Writing Inspiration: Weird Gardenscapes
Sometimes I think about a response I received after telling someone about heaven. We had been discussing how we talk to our kids about death (which sounds morbid, but as all parents know, children are remarkably candid about these matters), and I mentioned that the story I share with my children is entirely shaped by … Continue reading Christianity Doesn’t Work That Way
Richard Rabil, Jr. 