tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7091756463128804432.post7710417511217893729..comments2024-03-27T02:55:10.109-07:00Comments on Irish Papist: A Fine Summary of Social Conservatism by Peter HitchensMaolsheachlannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09406722311993627528noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7091756463128804432.post-9899965031331908282013-02-01T15:36:53.810-08:002013-02-01T15:36:53.810-08:00As Chesterton said, if we don't have dogmas, t...As Chesterton said, if we don't have dogmas, the only thing we are left with is prejudices. It does seem like an allergic reaction. In the same way that the word "institutional religion" or "organized religion" gives people the shivers, but "community" gives people the warm fuzzies. Well, how can you have a community without some level of organization?<br /><br />Yes, my site has an archive, bottom right!Maolsheachlannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09406722311993627528noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7091756463128804432.post-6707908959673209142013-02-01T13:07:54.214-08:002013-02-01T13:07:54.214-08:00Hello. Excellent post. One thing that I have reali...Hello. Excellent post. One thing that I have realized is that the idea, or even reading the word dogma, is usually met with such repugnance by those who aren't social conservatives let alone religious. It's like an allergic reaction to peanuts or something. Understandable, but at the same time weird ... and somewhat humorous. <br /><br />Does your site have an archive? I'm thinking of reading your blog from the very start. GoldRush Applehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04672912751538200761noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7091756463128804432.post-34512319186929549462013-01-25T17:23:22.699-08:002013-01-25T17:23:22.699-08:00I like I Want You Back by Take That. I like Led Ze...I like I Want You Back by Take That. I like Led Zeppelin, Queen, Horslips, Hot Chocolate, the Bee Gees, Rory Gallagher, Slade, the Beatles, Abba, Wings, the Sweet, Waylon Jennings, the Saw Doctors, Def Leppard, the Wildhearts, the Kinks, the Who...all of those.<br /><br />Somehow I just don't feel they nourish my soul, though, in the way movies or books do. They stimulate me, nothing more. Even lyrics that seem deep or striking turn out, on deeper inspection, to be trumpery.<br /><br />I don't appreciate classical music at all. The only classical music I've ever enjoyed (pretty much) are Dvorak's piano quintets.Maolsheachlannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09406722311993627528noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7091756463128804432.post-22452000799093821932013-01-25T17:12:54.453-08:002013-01-25T17:12:54.453-08:00My curiosity is stoked though. Can you give examp...My curiosity is stoked though. Can you give examples of music that has left you soul-shrivelled? <br /><br />I've just been listening to Want You Back by Take That, a simple but really likeable melody (mind you, there all simple once they've been written), a soppy but endearing sentiment and an unfussy arrangement with some really nice touches, especially that little piano run. What's not to like? <br /><br />Earlier I listened to Springsteen singing Hungry Heart and felt exhilarated. Like lots of rock and pop music, these are moden folk songs run through amplifiers and beefed up by a drum kit and electric bass.<br /><br />Then a little Gillian Welsh. I don't know of a more tender, heart wrenching or thought provoking song than Orphan Girl https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qZOOb02u-4. <br /><br />But I know I might listen to Palestrina or Poulenc later and that will be on a different and, yes, higher plane, but that doesn't diminish the pleasure I took from the others. mickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13984879719516554591noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7091756463128804432.post-67145575515752317772013-01-25T15:28:32.459-08:002013-01-25T15:28:32.459-08:00That sounds like an allergy then!That sounds like an allergy then!mickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13984879719516554591noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7091756463128804432.post-49131117034235731462013-01-25T15:20:09.173-08:002013-01-25T15:20:09.173-08:00I never finished The Discarded Image but I liked w...I never finished The Discarded Image but I liked what I read of it. I think cathedrals are just too overpowering for me.<br /><br />As for rock music...you obviously know a lot more about music than I do (not difficult), and yet I can't help feeling that there is something destructive about rock and pop, even good rock and pop. It seems very crude, very stylized, very primitive almost. I can't appreciate classical music but I can hear that there is so much more nuance and subtlety in it, and even folk music doesn't seem to have the same brashness as rock and pop. I don't think rock and pop are incapable of expressing awe and reverence. I always feel bad after listening to it, as though my soul has been shrivelled. And I have been listening to it for years and years.Maolsheachlannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09406722311993627528noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7091756463128804432.post-68949657748106275102013-01-25T14:58:42.618-08:002013-01-25T14:58:42.618-08:00Don't be apologetic or ashamed about liking ro...Don't be apologetic or ashamed about liking rock music. It seems a completely natural human impulse to me to be drawn to loud music with a strong beat, a catchy melody, a simple but soothing or energizing set of chord progressions. And some bands have woven rich and wonderful variations into that simple template. <br /><br />The problem comes when rock and pop music achieve "full spectrum dominance" of public and private tastes and subtler, deeper, more beautiful varieties of music are drowned out. Simpler varieties too that don't require amplification and mixing desks and the rest.<br /><br />I say this as someone who likes lots of rock music, a decent heap of country and western, some of the great classical works and who has a special fondness for polyphonic church choral music, both the continental and the Anglican traditions. (I think Peter Hitchens is also very attached to the last of these.)<br /><br />And don't give up on cathedrals. Try to think of them as C S Lewis suggests in The Discarded Image: <br /><br />"They wrote it (the medieval model of the universe), they sang it, painted it and carved it. Sometimes a whole poem or a whole cathedral seems almost nothing but petrified cosmology." <br /><br />Mind you, for this quotation to have its full force, you probably need to read TDI. Have you? Alongside Surprised by Joy, it's probably my favourite Lewis book. mickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13984879719516554591noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7091756463128804432.post-67934632649799712322013-01-25T03:00:23.957-08:002013-01-25T03:00:23.957-08:00Thank you!Thank you!Maolsheachlannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09406722311993627528noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7091756463128804432.post-34725622513676018262013-01-25T02:20:35.750-08:002013-01-25T02:20:35.750-08:00That's a good point about dogma. I'll bear...That's a good point about dogma. I'll bear it in mindPeter Hitchenshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15019329126258580237noreply@blogger.com