Backward Mutters

Category: Uncategorized

  • The diabolical imagination

    I would suggest that there are two particular strains of the diabolic imagination in modern society: sentimentality and obscenity, as defined by Flannery O’Connor in her excellent book Mystery and Manners. Both sentimentality and obscenity result from the separation of aesthetic and virtue. Sentimentality is “an excess, a distortion of…

  • Love as gift

    As I read the interview, I didn’t think to myself, “John Mayer is doing something sinful,” or “Why doesn’t he realize that what he’s doing is wrong?” My only thought was, John Mayer has habituated himself such that he is incapable of loving someone and receiving her love. His addiction…

  • Don Jon review and idolatry

    im describe his addiction: “So you like porn better than sex.” When the imitation of a thing becomes more desirable than the thing itself, what does that mean? To put it lightly, it means that these men have been sold a bill of goods. To put it gravely, it means…

  • Love as gift, part two

    “Does our culture have an unhealthy relationship with porn? Has it diminished our view of women, relationships, and sex in general?”—the simplest response is, yes: It has systematically warped most young men’s ability to give and receive love freely. It has disabled their ability to offer themselves as a gift,…

  • Twentystone: One Morning along the Louisville Riverwalk

    Twentystone: One Morning along the Louisville Riverwalk