Reporting from the (Lawn) Chair of Leisure As Culture

Here at Unpleasant Accents, we value literature. And also stock images.

The Honorary Chair of Leisure As Culture humbly suggests you, dear reader, consider these summer reading recommendations. First is a bit of modern German fiction, recently translated into English. Following that is a dystopian black comedy set in an England where procreation has been outlawed and cannibalism may be on the verge of breaking out. On a pleasanter note, our next selection is a comedy of manners featuring a happy, well-adjusted, single Englishwoman. Finally, on the nonfiction front, a revisionist history of the good old USA proposes that many of the political problems civic-minded Catholics face can be traced back to the philosophy behind the Founding.

How To Tell If You Are In An Evelyn Waugh Novel

(With further apologies to The Toast, whose series started it all.)

Waugh is not amused.

Your name is Pennyfeather.

You appear to be floating through life. Hilarious misfortune befalls you and those around you.

A small boy is accidentally shot in the foot by the starting gun at a race. He dies.

You befriend a man with a wooden leg who is not who he says he is.

Your beloved (who is much older and wealthier than you) has gotten you mixed up in the South American flesh trade. You are sent to prison, which is quite an agreeable experience. Your time in solitude there has you feeling the the best you've felt in years.

Your name is Seal.

While visiting Africa to advise an Oxford-educated ruler, you end up running his country, falling madly in love, intriguing, having a court official's throat cut, and going to a cannibal banquet. Also, your pillow talk to your girlfriend about "wanting to eat her up" later turns out to be a poor choice of words.

How To Tell If You Are In A Walker Percy Novel

(With apologies to The Toast, whose series started it all.)

Thought Experiment: Walker Percy eyes you over a glass of bourbon. Do you: 
A. consider the aesthetic nature of bourbon and the superiority of drinking it straight?
B. wonder if bourbon can do for you what cake did for Proust?
C. raise a glass of your own?

Honour, Virtue, and Not-Unpleasant Accents

It's (still) the summertime, and from my lofty perch top atop the Honorary Chair of Leisure as Culture, I can't think of a better time to review some recent — and not-so-recent — works of literature and television concerning Catholics living in times of tempestuous social change!

It also happens that this post coincides with the centenary of WWI, which is the setting for Ford Madox Ford's Parade's End trilogy. This great tragedy that marked the beginning of the 20th century could not be stopped, despite attempts to secure peace by the reigning Pope and the devout Catholic Emperor of Austria. 

Benedict XV

Blessed Charles/Karl I 

Walker Percy, True Detective

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Walker Percy enthusiasts have wondered when one of his novels would find its way to Hollywood. I am convinced the famed Southern Catholic author has already made his mark — but not in the way one might expect. The HBO series True Detective is an explicit and crude show at times that nonetheless is how I picture Walker Percy crime noir.

It's a man within a man... Know what that reminds me of?

Vampire Weekend: Waugh Revisited

In keeping with our reviews of popular media in a Catholic context, the latest entry in our Leisure As Culture series is a triple feature: a joint music, book, and television review. Vampire Weekend is a recent addition to my music library, while Brideshead Revisited has been a favorite book of mine since before I began college. Both share a connection that may not seem obvious. A story of pre-WWII English Catholic aristocracy and rocknrolla? Sure, the band’s image is that of well-dressed university-age fellows, but that’s merely a superficial similarity. It’s VW frontman and songwriter Ezra Koenig who draws the connection to Brideshead in a New York Times article:

[The band’s three albums] reminded me of ‘Brideshead Revisited’... The naïve joyous school days in the beginning. Then the expansion of the world, travel, seeing other places, learning a little bit more about how people live. And then the end is a little bit of growing up, starting to think more seriously, about your life and your faith. If people could look at our three albums as a bildungsroman, I’d be O.K. with that.

If this were how I started every tennis match, I'd be O.K. with that. (Obscure VW reference for the uninitiated here.)

The Not-So-Great Divorce

Marriage has been in the news lately. Everyone’s talking about what the word means. Heck, a lot of people wonder if it’s still even relevant. More and more, people just live together, cohabitating, instead of getting married. In light of this, a movie I just saw is strangely prescient. 

God and Man at Columbia

The first BioShock is a masterpiece of a game, and I eagerly awaited creator Ken Levine’s latest project: BioShock Infinite. Rather than an underwater city filled with characters from a Galt’s Gulch gone terribly wrong, this game features a floating city in the sky. On first glance, it’s a quasi-Mormon paradise inflamed with American nationalism, but below the surface there lies a society scarred by racism, crony capitalism, and a dangerous cult of "the Prophet." BioShock Infinite has taken the gaming world by storm and won more awards than I can count. It's a creative piece of storytelling and is probably worth playing if you like fast-paced shooters. The game’s religious themes in particular were irresistible to me as a Catholic, and so I’d like to dig into them, as I haven’t seen these ideas seriously addressed elsewhere. I’ll assume the good reader has either completed the game and knows the ending or isn't a gamer and actually wouldn't mind it being spoiled… so read at your own discretion.