“You can see God by sniffing the gas in a cotton.” — Allen Ginsberg

Talkin’ ‘Bout My Generation. The phenomenon of Allen Ginsberg by Bruce Bawer, The New Criterion On Allen Ginsberg’s poetry, 1985. I’m so lucky to be nutty.—Allen Ginsberg, “Bop Lyrics” (1949) The very first poem in Allen Ginsberg’s Collected Poems 1947-1980 [1] seems, in a way, to prophesy Ginsberg’s entire career. It is titled “In Society,” and it dates… Read More “You can see God by sniffing the gas in a cotton.” — Allen Ginsberg

November 21, 2025November 21, 2025 SDHLeave a comment

From Rembrandt to Picasso

When in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the avant-garde was given diverse powerful platforms to announce that traditional art forms were passé, and art galleries exchanged space for the mystic likes of Picasso, Surrealism, and, in some degree, Andy Warhol, etc., they arguably prepared the way for the denial of natural gender distinctions and the… Read More From Rembrandt to Picasso

November 21, 2025November 21, 2025 SDH

John Lennon and The Seductions of Beautiful Nothing

“Turn off your mind, relax and float down stream”—John Lennon Perhaps it is one of those curious fearful symmetries that the words of John Lennon quoted above are found in the Beatles’ album titled ‘Revolver’…and that he was finally gunned down, shot multiple times in the back by a “fan”. I grew up reading Kerouac… Read More John Lennon and The Seductions of Beautiful Nothing

November 17, 2025December 13, 2025 SDH2 Comments

The Beat Generation… cultural catastrophe. By Roger Kimball

“We’ll get you through your children.” —Allen Ginsberg, 1958 The core of the heresy of the Free Spirit lay in the adept’s attitude towards himself: he believed that he had attained a perfection so absolute that he was incapable of sin. Disclaiming book-learning and theological subtleties, they rejoiced in direct knowledge of God- indeed, they… Read More The Beat Generation… cultural catastrophe. By Roger Kimball

September 1, 2025September 1, 2025 SDH1 Comment

Tolkien’s Battle for the Shire. And for Us All.

“It is vanity to desire a long life, and to have little care for a good life.” — Thomas a Kempis Tolkien mourned the decline of the Shire* i.e., …the real shire of his youth which he ever remembered and sought to salvage to the extent that he could. The Shire: the simplicity and beauty… Read More Tolkien’s Battle for the Shire. And for Us All.

February 5, 2025May 15, 2025 SDH

Aesthetics, Relativism and the Enlightenment

“The heroic phase of the 18th-century Enlightenment purported to have freed humankind of antique superstition and the demons of the irrational, but the horrors of the 20th century gave the lie to that triumphalism. Far from humane liberation, 20th-century Europeans had plunged into decades of savage barbarism.” — Stuart Walton It is a sad fact… Read More Aesthetics, Relativism and the Enlightenment

July 27, 2022July 30, 2022 SDH

Merton on The Unspeakable

“The Unspeakable. What is that? Surely, an eschatological image. It is the void that we encounter, you and I, underlying the announced programs, the good intentions, the unexampled and universal aspirations for the best of all possible worlds. It is the void that contradicts everything that is spoken even before the words are said; the… Read More Merton on The Unspeakable

July 1, 2022December 25, 2024 SDH

Jordan Peterson on Meaning

I admire much that Jordan Peterson has done and said. Very much. But I cannot accept his thought entirely regarding the question of Meaning in our lives and times, which he and others have publicly discussed, and which many admire. To the contrary, it is Jesus Christ, “the same yesterday, today and forever” (Heb. 13:8),… Read More Jordan Peterson on Meaning

May 14, 2022March 31, 2023 SDH

Great Art Can Be Propaganda | First Things

Authority and Freedom:A Defense of the Arts–by jed perlknopf, 176 pages, $20. First Things Magazine In the slim volume Authority and Freedom: A Defense of the Arts, the longtime New Republic and New York Review of Books art writer Jed Perl assigns himself such a gigantic challenge that I found myself blushing on his behalf… Read More Great Art Can Be Propaganda | First Things

February 27, 2022May 3, 2022 SDHLeave a comment

“New Spirituality” & the Ghost of Catholicism

By John A. Perricone | New Oxford Review, January-February 2021 The Deleterious Effects of a Subtle Inversion One of Hollywood’s more sybaritic starlets solemnly announced the other day that she was embarking on a 30-day “spiritual cleanse” in India. Since neither ecumenism nor eco-enthusiasm is my métier, I was bewildered. Could it be some novel… Read More “New Spirituality” & the Ghost of Catholicism

February 3, 2022February 10, 2022 SDHLeave a comment

The Unmasking of Oscar Wilde. Joseph Pearce.

“Vilified by fellow Victorians for his sexuality and his dandyism, Oscar Wilde, the great poet, satirist and playwright, is hailed today, in some circles, as a “progressive” sexual liberator. But this is not how Wilde saw himself. His actions and pretensions did not bring him happiness and fulfillment. This study of Wilde’s brilliant and tragic… Read More The Unmasking of Oscar Wilde. Joseph Pearce.

January 19, 2022January 19, 2022 SDHLeave a comment

Catholic Critique

Christian World View & Analysis

Tag: Aesthetics