#modernism — Public Fediverse posts

"Fete on the Lake," Florine Stettheimer, early 20th century.

Stettheimer (1871-1944) was a New York City intellectual, poet, feminist, theatrical designer, and not insignificantly, a painter.

Her style is highly individual and unique. While educated in a very formal and academic style, she rejected all that and chose instead to capture the immediate and expressive emotions of her life in New York. Setting up house with her sisters, the group plunged into New York's intellectual heart and became fixtures.

In the summer, they would hold day-long parties, with guest lists full of top artists and writers, and intelligent conversation everywhere. And her paintings often depicted those gatherings in her own individual style.

Apparently painted during one of these soirees, this shows a group of people canoeing on a lake, with what appears to be a fire on the surface; likely some sort of firework. The multicolored lights reflecting on the water in the background give it atmosphere.

From the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, New York.

#Art #FlorineStettheimer #Modernism #ModernArt #WomenArtists

"Fete on the Lake," Florine Stettheimer, early 20th century.

Stettheimer (1871-1944) was a New York City intellectual, poet, feminist, theatrical designer, and not insignificantly, a painter.

Her style is highly individual and unique. While educated in a very formal and academic style, she rejected all that and chose instead to capture the immediate and expressive emotions of her life in New York. Setting up house with her sisters, the group plunged into New York's intellectual heart and became fixtures.

In the summer, they would hold day-long parties, with guest lists full of top artists and writers, and intelligent conversation everywhere. And her paintings often depicted those gatherings in her own individual style.

Apparently painted during one of these soirees, this shows a group of people canoeing on a lake, with what appears to be a fire on the surface; likely some sort of firework. The multicolored lights reflecting on the water in the background give it atmosphere.

From the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, New York.

#Art #FlorineStettheimer #Modernism #ModernArt #WomenArtists

The Little White Rose
(To John Gawsworth)

The rose of all the world is not for me.
I want for my part
Only the little white rose of Scotland
That smells sharp and sweet—and breaks the heart.

—Hugh MacDiarmid

10/10

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46800/the-little-white-rose

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Scotland #modernism #20thcentury #MacDiarmid

The Little White Rose
(To John Gawsworth)

The rose of all the world is not for me.
I want for my part
Only the little white rose of Scotland
That smells sharp and sweet—and breaks the heart.

—Hugh MacDiarmid

10/10

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46800/the-little-white-rose

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Scotland #modernism #20thcentury #MacDiarmid

Hugh MacDiarmid at 100

A special issue of STUDIES IN SCOTTISH LITERATURE, evolved from papers delivered at the conference ‘MacDiarmid at 100’, held on 31 August 2022 to mark the centenary of Hugh MacDiarmid’s first appearance in print under that name

9/10

https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/ssl/vol49/iss1/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Scots #Scotslanguage #modernism #20thcentury #MacDiarmid

Hugh MacDiarmid at 100

A special issue of STUDIES IN SCOTTISH LITERATURE, evolved from papers delivered at the conference ‘MacDiarmid at 100’, held on 31 August 2022 to mark the centenary of Hugh MacDiarmid’s first appearance in print under that name

9/10

https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/ssl/vol49/iss1/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Scots #Scotslanguage #modernism #20thcentury #MacDiarmid

Hugh MacDiarmid: A Portrait

Margaret Tait’s affectionate 1964 biography of Hugh MacDiarmid

8/10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8f3BbuqaiY

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Scots #Scotslanguage #modernism #20thcentury #MacDiarmid #biography #MargaretTait

Hugh MacDiarmid: A Portrait

Margaret Tait’s affectionate 1964 biography of Hugh MacDiarmid

8/10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8f3BbuqaiY

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Scots #Scotslanguage #modernism #20thcentury #MacDiarmid #biography #MargaretTait

Scotland small? Our multiform, our infinite Scotland small?
Only as a patch of hillside may be a cliché corner
To a fool who cries ‘Nothing but heather!’ …

—Hugh MacDiarmid, “Scotland Small?”
published in SELECTED POETRY (Carcanet, 2004)

7/10

https://www.carcanet.co.uk/9781857547566/selected-poetry/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #modernism #20thcentury #MacDiarmid

Scotland small? Our multiform, our infinite Scotland small?
Only as a patch of hillside may be a cliché corner
To a fool who cries ‘Nothing but heather!’ …

—Hugh MacDiarmid, “Scotland Small?”
published in SELECTED POETRY (Carcanet, 2004)

7/10

https://www.carcanet.co.uk/9781857547566/selected-poetry/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #modernism #20thcentury #MacDiarmid

“Extremism in the defence of liberty is no vice; moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue”
—Oxford Union Debate, 3 Dec 1964

Corey Gibson on Hugh MacDiarmid, Malcolm X, & their common cultural-political agenda
Modernism/Modernity 3/1 (2018)

6/10

https://modernismmodernity.org/articles/extremism-poiesis

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Scots #Scotslanguage #modernism #20thcentury #MacDiarmid #MalcolmX #OxfordUnion

“Extremism in the defence of liberty is no vice; moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue”
—Oxford Union Debate, 3 Dec 1964

Corey Gibson on Hugh MacDiarmid, Malcolm X, & their common cultural-political agenda
Modernism/Modernity 3/1 (2018)

6/10

https://modernismmodernity.org/articles/extremism-poiesis

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Scots #Scotslanguage #modernism #20thcentury #MacDiarmid #MalcolmX #OxfordUnion

A Man in Constant Revolt: Hugh MacDiarmid’s Poetry of World War Two

—Richie McCaffery, International Review of Scottish Studies 43 (2018)

5/10

https://www.irss.uoguelph.ca/index.php/irss/article/view/4541

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Scots #Scotslanguage #modernism #20thcentury #MacDiarmid #warpoetry #WW2

A Man in Constant Revolt: Hugh MacDiarmid’s Poetry of World War Two

—Richie McCaffery, International Review of Scottish Studies 43 (2018)

5/10

https://www.irss.uoguelph.ca/index.php/irss/article/view/4541

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Scots #Scotslanguage #modernism #20thcentury #MacDiarmid #warpoetry #WW2

“It appears that this man writes rather good revolutionary poetry… He is a rabid Scottish Nationalist, but is in close touch with the [Communist] Party”
—1931 Security Service report

Read Prof Scott Lyall’s “Hugh MacDiarmid & the British State”

4/10

https://www.thebottleimp.org.uk/2015/06/hugh-macdiarmid-and-the-british-state/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Scots #Scotslanguage #modernism #20thcentury #MacDiarmid #surveillance

“It appears that this man writes rather good revolutionary poetry… He is a rabid Scottish Nationalist, but is in close touch with the [Communist] Party”
—1931 Security Service report

Read Prof Scott Lyall’s “Hugh MacDiarmid & the British State”

4/10

https://www.thebottleimp.org.uk/2015/06/hugh-macdiarmid-and-the-british-state/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Scots #Scotslanguage #modernism #20thcentury #MacDiarmid #surveillance

His corpse owre a’ the city lies
In ilka square and ilka street
His spilt bluid floods the vera skies
And nae hoose but is darkened wi’t…

—Hugh MacDiarmid, “The Dead Liebknecht”
published in SELECTED POETRY (Carcanet, 2004)

3/10

https://www.carcanet.co.uk/9781857547566/selected-poetry/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Scots #Scotslanguage #modernism #20thcentury #MacDiarmid

His corpse owre a’ the city lies
In ilka square and ilka street
His spilt bluid floods the vera skies
And nae hoose but is darkened wi’t…

—Hugh MacDiarmid, “The Dead Liebknecht”
published in SELECTED POETRY (Carcanet, 2004)

3/10

https://www.carcanet.co.uk/9781857547566/selected-poetry/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Scots #Scotslanguage #modernism #20thcentury #MacDiarmid

“What MacDiarmid keeps giving is a depth of understanding, an imperative to go out into the world & explore it, & the priority of the patience needed to appreciate it. That is his provenance, one hundred years since”

—Alan Riach on 100 years of “Hugh MacDiarmid”

2/10

https://www.thebottleimp.org.uk/2023/02/100-years-of-hugh-macdiarmid/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Scots #Scotslanguage #modernism #20thcentury #MacDiarmid

“What MacDiarmid keeps giving is a depth of understanding, an imperative to go out into the world & explore it, & the priority of the patience needed to appreciate it. That is his provenance, one hundred years since”

—Alan Riach on 100 years of “Hugh MacDiarmid”

2/10

https://www.thebottleimp.org.uk/2023/02/100-years-of-hugh-macdiarmid/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Scots #Scotslanguage #modernism #20thcentury #MacDiarmid

I’ll ha’e nae hauf-way hoose, but aye be whaur
Extremes meet – it’s the only way I ken
To dodge the curst conceit o’ bein’ richt
That damns the vast majority o’ men.

—from “A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle”

A 🎂🧵 for Hugh MacDiarmid—born #OTD, 11 Aug 1892

1/10

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/hugh-macdiarmid

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Scots #Scotslanguage #modernism #20thcentury #MacDiarmid

I’ll ha’e nae hauf-way hoose, but aye be whaur
Extremes meet – it’s the only way I ken
To dodge the curst conceit o’ bein’ richt
That damns the vast majority o’ men.

—from “A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle”

A 🎂🧵 for Hugh MacDiarmid—born #OTD, 11 Aug 1892

1/10

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/hugh-macdiarmid

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Scots #Scotslanguage #modernism #20thcentury #MacDiarmid

Shropshire House, Capper Street

1932

Waite & Waite

#artdeco #modernism #architecture #london

Shropshire House, Capper Street

1932

Waite & Waite

#artdeco #modernism #architecture #london

https://www.moma.org/artists/5047-mark-rothko

Here's a story about about the visual arts in the mid 20th century USA , a story that I have often heard myself, told myself, and taught to others:

>> In the years following the Second World War, the socially conscious art that had developed under the auspices of the New Deal was cast aside under the pressure of the Cold War and liberal anticommunism, and its place an ostensibly apolitical art was promoted in association with asocial, formalist criteria of critical evaluation.<<

I don't think this story is wrong, but I have come to think of it as incomplete and thereby perhaps misleading.

The MOMA page linked here draws attention to one problem. Whatever archformalist Clement Greenberg might have said, artists like Rothko and Newman did not understand their own work in his narrow terms. To grasp these artists' work, one has to employ a humanist vocabulary of the tragic and the sublime, and employ that vocabulary not merely as a reference to "all over painting", but as a way of making sense of the content of that painting.

Unfortunately, this vocabulary of the transcendent was already being squeezed out in the New Deal years.

Within the modernism of the first three decades of the 20th century, two tendencies were at work: one advancing new visual practices as a way of transcending the crass materialism and obsolete illusionism of the 19th century (Kandinsky, Malevich, early Bauhaus), the other as challenging the separation of "art" from "life" (De Stijl, later Bauhaus, Soviet Constructivism) with the aim of making all art some kind of applied art while simultaneously debunking the "mystifying" language and socially exclusionary practices of the "fine" arts.

Most US New Deal Art, and the criticism and historiography that has valorized that art, has followed that second tendency within modernism . That's a healthy and understandable reaction to art as understood as something old to be purchased in Europe, packed up in crates, and then displayed in the USA by courtesy of billionaire businessmen.

Yet that "socially conscious" modernism all too often either misses or even suppresses the responses mentioned in the MOMA Rothko page.

We need to to ensure that the tragic, the sublime, and the mysterious do not become the exclusive property of the right, whether in the visual arts or the culture at large.

Forgive me -- all this is thinking on the go, conducted under the influence of three large glasses of Woodbridge Chardonnay, and possibly erroneous in many respects.

#AmericanArt #Modernism #Art #20thCentury

https://www.moma.org/artists/5047-mark-rothko

Here's a story about about the visual arts in the mid 20th century USA , a story that I have often heard myself, told myself, and taught to others:

>> In the years following the Second World War, the socially conscious art that had developed under the auspices of the New Deal was cast aside under the pressure of the Cold War and liberal anticommunism, and its place an ostensibly apolitical art was promoted in association with asocial, formalist criteria of critical evaluation.<<

I don't think this story is wrong, but I have come to think of it as incomplete and thereby perhaps misleading.

The MOMA page linked here draws attention to one problem. Whatever archformalist Clement Greenberg might have said, artists like Rothko and Newman did not understand their own work in his narrow terms. To grasp these artists' work, one has to employ a humanist vocabulary of the tragic and the sublime, and employ that vocabulary not merely as a reference to "all over painting", but as a way of making sense of the content of that painting.

Unfortunately, this vocabulary of the transcendent was already being squeezed out in the New Deal years.

Within the modernism of the first three decades of the 20th century, two tendencies were at work: one advancing new visual practices as a way of transcending the crass materialism and obsolete illusionism of the 19th century (Kandinsky, Malevich, early Bauhaus), the other as challenging the separation of "art" from "life" (De Stijl, later Bauhaus, Soviet Constructivism) with the aim of making all art some kind of applied art while simultaneously debunking the "mystifying" language and socially exclusionary practices of the "fine" arts.

Most US New Deal Art, and the criticism and historiography that has valorized that art, has followed that second tendency within modernism . That's a healthy and understandable reaction to art as understood as something old to be purchased in Europe, packed up in crates, and then displayed in the USA by courtesy of billionaire businessmen.

Yet that "socially conscious" modernism all too often either misses or even suppresses the responses mentioned in the MOMA Rothko page.

We need to to ensure that the tragic, the sublime, and the mysterious do not become the exclusive property of the right, whether in the visual arts or the culture at large.

Forgive me -- all this is thinking on the go, conducted under the influence of three large glasses of Woodbridge Chardonnay, and possibly erroneous in many respects.

#AmericanArt #Modernism #Art #20thCentury

Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, 2019

I was planning a long-awaited return to Liverpool tomorrow, but unfortunately I've put my back out 💔

📸 View HD images at https://modernistdelights.com/liverpool-metropolitan-cathedral-2019/?utm_medium=organic_social&utm_source=mastodon

#church #iphonephotography #photography #liverpool #modernism #urbanphotography #urban #architecture #architecturephotography

Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, 2019

I was planning a long-awaited return to Liverpool tomorrow, but unfortunately I've put my back out 💔

📸 View HD images at https://modernistdelights.com/liverpool-metropolitan-cathedral-2019/?utm_medium=organic_social&utm_source=mastodon

#church #iphonephotography #photography #liverpool #modernism #urbanphotography #urban #architecture #architecturephotography

David Burliuk
View of Manhatten
---
#DavidBurliuk #urbanlandscape #modernism #art #painting

David Burliuk
View of Manhatten
---
#DavidBurliuk #urbanlandscape #modernism #art #painting

Chauffer’s Lodge, Miramonte, Coombe, Kingston upon Thames

1936

Maxwell Fry

https://www.modernism-in-metroland.co.uk/miramonte.html

#modernism #1930s #architecture #london

Chauffer’s Lodge, Miramonte, Coombe, Kingston upon Thames

1936

Maxwell Fry

https://www.modernism-in-metroland.co.uk/miramonte.html

#modernism #1930s #architecture #london

https://engelsbergideas.com/reviews/the-women-of-the-bauhaus/

I wish I lived in Europe so that I could get to see this exhibition without spending a bloody fortune on airfares!

#Photography #Bauhaus #WomenPhotographers #Modernism #20thCentury #Germany #Berlin

https://engelsbergideas.com/reviews/the-women-of-the-bauhaus/

I wish I lived in Europe so that I could get to see this exhibition without spending a bloody fortune on airfares!

#Photography #Bauhaus #WomenPhotographers #Modernism #20thCentury #Germany #Berlin

A Cure for What Ails Us?

I have been reflecting lately on the peculiar sickness of modern life, and I have a theory which, stated somewhat like a math problem, is this: modern society (entailing economic, social, and labor practices) plus postmodern media (including communication technology, news consumption, and competing truth claims) leads to a kind of sickness. And the treatment for that sickness may be following Jesus through the historic practices of the Church.

My basic argument is this: for thousands of years, human beings lived in certain ways. Whether by divine design, adaptation, or some combination of the two, human bodies, minds, and spirits were set up for success while living a certain kind of life. People lived off to the land. They lived near extended family. Most people spent their lives in relatively small communities, surrounded by people they knew and who knew them. Work was physical and tangible. Information traveled slowly. The problems people encountered were usually nearby, visible, and connected to people who could actually help or be helped. This was by no means a perfect system, for pre-modern life contained many ills (physical and social). But this is the kind of the life that human bodies were prepared to live.

In the past 200-ish years, however, the technology of the Industrial Revolution and the development of (post) modern culture have placed enormous stress on that kind of life. Obviously, modernity brought with it a great many positive changes. It is easier to obtain food, clothing, medicine, and shelter now than at almost any other point in human history. Infant mortality has declined. Travel is easier. Communication is faster. Many forms of work are safer and less physically destructive. These are real goods, real ways in which human beings have flourished in ways never before seen, and such goods should not be dismissed.

But along with those good changes came new stressors. People became more mobile. Families became more scattered. Communities became less stable. Work became increasingly detached from the production of visible and tangible things. People became more reliant on systems and technologies that few of us understand and none of us can control. Almost no one practices subsistence living anymore, which means that nearly everything we need comes to us through a complicated network of strangers, corporations, machines, and institutions.

And for the past couple hundred years (less time in many places), as people adapted to modernism, human beings did their best to adjust. Many things worked reasonably well. We developed institutions, customs, and social practices that helped people endure the disruptions of modern life. But despite our best efforts, cracks began to form in the human experience. And as more and more research and lived experience attest, what seems to have shattered our humanity was the addition of postmodern media.

It was already difficult for human beings to carry the stresses of modernity. Then we placed in nearly every pocket a device that provides constant access to nearly every crisis, argument, tragedy, advertisement, opinion, and temptation in the world.

We are constantly connected, yet often deeply lonely. We possess unprecedented access to information but are less certain about what is true. We know what is happening across the globe almost instantly, while frequently knowing very little about the lives of the people who live next door. Our minds were not made to carry every tragedy. Our hearts were not made to process the suffering of the entire world before breakfast. Our identities were not made to be continually displayed, evaluated, marketed, and compared. Yet this is increasingly what we ask of ourselves every day.

So what is the cure?

Some might argue for a rejection of modernism. We might call this an Amish response: separate from the technologies and systems that deform human life. Others might argue for some form of the Benedict Option, in which Christians build durable communities and institutions while waiting for the present cultural disorder to pass. And I must admit that there are plenty of times when both of these seem like very appropriate responses to the ills of the current age.

My proposal, however, is a little different, and it goes something like this: the historic practices of the Church of Jesus Christ—specifically communion, baptism, and the penitential cycle—provide the way forward. (Not accidentally, these are essentially the three things Martin Luther—who is often credited, or blamed, for contributing to the rise of modernism—suggested were necessary for the life of the Church.)

Communion requires deep introspection and life in community. You cannot receive communion entirely alone. You need life with other people. You need to gather around a table. You need to confess your sins, reconcile with your neighbors, receive the gifts of God, and remember that you belong to a body larger than yourself.

Communion teaches us that we are not merely individuals consuming religious content. We are members of one another. We share one bread. We receive one Lord. We are brought into communion not only with God, but with the people standing beside us.

Baptism is historically a sign of entering into God’s family. It marks a person as belonging to Christ and to his people. But baptism has also historically been connected to deep formation in Scripture and theology. The early Church did not treat baptism as a passing religious moment. It was surrounded by teaching, preparation, examination, and a reordering of life. We desperately need that kind of depth today.

We must move beyond surface-level interactions shaped by postmodern media. We must dig deep and drink from wells that take longer than fifteen seconds to hear, understand, and digest. We need Scripture slowly read, theology carefully learned, prayers repeatedly prayed, and truths practiced long enough to reshape our instincts.

Then there is the penitential cycle: confession, repentance, forgiveness, and restoration.

The practice of confession is not simply something a priest holds over your head. Properly understood, it is a practice of introspection, conversation, truth-telling, and repentance. We deeply need these things today.

We need places where we can speak honestly about the ways we have failed. We need people who will tell us the truth without discarding us. We need the opportunity to repent, receive forgiveness, make amends, and begin again. Therapy, at its best, often offers a sanitized version of some of these practices: careful listening, honest self-examination, naming destructive patterns, and seeking a healthier way forward. These can be genuine gifts. But the Church’s penitential tradition goes further. It does not merely help us understand ourselves. It places us before God, names sin as sin, announces forgiveness, and calls us into new life.

*****

That is my diagnosis of this strange math problem. Modern society plus postmodern media has produced a sickness that cannot be solved merely by better technology, more information, increased efficiency, or improved self-care. The solution is actually practices which are much older. We lean back into the historic practices of the Church of Jesus Christ. We gather around the table. We remember our baptism. We confess our sins. We receive forgiveness. We read slowly, pray deeply, and share life with actual people in actual places. Will it be enough?

I hold this theory lightly. The problems of modern life are complicated, and the practices of the Church are not easy techniques or quick fixes. They are gifts, and they require patience, faithfulness, and time. Still, I wonder whether the ancient practices of the Church might be precisely the medicine our modern souls have forgotten how to receive. Shall we return?

A Cure for What Ails Us?

I have been reflecting lately on the peculiar sickness of modern life, and I have a theory which, stated somewhat like a math problem, is this: modern society (entailing economic, social, and labor practices) plus postmodern media (including communication technology, news consumption, and competing truth claims) leads to a kind of sickness. And the treatment for that sickness may be following Jesus through the historic practices of the Church.

My basic argument is this: for thousands of years, human beings lived in certain ways. Whether by divine design, adaptation, or some combination of the two, human bodies, minds, and spirits were set up for success while living a certain kind of life. People lived off to the land. They lived near extended family. Most people spent their lives in relatively small communities, surrounded by people they knew and who knew them. Work was physical and tangible. Information traveled slowly. The problems people encountered were usually nearby, visible, and connected to people who could actually help or be helped. This was by no means a perfect system, for pre-modern life contained many ills (physical and social). But this is the kind of the life that human bodies were prepared to live.

In the past 200-ish years, however, the technology of the Industrial Revolution and the development of (post) modern culture have placed enormous stress on that kind of life. Obviously, modernity brought with it a great many positive changes. It is easier to obtain food, clothing, medicine, and shelter now than at almost any other point in human history. Infant mortality has declined. Travel is easier. Communication is faster. Many forms of work are safer and less physically destructive. These are real goods, real ways in which human beings have flourished in ways never before seen, and such goods should not be dismissed.

But along with those good changes came new stressors. People became more mobile. Families became more scattered. Communities became less stable. Work became increasingly detached from the production of visible and tangible things. People became more reliant on systems and technologies that few of us understand and none of us can control. Almost no one practices subsistence living anymore, which means that nearly everything we need comes to us through a complicated network of strangers, corporations, machines, and institutions.

And for the past couple hundred years (less time in many places), as people adapted to modernism, human beings did their best to adjust. Many things worked reasonably well. We developed institutions, customs, and social practices that helped people endure the disruptions of modern life. But despite our best efforts, cracks began to form in the human experience. And as more and more research and lived experience attest, what seems to have shattered our humanity was the addition of postmodern media.

It was already difficult for human beings to carry the stresses of modernity. Then we placed in nearly every pocket a device that provides constant access to nearly every crisis, argument, tragedy, advertisement, opinion, and temptation in the world.

We are constantly connected, yet often deeply lonely. We possess unprecedented access to information but are less certain about what is true. We know what is happening across the globe almost instantly, while frequently knowing very little about the lives of the people who live next door. Our minds were not made to carry every tragedy. Our hearts were not made to process the suffering of the entire world before breakfast. Our identities were not made to be continually displayed, evaluated, marketed, and compared. Yet this is increasingly what we ask of ourselves every day.

So what is the cure?

Some might argue for a rejection of modernism. We might call this an Amish response: separate from the technologies and systems that deform human life. Others might argue for some form of the Benedict Option, in which Christians build durable communities and institutions while waiting for the present cultural disorder to pass. And I must admit that there are plenty of times when both of these seem like very appropriate responses to the ills of the current age.

My proposal, however, is a little different, and it goes something like this: the historic practices of the Church of Jesus Christ—specifically communion, baptism, and the penitential cycle—provide the way forward. (Not accidentally, these are essentially the three things Martin Luther—who is often credited, or blamed, for contributing to the rise of modernism—suggested were necessary for the life of the Church.)

Communion requires deep introspection and life in community. You cannot receive communion entirely alone. You need life with other people. You need to gather around a table. You need to confess your sins, reconcile with your neighbors, receive the gifts of God, and remember that you belong to a body larger than yourself.

Communion teaches us that we are not merely individuals consuming religious content. We are members of one another. We share one bread. We receive one Lord. We are brought into communion not only with God, but with the people standing beside us.

Baptism is historically a sign of entering into God’s family. It marks a person as belonging to Christ and to his people. But baptism has also historically been connected to deep formation in Scripture and theology. The early Church did not treat baptism as a passing religious moment. It was surrounded by teaching, preparation, examination, and a reordering of life. We desperately need that kind of depth today.

We must move beyond surface-level interactions shaped by postmodern media. We must dig deep and drink from wells that take longer than fifteen seconds to hear, understand, and digest. We need Scripture slowly read, theology carefully learned, prayers repeatedly prayed, and truths practiced long enough to reshape our instincts.

Then there is the penitential cycle: confession, repentance, forgiveness, and restoration.

The practice of confession is not simply something a priest holds over your head. Properly understood, it is a practice of introspection, conversation, truth-telling, and repentance. We deeply need these things today.

We need places where we can speak honestly about the ways we have failed. We need people who will tell us the truth without discarding us. We need the opportunity to repent, receive forgiveness, make amends, and begin again. Therapy, at its best, often offers a sanitized version of some of these practices: careful listening, honest self-examination, naming destructive patterns, and seeking a healthier way forward. These can be genuine gifts. But the Church’s penitential tradition goes further. It does not merely help us understand ourselves. It places us before God, names sin as sin, announces forgiveness, and calls us into new life.

*****

That is my diagnosis of this strange math problem. Modern society plus postmodern media has produced a sickness that cannot be solved merely by better technology, more information, increased efficiency, or improved self-care. The solution is actually practices which are much older. We lean back into the historic practices of the Church of Jesus Christ. We gather around the table. We remember our baptism. We confess our sins. We receive forgiveness. We read slowly, pray deeply, and share life with actual people in actual places. Will it be enough?

I hold this theory lightly. The problems of modern life are complicated, and the practices of the Church are not easy techniques or quick fixes. They are gifts, and they require patience, faithfulness, and time. Still, I wonder whether the ancient practices of the Church might be precisely the medicine our modern souls have forgotten how to receive. Shall we return?

4 #AnalogPhotography #FilmPhotography #MediumFormat #BelieveInFilm #ShootFilm #BlackAndWhiteFilm #FilmIsNotDead #Architecture #UrbanLandscape #DocumentaryPhotography #Modernism #Places #UrbanGeometry #BlackAndWhite #BWPhotography #Pixelfed #Fediverse #FediArt

@photography

#Places

Daily diary on Mastodon
🔗 https://pixelfed.social/p/piotrk/989280454162031928

4 #AnalogPhotography #FilmPhotography #MediumFormat #BelieveInFilm #ShootFilm #BlackAndWhiteFilm #FilmIsNotDead #Architecture #UrbanLandscape #DocumentaryPhotography #Modernism #Places #UrbanGeometry #BlackAndWhite #BWPhotography #Pixelfed #Fediverse #FediArt

@photography

#Places

Daily diary on Mastodon
🔗 https://pixelfed.social/p/piotrk/989280454162031928

We enjoy all the achievements of modern civilization ... yet we do not know exactly what to do with ourselves.
-- Vaclav Havel

⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #VaclavHavel #Ennui #Modernism

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #Sand #Tracks #Iowa

We enjoy all the achievements of modern civilization ... yet we do not know exactly what to do with ourselves.
-- Vaclav Havel

⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #VaclavHavel #Ennui #Modernism

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #Sand #Tracks #Iowa

The Alexander Trocchi papers – manuscripts, journals, notebooks, magazines & ephemera, including material relating to the International Situationist movement – are held at Washington University in St Louis

9/9

https://libguides.wustl.edu/c.php?g=1040037&p=7558427

#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #Trocchi #modernism #Situationists

The Alexander Trocchi papers – manuscripts, journals, notebooks, magazines & ephemera, including material relating to the International Situationist movement – are held at Washington University in St Louis

9/9

https://libguides.wustl.edu/c.php?g=1040037&p=7558427

#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #Trocchi #modernism #Situationists

“In an unpublished autobiographical novel… he used the experience of swinging on the trapeze over the pond at the Arlington Baths as a metaphor for childhood adventures around the tenements & streets of the West End”

8/9

https://arlingtonbathshistory.co.uk/2021/02/11/on-the-trapeze-with-alexander-trocchi/

#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #Trocchi #modernism #Glasgow

“In an unpublished autobiographical novel… he used the experience of swinging on the trapeze over the pond at the Arlington Baths as a metaphor for childhood adventures around the tenements & streets of the West End”

8/9

https://arlingtonbathshistory.co.uk/2021/02/11/on-the-trapeze-with-alexander-trocchi/

#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #Trocchi #modernism #Glasgow

“For Alexander Trocchi as much as for George Mackay Brown, the world is always in need”

—Prof Alan Riach looks at 2 startlingly different 20th-century Scottish writers: Alexander Trocchi & George Mackay Brown

7/9

https://www.thenational.scot/news/17490399.george-mackay-brown-alexander-trocchi-two-startlingly-different-scots-novelists/

#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #Trocchi #modernism #GeorgeMackayBrown

“For Alexander Trocchi as much as for George Mackay Brown, the world is always in need”

—Prof Alan Riach looks at 2 startlingly different 20th-century Scottish writers: Alexander Trocchi & George Mackay Brown

7/9

https://www.thenational.scot/news/17490399.george-mackay-brown-alexander-trocchi-two-startlingly-different-scots-novelists/

#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #Trocchi #modernism #GeorgeMackayBrown

“Scottish radical traditions have been airbrushed out of history… Re-examining the threads of Alexander Trocchi’s influence on culture, publishing and radical politics is an antidote to this process of erasure.”

Trocchi’s influence on radical Scottish media

6/9

https://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2025/06/15/cosmonauts-and-stale-porridge-alexander-trocchis-influence-on-radical-scottish-media/

#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #Trocchi #modernism

“𝘊𝘢𝘪𝘯’𝘴 𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘬 is no diatribe, nor is it meant to be a manifesto. It is in fact a novel in the truest sense of that word, one that, like few novels these days, shakes up its own form in bold, new, risky ways”

—Peter Selgin, “More than Mere Oblivion”

5/9

https://www.craftliterary.com/2021/01/12/mere-oblivion-cains-book-peter-selgin/

#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #Trocchi #modernism